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Originally Posted by greymule
I thought the forum might enjoy the description of a scene I saw the other night in a men's SP game:
Two out, fourth inning, close game. Batter hits a popup halfway up the 1B line and starts to run, carrying the bat. When he sees F3 get under the ball about 6 feet foul, he stops running. However, the ball drifts back toward the line, and F3 catches it in foul territory, maybe a yard from where the BR is standing on the baseline, still holding the bat. Three outs.
No problem, right?
The right-center fielder screams, "Hey, you. Get out of his way!"
The BR replies, "I was in the baseline!"
RCF: "Hey, ump. He can't carry the bat. He has to drop it before he leaves the box."
BR: "I can do anything I want as long as I'm in the baseline."
RCF: "You gotta drop the bat, j*rk*ff. Learn the rules."
BR: "Learn the rules yourself, *ssh*le. The baseline belongs to the runner. It's right in the book."
This escalated, with players from both sides chipping in, until the umpire called the managers out and told them to shut their players up, which they did.
Soon, however, RCF came to bat and hit a hard grounder that BR, now F5, couldn't field. As RCF made it to 2B, he loudly commented on F5's lack of ability to field his grounder, and of course F5 commented back in disparaging terms. Then, as RCF rounded 3B on the next hit, F5 reiterated the word "p*ssy" several times.
So RCF complained to the ump, who said he heard the insults and ejected F5 from the game. F5 naturally began to argue with the ump, but his manager managed to get him off the field (temporarily).
RCF, however, couldn't shut up, and kept arguing with F5 and several other members of the opposing team. After warning RCF once more, the ump ejected him, too. Now RCF's team was one short from the ejection, so they forfeited.
As you might expect, the argument now grew in intensity, with the teams converging around home plate to give their opinions of various rules, offer their versions of what had happened, issue challenges of various kinds, and trade insults.
Finally, the woman who closes the park for the township ordered everyone to leave or she'd call the police. (I wondered how that one was going to fly, since some of the worst offenders in the brouhaha were police.) However, everyone soon left, and the ump and I spent some time in the parking lot discussing the situation.
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