Youth leagues offer parents a direct-line to umpires
The Lee’s Summit softball and baseball organizations have announced a new partnership that will allow for streamlined and quicker communications between parents and umpires.
For the 2025 season, the youth leagues will be utilizing the app ‘UmpYours!’ which allows parents to immediately text disputed calls and game opinions to umpires. League officials are encouraging parents and fans to install the app immediately on their iPhone and Android devices.
Created by local software engineer Bill Smith, a father of two sons and a daughter who all play baseball and softball, Smith said he simply got fed up with having to yell corrected balls and strikes calls to the umpires during every single inning.
“I realize some of them are, like, 16 or 17. One guy out there had to be over 80. But they’re just consistently missing easy calls,” Smith said. “With my new app, parents can still vocalize what they’re doing wrong and the messages go directly to the umpire.”
The way it works, Smith explains, is each umpire will be required to download the ‘UmpYours!’ app at the beginning of the season and will have 3-minute breaks between each inning to check the app. From the safety of their new outdoor chairs and with sunflower seeds in hand, parents can simply click the app, tap which field their All-Star is playing on and send direct feedback to the umpire in real time.
“It’s really genius,” said a dad of twin 10-year-olds playing at Legacy Park. “I go to several Royals games a year and I played all the way through my sophomore year. So balls and strikes are pretty obvious to me. When these umps miss calls, they force a lot of us to get vocal. I remember telling an ump last year, ‘Just be consistent for both teams!’ He didn’t like that at all. But now I can text him and let him know when his strike zone is out of whack.”
The ‘UmpYours!’ app also allows for umpire rankings at the end of each game where parents can rate their umpire from a 1 star all the way up to 3-and-a-half stars.
When asked about the ‘UmpYours!’ app, 17-year-old umpire Joshua Brown said he’s never heard of it.
“I usually just play League of Legends or do my BeReal in between innings,” Joshua said. “I guess this new app will be cool.”
Parents using the app can identify themselves by their players’ name, their own first name or simply by what they are wearing and the color of their lawn chair. Marcy Daniel, a Lee’s Summit parent of twin softball players, says she’s registered her account as “Diet Coke Momma Bear.”
“Oh, the umps know me,” Marcy said in between slurps of her Route 44 Diet Coke. “Last year, my Ashleigh got run over at home plate and I was livid. Once I got back from getting a refill at the concession stand, I watched the video my husband took and then I let them have it. This new app will make things so much easier.”
