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Steamboat Springs — The game that didn't matter. Or did it?

On Tuesday night, I had to umpire a Steamboat Springs men's softball league game. I went into the game like any other for the past 20 seasons; calling balls, strikes and outs. But what happened that evening was something I hadn't experienced in four decades of playing, spectating or officiating organized team sports.

It was a beautiful evening for softball with partly cloudy skies to knock down the heat and glare. When I arrived at the field, the red team had only seven players. Local league rules state a team has to have eight players to start, or they forfeit the game. So when game time arrived and the red team couldn't field a team, I called a forfeit, which irritated the manager/pitcher of the red team. As they say, rules are rules.

As both teams were still entitled to the field, I asked if they wanted to split up the teams and scrimmage. Both agreed, and we put together a game. Because I keep an extra glove in my bag, I asked the blue team if I could join them. The manager said, "Sure, why not? The game doesn't matter anyway."

When it came my turn to bat, the manager/pitcher for the red team, still irked that his team had to forfeit, called to me from the pitcher's mound and said, "You're the umpire. I'm not pitching to you. Take a walk." My teammates erupted.

"What? Why not? The game doesn't matter! Pitch to him!" Others threw in their own colorful opinions. So I took the intentional walk.

I batted three times that game and was the only player intentionally walked each time by the red manager/pitcher, never getting a chance to swing the bat. When players asked me why I was being walked, I replied, "Because I'm an umpire." All shook their heads in disappointment.

Until then, I'd never experienced such blatant, in-your-face discrimination. Certainly sports officials take heat on close calls. It's part of the job. But in this case, I wasn't being judged by color, creed, social status or ability to play. I was being judged by another white male because of my officiating job, which had no influence on the pick-up game we were playing. What overshadowed and soured the outcome of the game was the issue of one individual's decision to repeatedly deny his opponent the opportunity to compete.

After the game, players from both teams came up to say they were sorry. That helped to ease the hurt, but it caused me to think: Have we as a society become so disconnected from sportsmanship that individuals have come to interpret their own selfish behavior as acceptable competitive behavior? If so, then where is the sport in that?

Sean Derning

Steamboat Springs