The Letting Off Steam Thread

[benji]

So...college?

[[Q]]

you seem to have this pre-determined notion of what college will be like, but honestly you haven't gotten there yet and seem to be ignoring those that have been there already.

[benji]

Let's illustrate it with numbers.

A "full-time" high school student will spend 40 hours a week in school. This does not include sports, other extracurriculars or homework.

A "full-time" college student will spend 12-18 hours a week in school. This does not include sports, other extracurriculars or homework.

Just because you may live in a building owned by the school with your fellow students does not mean you are attending school during that period.

[Houndy]

I really wanted to beat the hell out of this ref yesterday.

So our team is getting our butts kicked, and I'm trying to lead a rally. I take 2 steps and nail a runner, but it was called a travel. I mumble something to myself and the refs like, "What did you say?" so I say, "How was that a travel?" He gives the dumbass response: You took more than 3 steps. The other team has been basically traveling and carrying, so I go, "Isn't that what they do?" and get teched up. Dumbest tech I've gotten.

[Andrew]

He must be taking his cues from the beloved NBA officials.

[Houndy]

He must be taking his cues from the beloved NBA officials.

Actually, when they first introduced the new tech rule, I got called for one because I said, "How wasn't that a foul?"

[Houndy]

And basically they're trashing us via Facebook. Jeez, do it man to man if you wanna talk.

[Andrew]

Guess that's how it goes in the digital age.

[rise]

He must be taking his cues from the beloved NBA officials.

Actually, when they first introduced the new tech rule, I got called for one because I said, "How wasn't that a foul?"

I got a T at halftime once for saying the tech one of my teammates got, was stupid. I didn't proceed to call that stupid, even though it certainly was.

[Andrew]

I guess at the end of the day, the best approach is not to say anything like that and if there are major problems with officiating take it up with the league office. Years ago when I was playing in my local junior league, we had a couple of referees who took a dislike to our coach and were ridiculously biased. There was eventually enough of a pattern for us to prove it wasn't just sour grapes and poor sportsmanship on our part, so we filed a complaint and following a review, we didn't get those refs for any of our games...at least until a few refs left and they had to change up the assignments again, leading to the return of the poor officiating.

[Houndy]

I guess so, even though it's ridiculous that I basically can't object to a call.

And the cherry on top of all this: They called a cheap, cheap foul on my with like 38 seconds left (Hands straight up, dude just was shorter than me) and while I walked by the ref, he looked at me with a smile and said, "You okay big guy? You okay?" I just ignored him and walked away.

[rise]

What actually ended up happening is, about halfway through our season, refs were basically handing out techs like our coach handed us water bottles. It wasn't just us it was happening to the whole league. Apparently one of the other games in the league, there was an incident where refs T'd up more than half the team for "wild celebrations." (Now this was a middle school age league run by a local church, so they try enforce sportsmanship and other shit, so whatever) Then throughout the course of the game, a few guys got techs and like four guys were ejected by the end or something like that. The league finally told the refs to back off on the T's a bit.

Instead they focused on trying to actually referee the matches: something they also sucked at.

I've also had my share of disagreements with soccer refs, I think I've discussed them here before.

Same place ran this league too. Go figure.

[Andrew]

And the cherry on top of all this: They called a cheap, cheap foul on my with like 38 seconds left (Hands straight up, dude just was shorter than me) and while I walked by the ref, he looked at me with a smile and said, "You okay big guy? You okay?" I just ignored him and walked away.

Yeah, a few of the refs I mentioned in my previous post would do stuff like that. It's pathetic; referees are human like the rest of us but people with those kind of personalities just aren't cut out to officiate sports in my opinion. They're not interested in ensuring fair play, sportsmanship or even the rules at times, they're just there for the power trip. It's the kind of stuff that really hurts local leagues because really, who wants to pay money to play and have to deal with that nonsense?

[koberulz]

I got called for a travel once a couple of years back because the opposing coach yelled at the referee to call it. I caught the ball on the wing right in front of their bench. Nothing. The opposing coach yells out 'TRAVEL!' Half-second pause while the ref looks at the coach, then back at me. Blows the whistle. Travel. My footwork was iffy enough that it may not have been legal, and I couldn't honestly say whether it was or was not without seeing video of the play, which obviously doesn't exist. However, whether it was or wasn't you don't make calls just because the coach of one of the teams tells you to.

There was also a time when we were down a mile and, as the only competent three-point shooter on my team, I started bombing away. One of my teammates was pissed that I'd missed someone else who was wide open, yelled at me, and got T'd up, costing us any chance of a comeback.

[Andrew]

Kind of nice to know I'm not the only one who's had to deal with that stuff. It always seemed to be the younger officials, not only the ones that were younger than the age group they were officiating (which I never thought should happen in the first place) but also the ones in their late teens/early 20s. They just had an attitude and problems with maturity that wasn't an issue with the more senior officials. That's not to say they shouldn't have younger referees, but I thought the league did a poor job keeping them in check and holding them accountable. It wasn't a coincidence that there was a drop off in participation over the years.

The other problem in my local league that I imagine is also an issue elsewhere is that most of the younger officials still played competitively themselves and would often referee games involving teams from the club that they played for. Some were fair minded but there was definitely bias afoot, favouring their own club and holding grudges against other clubs through their own playing experiences. It seemed a conflict of interest; I suppose it wasn't always avoidable with the referee assignments and the point was to teach the younger refs to be fair minded and look past their own affiliation with clubs, but that was a bit much to expect of kids who still had a bit of growing up to do (and not being held accountable to boot).

[koberulz]

My comp had referees occasionally officiate games in the league they played in. Obviously their team wasn't playing, but if there was ever a situation where they were in a close race for a playoff spot or whatever...

The stupid thing is, the competition was run by one of the SBL clubs. They had SBL and WABL referees doing the games, so it wasn't like they sucked or anything. During the WABL season, when selection for WABL on the Sunday depended on their performance in the domestic league on Saturday, officiating was good. In the off-season, when there was nothing you could really do to punish poor officiating (as it was, some games only had one ref), it got pretty bad pretty quick.

[Andrew]

Ah yes, we got that too; referees in our age group that we'd also play against. One referee games, too. Not a complete disaster when we had one of the better officials but if it was one of the ones that had taken a dislike to us or was otherwise incompetent...ugh. It happened a bit more often than it should have.

[koberulz]

It was generally the better refs that cared enough to show up, so the one-ref games weren't that bad. And there were only ever one or two teams we were even remotely competitive with, so there was never any real possibility of a ref interfering with the outcome. Most teams managed to beat us by 20-30 points regularly, one was an all-girls team, which caused us no trouble whatsoever, and another was somehow bad enough to let me score 20 points in a half. After stealing another team's best player so they had enough to play. They also let me score 20 of our 22 in the first 35 minutes of a game before realising that we only had four players and thus they could double-team me without leaving anyone open. We still scraped out a draw.

[The X]

I got concerned when one of the female refs starting laughing with the other team's players and tapping one of them on the ass just prior to opening tip-off. Needless to say, the calls didn't go our way that game

[kibaxx7]

It's 2 weeks already that I'm waking up 3 hours before than my regular wake up. I'm a zombie right now

[Houndy]

Female refs.... no sexism, but when you argue the call, they're the most prone to tech you up. Basically that tech call I got (before this one) was from a female ref, who gave me a speech about how the league had adapted to the NBA rules for techs.

[Andrew]

I got concerned when one of the female refs starting laughing with the other team's players and tapping one of them on the ass just prior to opening tip-off. Needless to say, the calls didn't go our way that game

Yep, seen that one too.

Female refs.... no sexism, but when you argue the call, they're the most prone to tech you up. Basically that tech call I got (before this one) was from a female ref, who gave me a speech about how the league had adapted to the NBA rules for techs.

Violet Palmer comes to mind.

[shadowgrin]

me score 20 points in a half......They also let me score 20 of our 22 in the first 35 minutes of a game before realising that we only had four players and thus they could double-team me without leaving anyone open. We still scraped out a draw.

I expect nothing less from a player whose basketball fundamentals are better than LeBron.

Female refs.... no sexism, but when you argue the call, they're the most prone to tech you up.

You can't blame them. They're confused because they're not in the kitchen.

[Lamrock]

Didn't this thread used to be pinned or is complaining just our national pastime? Steam of the day: like all of my electronics (except, amazingly, my 360) are broken. Earbuds, computer, router, now my phone. smh erden

[Patr1ck]

Planned obsolescence for summer spending! Gotta love it. My hdtv broke a week ago. It got all dark and red and the image had this ghosting effect looking like the pixels were taking two seconds to update. So I upgraded to a 47 inch led backlit tv with passive 3d. After gaming in 3d, I don't know if I can go back.

I guess my real steam is after getting promoted, my hours are now cut from 40 to 24. There goes the pay increase.

I'm surprised that we haven't had a blackout yet with all this heat.