Need advice. Rude Parents in stands

My advice is to ignore them. 

The typical high school baseball team has maybe 20 or so kids on it. That means more than half of the parents in the stands have kids on the bench.

Every single one of those parents believes their kid is better at something than someone on the field. Very often they are right, but don't realize the particular skills their sons have are not as important as the ones they lack. Other times they are wrong, taking false comfort in irrelevant stats, such as thinking that a higher batting average consisting of scratch hits against weak pitching  means their kid is a better hitter than a player who makes hard contact against better pitchers.

Either way, whenever a kid on the field makes an error or fails to execute a play they've seen their kid perform successfully at least once, their conviction grows that their kid should be on the field and would be on the field if not for the incompetence, favoritism, or political sensitivities of the coach.

Some of these parents will find kindred spirits who embolden them to voice their opinions. 

You can't change them. They will either grow past it or not. 

Give them plenty of space and no acknowledgement. 

Earbuds?  I’m serious. 

You could have a conversation with said parent about being positive and supporting the team but imo would be counter productive and a waste of oxygen that will only stoke that parent's fire.  Jerks are needed in this world to make you appreciate the many great folks I am sure that surrounds you in life and the game. I would ignore the toads and cheer for the team, your son will see the good example you are setting. The universe eventually balances itself out so I am sure that parent will be dealt with sooner or later.

At our MS game last year, one of the dads who is wired a bit tight was chirping on something that happened.

Further, HIS kid was a bench player who only saw time on the field in a blowout or if half the team was injured. And the play that happened involved a miscue by someone who was one of the three best players on the team.

Well, after a few seconds of everyone hearing his complaining, the dad of the good player yelled over to him "Worry about your own kid" in a tone that meant business.

That ended it, short and sweet.

BTW, this phenomenon may be one reason I enjoyed high school wrestling so much. Every parent knows the answer to the question, "Why isn't my son starting?" is, "Because the kid who is starting beat him in the wrestle-off." 

That pretty much eliminates the griping.

Take a roll of duct tape. on the piece over your mouth, write "Here, you need this!", then hand him a strip!     Take yours off & keep cheering the team on!

Just ignore them! Yes, jealousy & ignorance are rampant.  He's modeling this to his own kid... what a shame.

Actually solved this problem in tee ball by staking out spot down the outfield line about 30 beyond 1st or 3rd base.  With 40 people clustered behind backstops and food shack - had a ton of peaceful moments at the ballfield that way.

If someone started toward me I didn't care for - pull out a smoke and make sure to keep them on the home plate side and blow the smoke at them.  Stay focused on the game and respond with these words to anything said: 

1) Yep

2) Dunno

3) Maybe

4) We'll see

5) Son looks good out there.   

6) Thank you - on the off chance a compliment accidently falls out of their mouth.

I don't know if it's the case at your school but where my sons went there were usually teachers, as well as the athletic director or some other school official at games.  In fact that was mandatory for football and basketball.  If i was in your situation I might say something to the teachers or AD. Something as simple as "can you believe these guys?" would be enough to get their attention.

If their talking about your kid , confront them or the parent like i did , for us his kid was on the bench and a SR ,my son was on the field and a freshmen . His kid quit after the game ,mines didn’t . 

Another parent wouldnt stop , just a  professional jerk . So i told him maybe he can do better 🙈. By mid season they were cheering him on . And I tried not to sit or stand next to those kind of dads !! The worst on are the dads who use to be coaches or are coaches ,and their kids aren’t playing .  Just my 2 cents -

ear buds , blood pressure meds help too .

Agree with everything posted.   The best course of action is to ignore them.   Not much you can say that will ever silence them.  Don't feed the trolls.  Swampboy pretty much nailed it in his post.   Ignore them, cheer for the team and enjoy the game.

I make a career out of ignoring spectators. If it's not affecting your player, don't worry about it. If it is, then there are tools you can teach--if he keeps playing, there's always going to be voices against him that are full of it.

Sorry you're having to go through this.  My three sons went to two different high schools and I had to deal with this a few different ways.  All three sons were primarily pitchers (but also had field positions and DH'd) so I liked to sit somewhere close to home plate to see location and movement when they pitched.   I used to catch, so prefer that vantage point. 

All three of my kids never had a problem with what was being said in the stands or dugout when they were on the mound, so that was a good thing.  My wife and I are a different matter.   We would bring ear buds to every game as SmokemInside suggests...this was like a first go-to when it got annoying.  I was always coming from work to the game so a mobile phone and earbuds was the Easy Button.  

I recall one time when my oldest son was a sophomore pitching in a playoff game it got really bad and one of the team's Dads was being a total ass.  He may have been tailgating all-day.   We hadn't seen this Dad all season, so we wondered if he just got out of jail (not kidding given the local demographics).  My son pitched well into the 6th, and they got the "W".  But this guy wouldn't shut his mouth throughout the whole game.    After his last outburst in the 3rd inning, we immediately picked up our stuff and moved over to the opponents stands (there were people we knew over there)  in front of EVERYONE.  Let me tell you...EVERYBODY noticed what we did, and a very strong message was sent.   I was very pissed off and I didn't care what our teams parents thought, so I did it.   After we moved, I noticed a lot of other people moved as well.  That is not an approach I would recommend to everyone.  Of course, your other option is to move to the sideline or outfield.  I would do this when my son wasn't pitching. 

Good luck!

Lemme guess MAMABB0304.....your kid plays with 2022OFDad's kid?

Eventually this type of issue will take care of itself......... don't feed it.

Agree with above - a well timed move to a different spot at the park can send a loud message.

In part, I empathize with some of the vocal parents..some HS coaches can do a far better job in ensuring that some of the non starters get playing time...I never will understand why some coaches insist on riding their starters in blowout games..they are wound so tight and manage in a constant state of fear that a game will get away from them if the starters are given a breather..and they don't care about developing anyone other than the starters...that is what a lot of those parents are angry about..we went thru that last year in my son's junior year..so there is blame to go around on both sides.

@CatcherDadNY, the kids who are playing and the kids who are not playing do not decide who plays.  The parents of those kids do not decide (Or at least I don't) who plays. The "vocal" parents in our stands are unleashing their venom on the players. That is my issue. Have a concern with a coach, complain if you want to, yell if you want to, but players?

We had a couple of strategies.

Shut up suckers — this worked well if you have a relationship with the guys. We always had a brown paper bag of suckers. If someone got obnoxious they would be offered a "shut-up sucker." Had to laugh last night at a high school basketball game when one of my fellow baseball moms pulled out a brown bag and popped a sucker in her mouth while watching her youngest play.

Outfield — I did sit in the outfield along with a couple of other moms. We too had things to say, so we had a small group that sat way out in the outfield. We kept our comments quiet and between each other and didn't have listen to the idiots. And I'm sure anyone who heard us thought we were idiots too. :-)

Swamp's advice is probably best and I always thought Iowamom's shut-up suckers were brilliant.

Personally, I think everyone should be entitled to watching and enjoying their kids sporting events.  I think if you want to sit out somewhere in isolation because that is your preference, great.  But I sure as heck don't think you should feel like you have to sit out there because of a jerk or three in the main stands.

Spectating HS sports comes with a lot of interesting dynamics.  We are emotionally engaged with our kids and, at the same time, critiquing and cheering/booing a competitive (hopefully) sporting event as fans.  There has to be a reasonable allowance as to how different "fanatics" interact.  That said, there is a line (albeit murky) that shouldn't be crossed.  At some point, if someone is beyond rude with personally berating one of our sons, I am not opposed to letting them know that the line has been crossed.  In the many years of sporting events of my three now grown kids, I think I have maybe done it twice.  Once for offense toward my own kid and once toward another.  Unfortunately, some of the worst offenses I have witnessed were dads berating their own sons.  

Your question of how to deal with it, of course, is the tough part.  I actually think a few already mentioned here are powerful in different ways... the shut up sucker and moving to the opposing side of the stands in the middle of the tirade, even though the latter is somewhat contradicting to my belief that you shouldn't feel like you have to move.  I also think there are times when a direct "these are our kids you're talking about" is in order (think "Blindside" movie).  Another option is to make the AD aware of specific types of behavior that is occurring.  That is very much part of their job, to assure the players are playing in a reasonably healthy environment and that the parents are following the protocol put forth by most HS associations.