Too bad there’s no way to play it solitaire.
Trust me, I know whereof I speak:
Sports brings out the worst in people.
It’s a virtual cliche that Little League games will be attended by pushy parents who curse and scream at the umpires and even come onto the field to argue with them face-to-face. In Deptford Township, NJ, this problem got so bad, they finally had to do something about it. Because the parents were so ill-behaved, the umps were quitting (https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2023/04/26/new-jersey-little-league-sets-new-rule-to-stop-parents-from-screaming-umpires/).
The league is embarking on an experiment: make the parents who scream the loudest serve as umpires for three games, to see what it’s like. Otherwise, they’re banned from the games.
Oh, I’d have been so mortally embarrassed, had my mother ever carried on like that (but Dad, no way)! Personally, I don’t know why anyone in his right mind would want to be an umpire. What thanks do you get?
My parents wisely refused to let me enter Little League. Later on in life, playing in our local men’s softball league, I discovered that every tinpot, whiny, prima-donna in the league had learned to be that way in Little League. If I were starting a team now, I wouldn’t let Little League alumni join it.
But it certainly ain’t entirely, 100%, the fault of Little League. Some of those apples didn’t fall far from the tree.