Hi All.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!!!???
Day 4 Scores:
Game 1 Hazel Dell LL D6 15 vs. South Kitsap LL D2 5 - Out
Game 2 Everett LL D1 11 vs. Southwest LL D7 2 - Out
Game 3 Willapa Harbor LL D3 5 vs. RUG LL D8 4
Game 4 Mercer Island LL D9 6 vs. South Hill LL D10 0
Games 2, 3, 4 yesterday were actually pretty good games with games 3 and 4 being VERY good games although the score of game 4 may not reflect that. Those last three were pretty close until the last couple of innings.
I want to give some applause out to the District 13 UIC and Tournament UIC, Mark Dixon. He has done an INCREDIBLE job getting an umpire crew together for this tournament.
4 umps on the field every game and 4 umps with impeccable experience on the field – EVERY GAME. This is the best Little League State tournament officiating I have ever seen. Period. Great work to Mark and his helpers for getting this team of umpires together. It’s fantastic.
HOWEVER, We needed it. We have had two ejections during the tournament (so far) for “unsportsmanlike conduct”. One happened the second day of the tournament when a player lowered his shoulder trying to take second and plowed over a shortstop and caused a minor injury that stopped play. He was ejected. He felt bad and apologized to everyone. He has served his suspension and will be back in play today.
Then about 10:00 AM on the 4th day (Yesterday) we get a call from the hotel manager/owner where some of the teams are staying… Apparently they have had a problem with one of the teams for some time. The teams were throwing trash in the halls (The manager put extra trash cans in the hallways when they saw this – they still threw the trash on the floor). They had been running in the hallways, destroyed hotel property and equipment, yelling profanities, being out in the common areas late and making a nuisance… And this hotel is a supporter/sponsor of the local league and the owner is a friend of Little League. So we gathered information, the hotel management reviewed surveillance video etc. They (hotel staff), met with parents to let them know there was a problem the night before last night and to please take care of the behavior – but nothing changed after the meeting and the players were still acting like little savages the next night and day. I asked another team parent (another team parent with another team staying at the hotel) and they confirmed there had been problems.
Other NON-Little League guests started checking out and demanding refunds citing the behavior of the players as the reason…. Apparently the problem was significant and the hotel was losing guests. The hotel manager was ticked. I called the DA staff of the team that had been identified and let them know the problem and they got right on it with the manager of the team. The hotel manager was preparing to evict the entire team.
The hotel manager then contacted us and said they may take the tack of “Just removing the players and families who were the most troublesome” instead of the whole team. The manager of the team did speak with the hotel staff, and I will get the rundown on that today as to if they were able to get the problems taken care of… I apologized to the hotel manager through the ADA that had been working with them( they had communicated on getting the COMPLIMENTARY hotel rooms for umpires, and setting aside room blocks for team), and I will speak personally to hotel management today.
And then … later that same day…(Day 4).
The second ejection happened last night. In a tight game with lots of fan noise, but nothing out of the ordinary… the pitcher walked the batter…. And the batter flipped his bat to the dugout and turned to go to first and promptly issued a “F—K YOU” (loud enough for everyone in the stands cheering to hear it) to the pitcher and trotted up to first base. The plate ump immediately stopped the game, called a conference between the umpires and then walked to the runner and ejected him. The plate ump is a seasoned World Series, Western Region, and State ump from Oregon. He did everything right at the scorers table, and asked tournament staff to find the parent and remove the player. This player has not apologized (yet).
BUT the parent, who had been pushing the rules with where he wanted to set up camera shots to take pictures, got verbally aggressive with tournament staff and had to be escorted in an unflattering way out to the parking lot. It APPEARED as if he was trying to edge his way to the other teams fans, who had started chipping a bit more than they should and I had to shut that down as well. But the dad continued to swear loudly all the way to the parking lot. Luckily we have some muscle at the host league. I have not heard from either the parent or the player at this point.
The game ended with the team that had been behind all game coming back to win in the 7th (They were visitor, put up a run or two and held the home team during their at bat). As soon as the game was over I went and talked with all the umpires both separately and together as a unit and asked them if they heard anything from the other team to incite the kid, or from the fans that caused the problem. They all said no and were unanimous in their thinking. (I would expect no less).
During the course of play and the ejection I and the umpire informed the manager that the player was out for the game (it could have wound up a tie at the end of 7 – but didn’t) and he had to serve a one game suspension – which meant he would miss the next game. This was the first loss for the losing team so there is a good chance these two teams will meet again. The MANAGER then later came back and spoke with me and the ADA (separately) trying to get the penalty removed. He felt that the fans had really caused the problem, by cheering too loudly and razzing his team and that the kid was not that kind of kid and he shouldn’t be penalized a game and, and, and. I then used the “tried and true” Little League response to his “complaint” about the ruling… “What would you like me to do for you?” . In that he asked if I would call Western to get a waiver to let the kid play his during his suspension. I told him that was not a response Western would provide. He said “Please call” – I said is this a protest? He said “Please call”. So I called Kit. She said he’s suspended for a game. I said “I told you so”. The manager told me that the suspended player was his starting pitcher for the next game.
I had the host league and tournament staff “hover” around the manager in the background because he continued to stay in the bleachers. I didn’t want there to be further incidents. The umpire had asked to stay in the umpire break room until things cooled down a bit. I kept a couple of tournament staff around him in the background as well. He came out of the umpire break room, and I don’t think the upset manager stayed much after that. The upset manager was not rude, or disrespectful in anyway, and the exchange on the field with umpires and officials of the tournament was measured and controlled. He didn’t “lose it”. Even in his interactions after the game, the manager was polite and not irrational. He may have been delusional about Kit changing an umpires ruling, but he was not rude or impolite.
We’ll see how today goes. I am trying to “out write” Pat Ryan 😊
JP
DA WA5/13