Keep The Car Door Open And The Engine Running: My Experiences Officiating Amateur Sports

By John D. Hall

John D. Hall spent twenty-three years officiating softball and hockey primarily in northwest British Columbia. In this book he describes his journey with all the highs and lows associated with each sport; from achieving his goal of an umpiring berth at a National Championship in 1995 and his induction by Softball Canada into the Canadian Indicator Club in 2001; to his career as a hockey official and eventual falling-out with hockey altogether. He also tackles the subject of abuse of officials and offers advice to anyone thinking of becoming a sports official.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Aug 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781998190898

John D. Hall

John is a retired E.H.S. Professional who lives inn Kitimat, BC with his wife, Coleen. He spends his time with family, reading, fishing, and pursuing his passion for studying history.

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Keep The Car Door Open And The Engine Running

My Experiences Officiating Amateur Sports

John D. Hall

Keep The Car Door Open And The Engine Running

Copyright © 2023 by John D. Hall

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-1-998190-88-1 (Hardcover)

978-1-998190-87-4 (Paperback)

978-1-998190-89-8 (eBook)

This book is dedicated to the memory of Wayne Michael Hodgson

"A friend is someone who understands your past,

believes in your future,

and accepts the way you are. "

- Unknown

Table of Contents

My Experiences, My Thoughts

Part 1: Softball

Getting Started

Increasing Opportunities

Increased Opportunities

Road to the National

Winding Down

Part 2: Hockey

It’s For the Kids!

1999-The Beginning of the End

Part 3: After Thoughts

Abuse of Officials

Final Thoughts

Notes About Author

My Experiences, My Thoughts

Since I officiated my last game of hockey in the Spring of 2004, I have often reflected back on what was and what might have been in my secondary career as an amateur official. I honestly believe I worked hard at my craft to be the best I could be for those who employed me to do it. In softball I purposely sought to achieve certain goals and was willing to make the necessary sacrifices to do it. Living in a small town in the north it was often difficult to find enough games to gain the necessary experience and competitive level needed. In this pursuit of my goal, I was to a degree successful as I officiated at significantly high levels of competition and eventually received formal recognition of not only my officiating but also my contributions to officiating in the sport. The other sport, hockey, was just something I stumbled into by doing a favour for my friend and became an almost full-time winter job encompassing eighteen seasons and by rough count well over two-thousand games. I did not have any particular goals in this sport just local games and in a hockey mad town like Kitimat in the 1980’s and 1990’s there was certainly a constant demand for experienced officials. However, at the end of the day while I missed one sport terribly the other left me cold and I walked away from it almost entirely. Although I continue to watch my beloved Leafs I have, since 2004, walked into the local arena to watch hockey only twice in almost twenty-years.

It is a little perplexing I suppose, these two different outcomes. Could we put it down to the fact I like one better than the other or having and achieving certain goals makes it different? Or is it simply a matter of respect? Overall, in hockey at least in my view officials are not treated with the respect they deserve neither by players, fans or even the community. I am not saying this is true or false but merely my opinion on the subject. I left hockey officiating with a bad taste in my mouth that has forever changed how I view the great Canadian game.

I had an officiating career mostly in softball and hockey that spanned twenty-three years during which time I umpired at the 1995 Junior Men’s National Championship, 1992 Intermediate A Western Canadian Championships, 1999 Senior B Western Canadian Championships, two Canadian Native Championships, B.C Summer Games, numerous Minor Softball Provincial Championships. I also instructed umpire clinics with my friend Pat O’Connor throughout the North Coast region of British Columbia for many years. I was inducted by Softball Canada into the Canadian Indicator Club in 2001 as recognition for my service to Softball Canada in umpiring both on the field and in developing new umpires. In hockey I officiated in Kitimat for nineteen seasons during which time I worked all levels of Minor hockey, recreational hockey and the last few years, Senior A hockey. During this time, I have witnessed the best and the worst of amateur sports including players, fans, coaches and other officials. However, this book is not meant to be an expose of amateur sports officiating, just simply a guide for someone who might be interested in becoming a sports’ official although towards the end of this piece I do briefly tackle the issue of abuse of officials at least from my perspective. As stated above I may from time-to-time express opinions on certain subjects, and again these are just that, my opinions. Others may view things differently and I appreciate and support these. It is also partially a story about two individuals from different communities with similar goals who formed a partnership and a friendship which encompassed almost two decades and thousands of miles in travel. What we achieved both together and individually is I believe incredible and inspirational.

As to the title Keep the car door open and the engine running, is a term I first heard at an umpire clinic many years ago. The phrase itself has to do with the fact officials in any sport will at times be in the position where they may have to make some call at a pivotal time during a game which will definitely incur the anger of one side or the other to the point where flight would be preferable to standing there staunchly defending your call while angry players, coaches and fans descend upon you with blood in their eyes. While I have never actually had to flee a ball park or ice rink I have had some uncomfortable exits for sure. One example was while I was umpiring at the 1994 Canadian Native Championships in Prince George, B.C. This championship is a significant event which attracts some high caliber teams not only for the prize money, but also the fact the winning team gets to host the tournament the following year. I was the plate umpire for one of the semi-final games involving a team from Alberta and one from Saskatchewan. We were using a three-man system for the game. I was the home-plate umpire and there were base umpires at first and third base. The plate umpire is responsible for watching the ball when hit and making the calls (fair, foul, home run, etc.) while the base umpires watch the runners to ensure they touch the bases or for interference/obstruction calls. In the second inning one of the Saskatchewan players hit the ball to right field and I watched it hit the top of the right field fence and bounce over. At least I am sure that is what I saw because I immediately made the signal for a home run and the batter began rounding the bases while we all watched, again to ensure all bases were touched. Suddenly the runner stopped at second base as the ball bounced from the outfield to the second baseman with the Alberta team claiming the ball never went out at all and was still in play. This was impossible the ball was over the fence, I saw it. Again, this is an important game in a major tournament and the situation demands we be at the top of our game. I called the other two umpires in for a conference and they were as perplexed as I was although they had not seen the ball leave the park as they were positioning to watch the runner as the ball was hit. Softball umpires are taught when a batted ball leaves the infield, they hustle to the infield in order to properly position themselves to watch the runners, they rely on the plate umpire to watch the ball. I was adamant the ball left the park, but how to explain why it was now in the second baseman’s glove? As it was not possible to get any assistance from two partners in this instance, I had to make the call. I again signalled home run and the runner rounded the bases and scored it was now 1-0 Saskatchewan. The Alberta team was clearly angry as were their fans, but you make the call and live with it. After all there are five more innings and this will be long forgotten by the time, we reach the end of the game. Of course, as always in the grand scheme of things the game in fact did end as a 1-0 score. Then we as umpires had to leave the field in Prince George by the first base side of the diamond alongside the Alberta team dugout and then walk around to the umpire’s room under the grandstand. All I really remember about this walk is that we were essentially surrounded by angry Alberta fans and had a shoulder width path to walk through to get to the room. Although some angry (and profane) words were thrown at us there was no other trouble, but I did feel uncomfortable until the time we actually left the park for the day. And how did the ball end up back on the field? We found out the next day there was a motor home parked right next to the right field fence with two individuals in lawn chairs sitting on top of it watching the game. What happened was when the ball bounced over the fence, they simply knocked it back onto the field. I had taken my eye off the ball a little too soon and learned another lesson in my journey as a sports official.

This was not the only time in my career when I faced those who disagreed with a call. During my careers as an official I have handled my fair share of abuse mostly verbal, but some other. Some would say it is the price you pay for being an official and in fact over the years I had a large number of people say to me that I must like abuse in order to do this. Actually, it is quite the opposite and it is my opinion that abuse of officials particularly at the amateur level has never been adequately addressed and is probably the single biggest reason amateur sport suffers from a lack of competent officials. All that being said I have never regretted deciding to give up playing sports in order to officiate them.

Sports and games are part of who we are as human beings. Whether it is on the field, the ice, in the gym, playing board games, cards or video games the eventual outcome is someone wins. This is not to say I subscribe to Vince Lombardi’s famous quote winning is the only thing. Competitiveness goes back probably to the beginning of time when sports or something akin to this prepared people for battle. Become the best archer, javelin thrower or sword fighter because the best warriors were revered in society and most likely you would be killed if you could not become proficient.

Every minor association or recreation league in every community need sports officials’ who have some basic understandings of the rules and show up each night or weekend to ensure the games get played in a controlled manner. Consider for example what is commonly referred to as Fun Ball locally, but which is in fact a form of