- Oct 9, 1999
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My neighbor is an officer in the kids' baseball program in town - or has been, up to now. It's for kids age 9-13. Keep in mind, the eventual champion team gets NOTHING - no parade, no trophy, no nothing. It's a little kids league for them to improve their baseball skills.
In the last month:
They had a team disqualified from the playoffs for playing in a tournament in another nearby town (not allowed because kids are only allowed to play so many times a week). The team's coach lied to the league president when asked about it directly, and only got busted when one of the kids admitted it accidentally.
They had to eject three parents from one game for swearing at the umpire.
One game there was no umpire so one of the team's assistant coaches volunteered to ump. After getting berated by one of the kids' fathers for the third or fourth time, the volunteer ump says to the heckler, "Hey, Tom, you have an umpire certification, why don't you come down and help out?" The guy says no.
They had another team disqualified from the playoffs for bringing in kids from another town and playing under the name of an existing player.
They had yet ANOTHER team disqualified from the playoffs for purposely not telling some of their bad players about upcoming games, then calling players from good teams to come and fill in. It's OK to use a kid from another team if there won't be enough players for a game, which is better than a forfeit where no one plays. But you don't lie to kids on your team about when upcoming games are, so you can recruit other players in their place because you made sure they wouldn't be there. With three teams now disqualified, they just declared the season ended right there.
In another game, one kid narrowly missed getting hit on the foot by a pitch in the dirt. The umpire, catcher and the batter all knew it missed his foot. When the kid got back in the batter's box for the next pitch, his father yells from the stands, "Hey Bobby, that pitch hit you, didn't it?" Bobby then says, "Oh, yeah!" Then the father yells to the umpire to give his kid first base. The ump says it didn't hit him. The father runs down on the field and says, "Are you calling my kid a liar? Bobby, did that pitch hit your foot or didn't it?" Bobby knows what's good for him so he says it hit him. Now the father is screaming like mad about the terrible umpiring and has to be ejected.
He says it's his last year of being involved, and who can blame him.
In the last month:
They had a team disqualified from the playoffs for playing in a tournament in another nearby town (not allowed because kids are only allowed to play so many times a week). The team's coach lied to the league president when asked about it directly, and only got busted when one of the kids admitted it accidentally.
They had to eject three parents from one game for swearing at the umpire.
One game there was no umpire so one of the team's assistant coaches volunteered to ump. After getting berated by one of the kids' fathers for the third or fourth time, the volunteer ump says to the heckler, "Hey, Tom, you have an umpire certification, why don't you come down and help out?" The guy says no.
They had another team disqualified from the playoffs for bringing in kids from another town and playing under the name of an existing player.
They had yet ANOTHER team disqualified from the playoffs for purposely not telling some of their bad players about upcoming games, then calling players from good teams to come and fill in. It's OK to use a kid from another team if there won't be enough players for a game, which is better than a forfeit where no one plays. But you don't lie to kids on your team about when upcoming games are, so you can recruit other players in their place because you made sure they wouldn't be there. With three teams now disqualified, they just declared the season ended right there.
In another game, one kid narrowly missed getting hit on the foot by a pitch in the dirt. The umpire, catcher and the batter all knew it missed his foot. When the kid got back in the batter's box for the next pitch, his father yells from the stands, "Hey Bobby, that pitch hit you, didn't it?" Bobby then says, "Oh, yeah!" Then the father yells to the umpire to give his kid first base. The ump says it didn't hit him. The father runs down on the field and says, "Are you calling my kid a liar? Bobby, did that pitch hit your foot or didn't it?" Bobby knows what's good for him so he says it hit him. Now the father is screaming like mad about the terrible umpiring and has to be ejected.
He says it's his last year of being involved, and who can blame him.
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