Posted on 07/31/2015 8:56:14 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Controversy surrounds a Little League umpire's decision to eject a player who celebrated after a walk-off hit.
The ejection meant Lafayette's Jake Delaney could not play the next and deciding game to help his team advance to the Little League World Series. Jake is arguably the best player on Lafayette's 12 and under team, which was unable to complete its World Series bid when they lost the next game against Petaluma.
"Egregious. Devastating," Jake's father, Matt Delaney, said of the ruling. "Not rational at all."
Matt Delaney said he does not understand how an umpire can eject his son for celebrating after a game-winning hit.
Attempts to reach the umpire who made the ruling were unsuccessful Friday. Meanwhile, Jake took the high road when asked about the ruling.
"Good season overall," he said. "Kinda got cheated a couple times, but it's alright. It happens."
This is wrong on so many levels. It can all be traced back to the self esteem, everyone gets a trophy movement.
Let the kid celebrate, quit trying to take the joy out of everything!
So the game was over, the kid was no longer running the bases, he removed his equipment in celebration and an ump decided the rules to protect runners still applied and rather than warning him simply ejected him, enforced in next game.
This ump needs to be thanked for his service and let go. No need to warn him, that's passe now days apparantly.
good comment
and the kid shows promising class and dignity and sportsmanship:
“Good season overall,” he said. “Kinda got cheated a couple times, but it’s alright. It happens.”
Well, that depends. Is this a rule that’s enforced in every game? Then definitely. But if they don’t normally enforce it, and they decided to this time, then not so much.
I couple of pitches in, I cranked one. It flew over the left-fielder's head and went to the fence. I ran my butt off.
My team was in awe, my coach was in awe, my parents were in awe. I was flabbergasted.
We celebrated the hell out of that grand slam. I'm certainly thankful it wasn't taken away from me.
This ump should be disinvited to future games.
All of you need to read the Comments Section. He was warned earlier in the game about a tantrum he threw and many of the commentators mentioned he was a serial offender all season long and had been warned repeatedly about his behavior.
Was it right to take all of that out on him at this time? Not likely. And it seems pretty harsh to the team.
But don’t sound off as if this kid was tossed for this only or that it has anything to do with ‘trophy mentality’. And ‘Daddy Coach’ obviously is clueless in not taking his behavior seriously.
“...and the kid shows promising class and dignity and sportsmanship:...”
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He did indeed. And that bodes well for his future.
One, the umpire is an over officious jerk/over officious newbie. There is a stage of umpiring where you get pretty good, and you know the rule book like the back of your hand. So you want everybody to know it, and are going to call things to the letter of the law. Sometimes that comes from being a jerk, sometimes it is simply a lack of skills in game management.
If the kid was tossed for taking his helmet off, and nothing else, that is what is going on above. And actually, I don't think it was legit, because he would have taken his helmet off after the game was over. The game was over the moment the winning run crossed the plate, and the batter touched first base.
Or two, there is more to the story. Did the batter get up in the grill of an opponent after the hit? If so, I may have certainly run the kid too. Was the game chippy? If so the bar to toss somebody is certainly lower. And umpires have authority on the field, even after a game, until they depart. So you can eject someone after a game is complete.
Maybe dad and player are fine. And am certainly aware how media distorts stuff. But my douchey dad and player meter was starting to register in this. Hope that is not the case. But certainly interesting, and again, I come down on "inconclusive"
the sad thing is that when you get to the world championships there is all sorts of shenanigans going on. I remember one yearb it was discovered that most of the kids on a team were 14 and 15 years old. over the ageb limit for little leage
“Or two, there is more to the story. Did the batter get up in the grill of an opponent after the hit?”
You saw the video. He ran to first, tossed helmet and was ejected.
I faced this for many years as I was heavily involved in the "volunteer" world of Little League Baseball, both as a coach and a board member, it is truly sickening. Yes, from the local level to the Williamsport WS series level as well.
My suggestion is that every kid with any talent not play Little League baseball, there are much better organizations out there where they can actually learn this great game. I could literally write a book on why kids should not be subjected to the "Little League" Baseball organization.
That kid surely does not appear to be 12 years old or younger. He looks 16 or 17 years old.
About 10 years ago I was a little league umpire, all ages. The year before i started a kid injured his neck sliding headfirst into the catcher at home so the local league mandated no headfirst slides until the 12yo level, automatic out if preformed. This was told to the umps by the local league president and each coach in person.
So I’m umping this 8 yo pitching machine game and this autistic kid comes to bat. He’s like the teams mascot, everybody loves him but he’s had like two hits all season. But he hits the ball here, gets a double even and everybody on both sides clapped, i might have even. He made a decent foot first slide into second in fact.
Top of the order is next and the next kid hits it to the fence where the outfielder fumbles it. The autistic kid rounds third and even though the ball was nowhere near him he slides home...headfirst.
I honestly felt a little sick. His teammates and coaches were so excited and busy running out of the dugout they didn’t see my fist in the air. I’ve never been booed so hard in my life, heck i wanted to boo me. I actually had to have both coaches explain to the crowd why i did what i did.
End of the day (with his parents permission) i bought the kid a snow cone and he ‘forgave’ me. Didn’t even get why he was called out.
Ugh.
The problem is now you can actually be 13...
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