A boy on my 7-year-old son’s baseball team was making his way to third base, while I suppressed my indignation over how the dad coaching third was instructing the runner at the same time that he was also talking on his cell phone.— Since I’m just another parent enjoying the game (while reading the newspaper) from the sidelines, it was hardly my place to share my perspective on coaching etiquette and cell use-and I didn’t. But the moment reminded me of one of my favorite anecdotes from the Department of What Parents Will Say And Do At Their Kid’s Games–and I’m happy to share that.
It was told to me by one of my best friends. He was a volunteer referee at his son’s soccer game. League play, not a travel team. Young kids, not much finesse or organization, mostly hordes of little boys and girls chasing after the ball. Given that, my friend may not have been as focused on the game as he perhaps should have been, and one parent let him know that by heckling him–more than once.
“Get in the game, ref!” he said a few times. And he upped ante late in the game with, “What are you a moron!”
My friend, who is the soul of kindness, didn’t respond during the game, but afterwards he introduced himself to the heckling dad, and they shared their counter points of view.
From my friend’s perspective, he was paying adequate attention to the game and the other parent was way out of line–this was just a kids game, after all. From the other father’s perspective, my friend simply wasn’t doing the job he volunteered for, and his inattention to children was a disgrace.
“And by the way,” my friend added unnecessarily. “I’m not a moron. I have two Ivy League degrees.”
“Which ones?” his new adversary barked back at him.
“Cornell and Columbia.”
“You lose,” the guy responded. “Harvard and Yale.”
They parted.
