[Carl Childress]

The events happened Friday night, 31 March.

4A (second largest Texas school) district game
Teams are tied for first place.
Home 3, Visitors 0.
Bottom of third, R1, R2.
"Thoughts" attributed to the umpires were communicated to me as the State Board member for this area.

The visiting pitcher in the set position gets his sign, lifts his non-pivot foot, and then resets it. Both umpires call "Time. That's a balk!" The predominately home crowd begins to chant "Balk! Balk!" The catcher stands up, but the pitcher continues and releases the ball. The home plate umpire believes the ball is headed in his direction, so he tries to back away, trips, and falls on his back. Coaches and trainers rush to his aid.

MEANWHILE: The pitcher turns to the base umpire and asks, softly: "F**k was wrong with that?"

The base umpire says: "You don't need the bad language. You double set."

Says the pitcher, louder: "That's a bullsh!t call, Blue."

Base umpire: "I told you to keep that language to yourself."

Pitcher, still louder: "I don't care. It's f**king bullsh!t."

Base umpire, not loud: "You're ejected."

He begins walking toward the knot of people attending to the plate umpire, now on his feet.

The pitcher yells, screaming obscenities, and heads for the base umpire. His two coaches grab him before he reaches the umpire and wrestle him away. He continues to scream, then breaks free, rushes to the home plate umpire, and with both hands knocks him off his feet and onto his back. This time, his head cracks hard into the ground.

The boy's father comes from the stands, grabs his son ("Are you nuts? What's wrong with you?") and, with the help of a coach, manages to get him off the field and into the family car.

The plate umpire cannot continue behind the plate. The umpires switch positions and finish the game. Visitors, down 3 at the time, win 13-6.

The UIL requires each school to have an administrator at every game, freshman through varsity. The administrator in charge conferred with the umpires, and asked a question of the plate umpire, which is the point of this post:

"Could you forfeit this game because of that behavior?"

Assume the answer is "yes."

My question: Should the PU forfeit?