My child was so excited for their first ever away tournament. We drove 3 hours to get to Frozen Ropes. We were a little surprised when we read the rules about no outside food or drink (including players), but they had plenty of choices and prices were fairly reasonable. In addition to that, parents have to pay to get in to watch their kids play, but parking is free so okay.
The seating is terrible and extremely dangerous. They have short fences and tiny bleachers right next to them. My younger child was looking down drinking when a foul ball came over, bounced and hit him in the head causing him to get a concussion. My child was the only one hit while we were there, but there were ALOT of close calls.
Story time... Early in our first game the field ump failed to make a call because she "wasn't paying attention" and she told the other ump to make the call. Our very calm coach quietly said something about it and next thing we know she flails her arms and tells the coach to get the **** off her field and proceeds to scream profanities at him (in front of all these young kids). A few parents speak out to contest her choice of words and remind her she's on the field with young children. She ejected the coach, he very quietly and calmly walked away as she continued to yell. The game continued. The female ump started making extremely obvious bad calls, then she would turn and smile toward us and at one point she flipped us the bird as she walked away (which I just happened to catch on video). She was taking her anger out on the kids, it was like nothing I have ever seen. A couple parents went in to speak with the director regarding her outburst and poor behavior. Director told us that it was unacceptable and he would take care of it. We waited and waited, nothing ever happened. It appeared at some point she may have received a text message and for the last innings she was less animated and wasn't making such crazy terrible calls. When our next game started we somehow got issued the same field ump and she told the coach he was still suspended because he didn't sit out an "entire game" so he would have to sit out for this one as well.
Parents and coaches were very respectful and quiet about it, but some parents went to speak with the Director and told him either she needs to come out or they need to let our coach back in, we would have been happy with them letting the kids have their coach. They did not let our coach back in, but next inning they actually had the ump leave and asked parents to please not say anything to her as she goes, which they respectfully agreed and there was not one word spoken or noise made as she left the field.
Our other team had issues as well, however I did not see those first hand so will not speak about them. Bottom line, we pulled our teams out of the rest of the tournament. My family will personally never step foot in that place again. I have never encountered a more unprofessional and disrespectful ump and the way things were handled were awful. If I could issue zero stars I would. read more