It's hard to tune it out and it gets in their heads. When it gets in the hitters heads they can start swinging at stuff they don't think is going to be a strike but might be called one. They get frustrated with the calls but when the crowd is relentless on an umpire it makes them press which only increases their frustration. Granted, the best are able to tune out the noise but the overwhelming majority of players are "pleasers" by nature. They want to make people happy and not disappoint their fans. I was a notorious umpire rider (granted this was high school ball) until my daughter came to me and said it didn't help and made things worse for the players and especially her. Now, granted, some stuff is probably deserved. Consistent riding of the umps doesn't help the players do better which is what we want to do as fans - help and encourage the players. I hope we always have good umps and good games but that isn't always the case. I would say anger toward a bad ump doesn't help anything. It just increases the frustration that our players already feel. Continue to encourage and an occasional barb is ok. Anger toward an umpire has a way of feeding itself and more and more people get involved and then that starts to become the story. Encourage our players to keep fighting through. Encourage our players to put bad calls out of their mind. It's hard to do but not impossible. Signed, A Reformed Umpire / Referee Anger Management Dropout