Youth sports should be a great time for little kids, but out-of-control parents around the country can be quite brutal with their emotions. Sometimes those emotions spill over into violence.
Such was the case in Mississippi when a softball umpire posted a picture of her bruised face on Facebook after she was punched by a mother in the parking lot of a softball complex Saturday.
Kristi Moore is recovering after the confrontation with Kiara Thomas, who was reportedly waiting to ambush Moore after Moore finished umpiring a 12-year-old softball game.
“Ssoooo, this is embarrassing if I’m going to be open and honest about it. But, it’s real life and it’s unfortunate that it has gotten to this place,” Moore wrote. “The next time you go to a tournament and you only have one umpire on the field…this is why. When you have brand new umpires on the field that may not know everything they should know yet…..this is why. When you don’t feel you have the quality of umpires you should….this is why. When the day comes that your kid can’t play a ballgame because there are no longer officials to call it….THIS.IS.WHY.
“Before you post the next ‘funny’ meme about umpires that suck, or are blind, or have missed calls on their phone or whatever it is, before you post about how an umpire was so awful and terrible and lost the game for you…….why don’t you sign up? Get on out there and give it a go. I got punched coming off a field last night. There is no excuse for this. If you think this is ok, please remove yourself from my friend list. Umpires are not perfect. We never will be. But guess what? No one is.”
After Thomas was asked to leave the game by a coach because of her cursing, Thomas allegedly waited to confront Moore after the game.
Moments after the punch, Thomas was arrested and charged with simple assault, fined $422.25, and released.