Quote:
Originally posted by Ump20
I looked back into my archives to find this post by Rich Fronheiser to another Board on May 6, 2000
Paraplegic Can Coach on Field
Quote:
.c The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - [...] During the 1999 season at Westminster High School, some umpires restricted Barrios from going onto the field because his wheelchair supposedly slowed the game and posed safety concerns.
Barrios was confined to the dugout for eight of 13 games played by the Westminster Lions. From the dugout, he was forced to holler to his players when he wanted them to advance to another base or stay.
``Yelling it out, the whole other team knows, it defeats the whole purpose,'' said Barrios, who was also barred from the field during pitching changes. [...]
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Sometimes baseball is just a game and sometimes it is a challenge.
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Given the above quote, obviously Mr Barrios was more challenged than most baseball coaches. I thought SIGNALS were
de rigeur for instructing base coaches on whether or not to send runners. I've never yet seen a set of baseball coaching signals that required the person giving them use his legs! What precluded Mr Barrios from using signals instead of his voice, I wonder? However, barring him from the field during pitching changes seems a whole lot less defensible, IMHO.
Sounds to me like there may have been equal measures of justification and positive discrimination (aka affirmative action) in this ruling.
Cheers,