Sort out this Little League Cluster... mess

[Big Daddy Michigan]

I haven't read a Little League rule book in a few years so I'm not super current, but this happened in the All-Star tournament two nights ago.

To protect identities we'll call team A the Bulldogs and Team B the Tigers. They are playing at a neutral site (no home cooking going on.) The site has 2 fields and the District Manager/Tournament Director is not at this field.

The Bulldogs have 3 rostered coaches on their Affidavit, but for some reason only two are in the dug-out (maybe due to the numbers of players on the roster.)


Fourth inning & the Bulldogs are winning and the Ump makes a call and the Coach B slams his clipboard on the fence. Field ump comes over and gives him a warning and the HP Ump tosses him. (There is not a secondary incident after the warning. The PU just decided a warning wasn't strong enough, I guess.)


The head coach questions why his assistant got tossed after the other ump only gave a warning. The HP Umps points to the SS says loud enough for the fans, players, and the opposing dugout to hear, "If that kid didn't miss that grounder none of this would have happened." The head coach now loses his shirt, and yells at the ump for singling out & embarrassing an 8 year old kid, and the HP Ump tosses him.


Now, the Bulldogs have zero coaches in the dug out. The HP Ump allows the rostered coach who is not in the dug out & an un-rostered coach to finish coaching the game which the Bulldogs hold on and win.


At some point the situation got reviewed by the District Manager who contacted LL Regional in Indianapolis. The HP umpire, denies saying anything about the SS not fielding the ball & takes no responsibility for escalating the events.


Indy rules that what happened was incorrect. The Tigers SHOULD (and that should will be important later) have protested, and the game should have been suspended and ruled a forfeit, and a win for the Tigers (according to the District Manager).


The DM tells Bulldogs that the game was protested & Indy has ruled it a forfeit, & they are both suspended for the next game, but that the other rostered coach can coach. The Bulldogs sign off on the ruling and move to the losers bracket.


When the Bulldogs arrive at the complex the next night they talk with Tigers coach only to find that the Tigers did not protest the game.


Both team's coaches, HP Ump, and DM all meet again to clarify. The DM admits that the Tigers did not protest, but he is still going to uphold the forfeit. The HP Ump still denies that he had said anything about the SS, but the Tiger's coaches tell the DA that they heard him say it, and that's what caused the Bulldogs head coach to become enraged. The HP Ump then admits he lied and that he did point to the SS and say it was his fault.


That's where the story ends as of now. Anyone have any thoughts on how this played out or should have.

 

[CoachJD]

The only part of this I care about is the HP umpire going out of his way to embarrass a child for no reason. And he is too much of a coward to even admit it. Just a completely garbage human being through and through.

Post his name. Drag it through the mud. That should be the last game that piece of crap ever umps for the rest of his life. Maybe that's not fair. I've flushed plenty of crap in my life that's better than this guy.

If a coach did that on the field, everybody would make sure he didn't coach anymore. For get the forfeit or the coach getting ejected or whatever. There's one person here who is truly in the wrong, and everybody should know his name.

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

Agree the ump is wrong in behavior and rule.

If all coaches are ejected the game is suspended. The umpire allowed the game to continue (wrong). It’s unfortunate that team b would need to protest that, but they do. As was, they agreed to the resolution by allowing the game to continue.

The DM does not have authority to declare a forfeit, only the Regional M or HQ. If HQ declared a forfeit based on incorrect information, they should be given the correct information to make a correct ruling.

This was certainly a mess, all because adults didn’t act like adults.

 

[Mike Hurd]

Have I, as an umpire, sat their listening to the coach complain and thought "well, if your SS hadn't..." Yes I have. Have I said it out loud? Never in a million years. You just never know what makes people tick....

 

[Big Daddy Michigan]

The only part of this I care about is the HP umpire going out of his way to embarrass a child for no reason. And he is too much of a coward to even admit it. Just a completely garbage human being through and through.

Post his name. Drag it through the mud. That should be the last game that piece of crap ever umps for the rest of his life. Maybe that's not fair. I've flushed plenty of crap in my life that's better than this guy.

If a coach did that on the field, everybody would make sure he didn't coach anymore. For get the forfeit or the coach getting ejected or whatever. There's one person here who is truly in the wrong, and everybody should know his name.

I wasn't there, and I wasn't in the meeting, but I trust the person who gave me the info, especially since he wasn't affiliated with either team. I have been a tournament director a number of times in the past, so I was contacted to get my opinion, and to see if I thought the procedures were properly followed. I just haven't read a rulebook in about 5 years, so I was unclear.

 

[The Man In Blue]

What should be done about it? Little League should stop demanding volunteer umpires. Not that being paid makes you better, but it attracts more candidates to chose from.

I don't call LL, have never called LL, and will never call LL. It must be a banner year for unprotested protests that get overturned into nonprotests which result in protests. The umpire forum I follow had an equally clustered scenario with baseball teams.

Anyway, @Big Daddy Michigan ... knowing almost nothing about Little League I can definitively tell you procedures were NOT properly followed.

 

[Big Daddy Michigan]

What should be done about it? Little League should stop demanding volunteer umpires. Not that being paid makes you better, but it attracts more candidates to chose from.

True, but this guy umps at every level & for every affiliation, so it wasn't like he was some dad or spectator. He's just a shitty ump. I didn't realize it until now, but I have posted other threads about him not knowing the rules.


He let a run count on a 3rd out-force out in a 0-0 game (overturned on protest 5 innings later.) He also gave a batter a do-over because he didn't know the rules when a batter swung at a 3rd strike and was hit by the pitch. Instead of declaring deadball out, he treated it as a dropped 3rd strike, but that batter didn't run & the defense never tried to retire her, so he just declared a do over, and I think the batter got a hit.

 

[sluggers]

It takes a special kind of idiot to jump an umpire when his team is AHEAD.

The AC who banged the dugout should be ejected. The HC should have looked at the AC, smiled and said, "Too bad, too bad."

Was the umpire wrong? Of course.

 

[daywalkerdad]

It takes a special kind of idiot to jump an umpire when his team is AHEAD.

The AC who banged the dugout should be ejected. The HC should have looked at the AC, smiled and said, "Too bad, too bad."

Was the umpire wrong? Of course.

LOL, best comment of the day.