[nickrego]

I don't mess with bats or other equipment.

The last thing I want to have happen, is to miss something, or get tangled up with a player while I am reaching for a bat (or other equipment). Or I guess, hit another player with the equipment I am moving.

Good lesson to be learned here, especially for us in California. Like Colorado, this is a sue happy state, with judges that want to keep their lawyer friends in business, and an appellate court that wants everything to go to trial. Forget common sense, and forget what is the right thing to do.

Unless you have video of this umpire picking up the bat, looking directly at the kid in the on deck circle, taking aim, and letting it fly purposely at the player, this thing should not go to trial. My guess is the umpire felt absolutely awful about it when it happened, and would have done anything to take that bat in the head himself instead. This player simply sounds like a person who has failed at making their own way in life, and is now going to try to steal someone else's accomplishments to fund their own future.