| Referee and umpires know their job: Enforce the rules. But increasingly, league administrators want officials to police both games and grammar. __The pitch started belt-high, but as the hitter started his swing the ball had dropped well below knee level. The plate umpire rose from his stance and pointed to the batter. "Yes, he did! Strike three!" the ump declared. __"F---!" shouted the frustrated hitter as he dropped his bat to the ground. No reaction from the plate umpire despite the hitter’s obviously unsportsmanlike conduct. __On the way home, the base umpire asked his partner why he didn’t eject the player. __"I hear that word 10 times a day at work," the official said. "I guess it just doesn’t register with me as profanity anymore." __That umpire is not alone. Four-letter words and their polysyllabic cousins are so prevalent in society today that many people are now desensitized to them. Public standards and tolerance have evolved to the point where television program characters routinely use language that would have been censored as recently as five years ago. Body parts and sexual practices are now routine punch lines in sitcom dialog. Profanity is not confined to scripted conversation. Sideline microphones at televised events not only pick up the sounds of the game, but expressions of frustration uttered by players, coaches and even by an occasional official. Many athletes feel profanity is "just part of the game"; a significant number of coaches seem to agree. __Yet behavior that is accepted in some segments of society is not tolerated in others. Amateur sports is one arena in which cursing is often regulated and occasionally forbidden. Across the country, league administrators are taking steps to curb swearing - and they are asking referees and umpires to enforce the innovative rules. __Andy Konyar, umpire consultant for Little League Baseball, Inc., said swearing in and of itself is not addressed in Little League rulebooks. __"There is no policy per se; nothing in writing," said Konyar, a 20-year baseball umpire who’s worked from Little League to NCAA Division 11. "But from my nine years (with Little League) ... I know swearing is not tolerated." __Konyar said local leagues set their own penalty policies. "One reason we don’t have a specific rule is because most of the leagues are very strict and most don’t get into a situation where, ‘You think that word’s OK but I don’t.’ It’s zero tolerance," he said. __Umpires are empowered (in fact, expected) to eject players, coaches and managers who use profanity. When it comes to spectators, use of a middleman (a league administrator) is preferred. __"If a fan is getting out of hand, I know umpires who have sent the teams to their dugouts until the umpire can find a league president or district supervisor to handle the situation," Konyar said. "We don’t want umpires going into the stands themselves." __Because youngsters are less prone to curse, a less rigid policy works for organizations such as Little League. Even though swearing rules are more prevalent in adult (recreational) sports, the manner in which they are instituted and enforced vary. __"We have a rule, but we like to keep it as vague as possible," said Vince Sciano, Milwaukee (Wis.) County sports director. "Of our 100 umpires, a lot of them are younger guys. They’ve got their hands full learning rules and mechanics. To put a hard-and-fast swearing policy on top of all that would make their jobs a lot tougher." Sciano said there is no penalty if a player swears so quietly it is audible only to those in the immediate vicinity. A more vocal player receives a warning on the first offense. A second incident results in ejection. Sciano, who also works as a prep, college and NBA basketball scorer and timer, explained that across the Milwaukee County program the warning usually does the trick. The rule applies to baseball, softball and touch football leagues for which Sciano provides umpires and referees. __"We’ll have between 75 and 100 ejections for a season. Of those, two-thirds are for foul language or excessive arguing," Sciano said. "I consider that pretty low, considering we have roughly 5,000 games per year." __For the last five Years, Maryland’s chapter of the United States Slo-Pitch Softball Association (USSSA) has enforced a rule in which violations are penalized on an ascending scale. __Jim Ports, Maryland USSSA director, said he developed the policy at the urging of spectators who had tired of listening to shouted obscenities, "One person after another would come to me and say, ‘Can’t You do something?"‘ Ports said. __The result was a rule that met the issue head-on. The first occurrence of swearing leads to a team warning. The second leads to the ejection of the offender and his manager, coach or captain. If a third team member uses profanity, the game is forfeited. In tournaments, violations carry over from game to game; a fourth violation leads to the ejection of the player from the remainder of the tournament. __Umpires are also instructed to penalize players for excessive arguing and for throwing equipment. __Ports is a 28-year softball umpire who added baseball eight years ago. He was instrumental in developing a reciprocity agreement with the other softball associations in Maryland. If a player is suspended by either a USSSA, National Softball Association or Amateur Softball Association league, the suspension is honored by the other associations. __Another innovative approach to the problem exists on the West Coast. AmCom Sports is an association that provides umpires to softball leagues in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. Two years ago, AmCom itself implemented a no-swearing policy, enforced by its 75 umpires. In order to ensure player and coach compliance, the rule was included in a contract each participant was required to sign. __"We didn’t think it would fly," said Joe Zakem, AmCorn chairman of the board. "But even people who have been busted by it have told us they think it’s a good rule." __Occasionally a player who has been ejected will protest that the umpire acted in haste. "Those are the people who obviously signed the contract but didn’t read it," Zakem said. AmCorn bans the use of profane or abusive language, obscene gestures or improper "body language." The first instance of such behavior results in a team warning; the second, ejection of the offender and his coach; the third, banishment from the park. __The association also has special rules for the "F-word." Zakem, who has worked softball, baseball, football and basketball during the past 31 years, calls that word "the Super Bowl of bad language;" AmCom has designated it the "magic word" and has implemented special rules to address it. __Use of the magic word means instant ejection of the offender and a warning for the rest of the team. The rule applies to players, scorekeepers and even spectators. Failure of the offender to leave the area promptly results in forfeiture of the game. __"We don’t care if we have to cancel out a game," Zakem said. "There is just no excuse for that word, whether it’s said under the breath or out loud." __There may be no way to completely eliminate swearing from sports, but groups such as AmCom and the Maryland USSSA are not turning a deaf ear to the problem. __"We want it to be a good family experience," Zakem said. "It’s the good people you want to keep because those are the people who keep you going."
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| How it’s handled by pro, college officials "The magic word in the NBA is a twelve-letter noun with very specific Oedipal references. When a player bestows the magic word upon me, I do a Groucho Marx imitation: ‘Congratulations! You have just said the magic word . Pay $50 and haul off the court. Pronto!" Excerpt from ‘Overtime!’ written by former NBA referee Richie Powers If there is indeed a "magic word" in the NBA, the rule regarding it is unwritten. An official would have better luck finding a needle in a haystack than he would trying to find such a rule or a list specifying prohibited words or phrases. What standards are used by officials in NCAA Division I or in pro leagues? What parameters do they use in addressing the situation? Referee posed those and other questions to three prominent members of the officiating community. Their responses confirm that, of all the gray areas in officiating, this might the grayest. Rick Wulkow, chairman of the National Federation Basketball Rules Committee and an NCAA Division I men’s basketball official: "To my knowledge, there is no list," Wulkow said. "The rulebook simply says profane or inappropriate language or obscene gestures are not allowed." Wulkow stopped short of endorsing a list of prohibited profanities, but he acknowledged the need for direction. "Some guidelines would be helpful; they have helped us in other aspects of the game," he said. One parameter Wulkow uses is to determine to whom the expletive is directed. "I can’t remember calling a technical on a coach who swore at one of his own players. But I have assessed a technical on a coach who swears at an opposing player," he said. Jerry Seeman, former NFL referee, now the league’s director of officiating: "If it’s between players, we try to stop it without having to throw a flag," Seeman said. "If it’s coming from a coach, we’ll ask him, ‘Were you talking to me?’ Ninety-nine percent of the time, they’ll say, ‘No,’ and that’s the end of it." Verle Sorgen, former Pac-10 Conference football official, now the conference’s supervisor of football officials: "I judge (profanity) in the context of the situation, just like every other situation," Sorgen said. "I might take more of a counseling or preventative approach." Sorgen said the NCAA Football Rules Committee on which he serves broached the subject of a list of words that, if uttered, would result in a penalty. The idea was rejected, as was a suggestion to list the types of demonstrations that would be deemed illegal. "You can’t proscribe acts because players will always find a way around the rules," Sorgen said. |
| The AmCom Rule Am Com sports, an association that provides umpires to softball leagues in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, instituted a specific no-swearing rule two years ago. The rule prohibits us of the "F-word" and outlines the consequences if it is used: __Any team member using the "F-word" will be ejected without the benefit of a warning. The team and the manager will get a warning. On the second occurrence, the guilty team memaber and the manager/coach will get ejected. Any team member using profan and/or abusive language which includes the "F-word" after being ejected will be required to leave the park." __The rule also notes that failure to leave the park in a "speedy and prompt fashion" could could lead to forfeiture of the game. __AmCom also instruct umpires to warn a coach or player for profanity, obscene gestures or abusive langueage that does not include the "F-word." A subsequent violation result in ejection. Milwaukee County’s method Baseball and softball leagues offered by the Milwaukee County Parks Department abide by the following rules regarding profanity and abusive language: __Unsportsmanlike conduct of any type or infractions of the following rules could mean ejection from the game with a possibility of a suspension: Derogatory remarks, profanity, obscene gestures, threats or physical force directed toward any game official, park employee, department official, other players or spectators will not be tolerated." |
| Now available in the reference section What word, in various forms, can be used to describe a despicable person, a notable quantity and ill fortune? The answer, as well as the name of a book available in better book stores, is "The F-Word." __Edited by Jesse Sheidlower and published by Random House, "The F-Word" is a 232-page softcover book that lists hundreds of applications for the word most Americans would admit is the most severe profanity. Sheidlower obtained his information from books, films, magazines and other sources. Some of the references date back to pre-Revolutionary times. __According to the book’s jacket, "Every sense of every word containing f--- is examined in detail, with explanations and thousands of examples from many sources." Writers who have used the word in their work run the gamut from Scottish poet Robert Burns to "Beat Generation" writer Jack Kerouac. __The book also lists words often used as substitutes, including "frig," "freak" and "frap." |
| What will it take to curtail cursing? There are as many theores on dealing with profanity as there are questinable works in the English language. The problem will not go away until society’s moral pendulum swings back to the right. In the meantime, conference and administration associations that implement profanity bans must be urged to delelip lists of prohibited words and phrases, then support officials who enforce those rules. __Here are some additional factors to consider: __Volume: If the obscenity is shouted loud enoughfor spectators or other non-participants to hear, assess the appropriate penalty (technical foul, 15-year penalty, etc.). You might not wish to convey you are so tlerant you will ignore such obvious violations. Conversely, if the profanity is uttered so quietly you are the only one to hear it, a waning may be a sufficient reaction. __Context: Sometimes it’s not what someone says, but how they say it. Obviously, you should penalize the player who swears as part of a personal verbal assault, e.g., "You are f------ brutal!" If the profanity is phrased differently and in a one-on-one conversation, some leeway is apppropriate. Most officials would let a comment such as,, "I just think that’s a horses--- rule," pass with only a suggestion the player use different language to convey his complaint. Likewise, an under-the-breath reaction to a misplay would be best ignored. __Background: Keep in mind the phrase, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Words considered profane in some parts of the country are part of everyday language in others. Players from "rougher" areas should not be given carte blanche, but a little latitude is often called for in such situations. |
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