High school basketball fans riding the referees

I remember covering a Division II college game about a decade ago where two guys would stand up in front of the officials during timeouts and hold up eye charts.
They probably enjoy cop-and-donut jokes, too.

 

"Call it both ways." Translation: Call those fouls on the other team, but not on my team.

I did a college game a few weeks ago where one fan yelled "Call it both ways" the whole night. At the end of the game, each team was whistled for 19 fouls.

The same people who yell at basketball officials are the ones who go to high school baseball or softball games, sit in the stands behind home plate, and complain about balls and strikes the whole game.

 

I've noticed a lot more people bitching about the three-seconds rule this year too. At one game, after hearing people scream for a three-seconds call all night, a scout who was sitting next to me muttered, "These people don't know a thing about basketball."

Amen.

Anyway, my favorite is when people implore the referees to "even up those fouls" when one team has been whistled for a lot more fouls than the other team. Hey, here's a couple hints: If one team is content to pass the ball around the perimeter and hoist up jump shots, they're not going to draw a lot of fouls. If a team is slower and can't keep up defensively against a team that keeps attacking the basket, odds are they are going to commit a lot of fouls.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to add my all-time favorite referee/umpire vs. parents in stands story.

About 10 years ago, a Little League parent was sitting in the stands on the third-base side at a local field, and he wouldn't lay off the umpire. Was ripping the umpire endlessly. Balls, strikes, plays on the bases, you name it. Finally, the umpire gets fed up, walks into the stands and sits down next to the parent. The parent is confused.

"What are you doing?" the parent asks.

The umpire responds, "Obviously, you must have a much better view of things from up here than I do, so I figured I should call the game from up here the rest of the day."

 

"Get off your knees ref, you're blowin' the game."

My personal fav...

 

"Hey, Blue! Why don't you bend over and use your good eye?"

 

I'm a referee also, and not only do I hear "call it both ways" all night long, I hear it after I've called it both ways. On one trip downcourt, I called a clumsy reach-in foul on the defense. That team goes on offense, I call the same clumsy reach-in foul on the other team. The idiot parent (probably of that player) yells, "Hey! Call it both ways!"

I actually laughed out loud. Made him even madder. Thought he was gonna have a coronary right there in the bleachers.

JB's right. "Call it both ways" means "call it on them, not on us."

 

One night, I covered a particularly contentious game in which the home fans did very little cheering for their own boys and a whole lot more yelling at the officials. I was so disgusted I called my parents at 11 p.m. Eastern time to thank them for supporting my sisters and I in our athletic endeavors that didn't bring embarassment to us or our school.

I also vowed that if I ever procreated and turned into one of "those" parents, I would allow my offspring to have me pilloried and stoned in the town square.

 

Or when the fan's team is behind in fouls. :

I thought I had seen everything, but a recent Holiday Tournament really freaked me out.
It was a really close game, and the crowd on the bleachers closest to me was getting a bit too into it. So I grabbed my iPod to drown out some of the background noise and stay focused.
Team B makes back-to-back threes. Scorekeeper accidentally puts it down for the wrong side. There are two twins on team B, both very good. They had a 6-8 brother who graduated last year. Only 6-8 player I ever saw at this level that made the team worse when he got in.
All of the sudden, I see something out of the corner of my eye. It's the brother, barreling down the bleachers and screaming at the scoreboard operator that he put it down for the wrong team. After a brief verbal tussel, he goes back to his seat. But the scorekeeper had had enough and asked security to have him removed.
Security comes over and tells the guy he has to leave. No big deal to me. Except my dad -- who recently had hip replacement surgery -- was right in his path (he was there to watch a friend's son play). I was really jacked up. I have never in my life come so close to hitting someone. If he had so much as brushed up against my dad I would have went after him. Didn't care if I lost my job.

To make a long story shorter, the kid barely got out of being arrested. He had a bunch of insults for the security guard, and when they got him outside he ran. Sans shoes in 20-degree weather. They told his girlfriend that if she picked him up she'd be arrested too.

Team A won their fifth straight championship. I was laughing on the inside.

 

Don't you people know, a ticket to a sporting event gives you all the rights in the world to act like a jackass, say things you'd never say to someone in public, and be an overall embarassment to society.

 

Hey, ref, you are missing a good game.

I agree with Agate Monkey's sentiment, it's like when Milton Bradley was vilified for slamming that water bottle on the ground. But why was it OK for someone to throw the water bottle at him in the first place?
Nothing made me happier than the Pistons-Pacers brawl. I thought it was hilarious that those douche-bags that thought it was their right to be on the floor ended up receiving haymakers from some big, mean athletes.

 

During my first game tonight at an MLK classic between an area Catholic school and a public school an hour away -- both ranked in the top 10 in their class -- Catholic school kid hacks public kids three times. Two should have been intentional, one was.
Catholic fan/dad/uberparent of a team trainer yells out after the third chop -- "Come on ref, call it both ways!"
Even his wife edged away a little bit after that one...

 

Serve It Up was right ... any parent who will attend their children's sporting events and support their children -- and not jeer officials and opponents -- are special folks.

I thank my parents as often as I can for supporting me during my high school and college running career. I thank them more for helping me out with a college education that I parlayed into a journalism career. Saints. I hope I cheer my kids the same way they cheered me.