[greymule]

I just talked to the umpire. He says that before the second (7:45) game of the evening, the players saw the kid beating the girl, separated the pair, and held the kid for the cops. However, the girl would not provide any information, so the cops said they could do nothing and let the kid go. The players insisted that there were many witnesses to the attack, but that didn't seem to matter.

The key is now that the kid went home and lied to his family that a bunch of guys had, out of the blue, jumped him as he walked innocently by the field (this is the version the kid's grandmother [not the mother] told the ump). So the family rounded up some guys and returned to the park. The group jumped over the outfield fence and began the attack, and both teams in fact did grab bats and entered what was apparently quite a melee. When the attackers learned that the police were on the way, they departed quickly.

So the police arrived to find players only, and one player was in fact bleeding heavily, but the ump isn't sure whether a knife was used. Incredibly, at least according to the ump, the police said that since they didn't see the attack, there was nothing they could do. The players had the option of pressing charges and letting the courts sort everything out. The fact that a hundred people saw the attack is apparently irrelevant.

The police also advised the players that they should not have interfered with the beating, since "a lot of these kids pack heat, and you could have gotten yourselves shot."

He says that while the police were questioning players, the punk rode by in a car, watching the scene. At this point, some players are pressing charges, and the attackers are also pressing charges against several players.

The ump—a long-time veteran who lives walking distance from the park—terminated the game.

There are three games at the park tonight, and we're short umpires. Any volunteers?