[greymule]

In men's SP, I've seen a hundred incidents worse than the one in the clip, and I'll see a couple more this year. This one was, in fact, routine: a bunch of hotheads charged the ump. But nobody threatened the umpire with a bat or shoved him, or even merely warned him that he would be waiting for him in the parking lot. Only a small percentage of games contain something like this, but there are a lot of games.

In baseball, not everything has been roses, but I've never had anything nearly as bad.

In baseball, incidents like these generally don't happen out of the blue. They do occur, but rarely and usually after frustration and arguments build to critical mass over time. The umpires often have the opportunity to "nip things in the bud." Further, you don't have all that much men's baseball today. The semipro leagues simply aren't around the way they used to be. So while high school and college players might have tempers and get out of line, you don't have 10 beefed-up drunks in your face in a school game. And with school games, you do have some adults who, you hope, will act like adults. In men's SP, the person in charge of the team is often a sponsor or perhaps another player without much control or authority over anyone. And unlike when I played, many participants drink before the game as well as after.

I learned never to take anything for granted in men's SP. A game that has been completely uneventful till the sixth inning can suddenly—because of a call, a collision, a remark, a perceived "dissing"—become an emergency situation. Of course, this can happen in any sport, but men's SP softball lies at the extreme. I've seen near-riots where some of the worst offenders were police officers. And there have been times when I was painfully aware, out on some lonely field late in the evening, that there are a dozen of them and one of me.

I've had SP games in which everybody is good natured most of the way, but then lightning strikes and we have threats, fights, thrown equipment, police, suspensions, even arrests and charges. Two years ago, teams arrived for a game and found the field cordoned off by police "crime scene" yellow tape. When I was a player back in the 1970s, a team sponsor, after one horrendous incident, complained (bragged?) to me that he had a "$100,000 infield." His first baseman was $20,000 bail, his second baseman was $30,000 bail, etc. (It was partially what they did at the game, partially violations of probation.) That guy had to watch all his team's games from the parking lot, as he had been suspended from the league for 5 years for slugging the recreation director at a preseason meeting.

It is also rather remarkable how little many SP players know about the rules. In fact, just about every myth we discuss on these boards is firmly entrenched as fact in the minds of many of these guys. I've had 30-year veterans of high-level ball tell me that the pitcher "balked." Another player was amazed to learn that the umpires got paid. He thought we were all volunteers.

I think if I had to assign a game like the one in the clip, I'd rather have a former professional wrestler with a rudimentary knowledge of the rules than a clinic-trained expert. I am not kidding when I say that I was once working the bases when the home plate ump put a stop to the arguing by informing both teams that the next guy who said anything—would be ejected?, no—would have to fight him. I could hardly believe my ears. But they did shut up.

(Remember, when I refer to SP, I'm talking about what people call the "beer" leagues, not official tournaments under ASA or other controlling organizations.)