[DJWickham]

when you were jailed.

The umpire is designated by the League president and represents the league. Rule 9.01. While the Court might not be able to jail opposing managers or players who refused to play (if the order is directed to the league), the language of the rules of baseball makes it easy to get the umpires. Those who choose civil disobediance accept jail as a necessary consequence of following their conscience, as did Ghandi or Martin Luther King. But I would visit you, Warren, and bring you a cake!

I suspect that there is no law "down under" similar to our Americans With Disabilities Act (although there are those who believe such rights are envisioned in the Charter of the United Nations). But your country, like mine, has battled with vestiges of discrimination.

The law is a good one, although it is very misunderstood. It says that before you can fire Mr. Oddi as head coach (which is what you are doing if you won't let him do the job of a head coach), you have to know something about Mr. Oddi the person, and not simply look at the crutches. If Mr. Oddi actually poses a risk of injury to himself or others, you cannot provide reasonable accomodation to him in the use of a public accomodation (such as a public school or field).

The actual facts concerning Mr. Oddi (from the wire service) are that he has been a high school coach for 11 years, and has been head coach (in PA, head coaches act as a base coach) for 5 years without any problem. He served as a base coach for 3 years without anyone even making a comment until 1999 when 2 umpires said he couldn't be on the field. The association then addressed the issue and permitted him to continue as a base coach. He then continued to do his job, again without incident, for the 1999 and 2000 season. His team was co-champion in 1999. Thus, he proved he was able to do the job safely for 5 years. If any balls or players came near the third base coaches box for 5 years, he was able to get out of the way.

On March 1, 2001, the local high school association said he couldn't be a base coach without any hearing and without considering whether Mr. Oddi posed any real risk. The issue hadn't been discussed during the annual rules interpretation meeting in Februrary. Rather, the association uniquely interpretting two rules: 1) a basecoach can only have a scorebook or a lineup; and 2) an umpire cannot use crutches. This was the basis of the ban on "coaches on crutches" which was really a ban on the one coach on crutches, Coach Oddi. A federal distict judge mediated the settlement, although some reports say that he issued an injunction ordering the association to let him on the field.

The ADA expressly rejects the notion that it is the disabled person who must prove that he or she is not a risk to others. Rather, it is the obligation of the person who would deny them access, or a job, or participation, to prove that the rule is based upon an individualized assessment of the risk, and not simply on prejudice.

I think the outcome under the ADA is very different for a league or association which looks at the individual and asks whether that person has the requisite skills or abilities necessary to avoid injury. To simply ban crutches is to assume that all persons with crutches pose the identical risk, and that the law forbids.

[Edited by DJWickham on Mar 26th, 2001 at 07:40 PM]