What's the Worst Thing An Opposing Team Did?

[KCM]

Over the years I have met some over excited coaches, fans and players but none that really sealed the deal as bat a** crazy.

We had a coach couple weeks ago scream at our girls to get on the field with 1 minute left in a drop dead pool game. It would have started a new inning, we were tied and bottom line a pool game with no impact of bracket placement or anything. Next day we beat them in bracket game to send them home 16-0 in first inning. Coach would not even come shake our hands, did pass word to through the AC next time we will not play around in pool games. AC said it would have been their first victory in months if they could have scored 1 more run. I some what understood but not really because he yelled at the girls not us coaches.

 

[vcackerman]

This weekend, I was involved in a hotly contested semifinal and my team fought back to force a tie breaker. On the game tying run, it was a close play but my runner was safe on a steal of home and two coaches were tossed and about 4 parents. Kids are crying, lot of screaming, some obscenities.

We lost in the international tie breaker but got the opportunity to thank the kids for working hard to come back and my parents for being supportive fans all year so we never had a situation like that. It was ugly.

Oh and this was 10U softball.

 

[Rocketech1]

While 95% of the time the games run smoothly and the players/parents use good sportsmanship, the following incidents come to mind:

- 8u manager made a teenage female ump cry because he was arguing balls and strikes relentlessly throughout the game and even summoned the league president to sit in his dugout so he could "observe" her umpiring. It gets better, the following week I was talking to a friend of mine about the way the manager acted and I didn't realize the managers wife was sitting near me. She called me a liar and said she was leaving before she punched someone (me) in the face!

- Had just recently moved into my new neighborhood and thought I would take my 1yo DD in her stroller down to the PONY baseball fields to catch an inning or two of a 12u game. So we are watching the game and there is a baserunner on 3rd base and the pitcher does something illegal in his windup motion, plate ump calls a balk and runner scores from 3rd per the rules. Well the pitcher's father comes unglued. He starts yelling at the top of his lungs, "you lousy SOB, I'm going to F.....kill you". Umpire is visually shaken, takes off his mask and asks the scorekeeper to call the police. The manager of the team had to physically restrain the father and was ultimately led off to the parking lot. I don't know what ever happened to the guy but I hope he was banned from the league for life.

Youth sports, while normally a wonderful experience, can bring out the worst in some individuals.

 

[obbay]

Re:Wiggling the bat - I've always hated that but some teach that because they think it distracts the pitcher and catcher and helps the baserunner steal. I saw a great antidote to that - batter starts waiving her bat around like an idiot so catcher stands up to receive pitch, Pitcher delivers a high fastball and the catcher guns down runner after runner!

I have a lot of patience with young kids learning the game but as they get older and don't learn anything my patience gets shorter and shorter.

My older DD umpired a LL Minors (10U) game where she and the other ump ejected a coach from the game. The coach was belligerent, loud, and being just plain mean. the girls on the other team were scared and some had started to cry. It was when she was being politely instructed to stop telling her baserunners to 'take out" anyone who gets in their way, and she insisted on arguing the point that she got ejected. After ejection, the coach waited in the parking lot screaming obsenities at DD and the other ump (Some parents waited and escorted them to their cars to make sure they got out ok). That was the last LL game that woman was allowed to coach.

 

[3'sDad]

12U and under - the kid who sounds like a screaching cat screaming at the top of her lungs on every pitch until your teams gets up 6-8 runs was always annoying. Add to this a team using their batting practice bats to beat on the dugout fence and benches.

The coach who had his kids lick/spit onto their hands prior to the end-of-game handshake was rewarded with a 12 month vacation for coaching by our LL District. Thats' just not part of what softball at 12U and under is about. It does get better at the older ages, though in high school the games can be very slanted by the Blue, especially in certain counties, when you're the away team. Your school will struggle to wina one run game, better be 3 runs ahead prior to last at bat.

 

[canyonjoe]

It's seems like the size of the jerk is inversely proportional to the importance of the game.

 

[softballphreak]

Years ago our SS spit on the opposing pitcher's rosin bag. I didn't know anything about it until I heard their pitcher telling their coach about it at the end of the game. And I still didn't know who had spit on the bag. I went to our after-game huddle and found out who spit on the bag.

I stopped the opposing team's bus as they were leaving the complex and had our SS board the bus and apologize. The pitcher said "I accept your apology, even though I know you don't mean it."

We benched her for the next two games. I had asked the head coach for four. Believe it or not, by the rules that had been copied and agreed to by all the players at the beginning of the season, our SS won MVP that year. I still believe if it had been up the me that the runner up, our 2nd baseman, would have been given the award. But I'm glad I didn't have to decide that. The 2nd baseman was/is my DD's best friend.

 

[IACoach]

Just last weekend....argument breaks out in the stands. Guy throws lady down the bleachers, fists fly. Guy removed from ball park, TD tells him go to McDonalds and come back later to get dd and whoever. Oh - they are all on same team! Kids are crying, etc. TD talks to coach who says they threw out wrong person! Should have been the lady as she has had the cops called on her the last three tournaments??? WTF?

Sorry forgot to mention this was 10u

 

[Slappers]

This is somewhat unrelated but we were watching a game at an adjacent field to another game that was in play. The game on the adjacent field ended a lot quicker than what seemed normal. Apparently a parent was being belligerent to the umpires and was ejected from the area but refused to leave so the umpires called the game.

First of all as a coach, if I heard the parents acting in a manner that would cause our team to forfeit or even come close to getting ejected, I would handle that personally. Unacceptable.

Secondly, if I was a different parent on the same team, I would livid with and try darn hard to get the offending parent to leave.

 

[BobInMadison]

I haven't been in TB long enough to see that many bad things.

The worst CONFIRMED: One of my DDs (I forget which one) stole 3rd. The 3B knocked her hand off the base with her foot, and tagged her, called out by umpire. Completely classless.

A couple of things I heard about in games I was watching that were NOT confirmed, and may have not have been that bad:

DD #3 claims a player on the other team deliberately tripped a teammate. The girl was hurt and crying, and the other team took a knee while until the girl got up. The teammate's mother told me the tripping was NOT intentional, and was just a collision between a runner and the catcher. So, was the team classy or classless? I like to think they were classy.

I heard reports of a coach from another team yelling at DD #3. It turns out the coach was yelling ABOUT her (saying "she's out! Why are you calling her safe!"). That coach has friends who are parents on DD's team. They told me he had just had surgery, and his meds made him a little nutsy. He didn't coach the next time the teams played.


OTOH, there were some classy things I have seen other teams do, such as:

have the entire team take a knee when a player on DD's team is injured.

Or, DD #3 played 3B for the first time a few weeks ago. (Strange, because DD #1 was a talented 3B, and DD #3 had played all 8 other positions). DD #3 made some great plays at 3rd to help win the pool game. The 3B coach for the other team gave her a high 5 every time DD made a great play against his team. I know he wasn't supposed to talk to her directly, but the teams were friendly, and that seemed like a really classy thing for him to do. It boosted her confidence at a new position.