[greymule]

In answer to Buckeye12's question, I always have my cell phone around, but not out of concern for my safety. Recently, however, the head of our association told me to carry my cell phone to an evening of slow-pitch softball and call the police if there was any drinking going on.

In fact, I have very seldom felt threatened. Once, before I had a cell phone, an entire team was suddenly in my face when they lost in the bottom of the seventh of an otherwise uneventful slow-pitch game. A throw skipped through the catcher to the backstop, and the winning run scored standing up. Even though there was no contact, they were fuming that I hadn't called the runner out for not sliding. A couple of players did threaten me, and several were suspended by the league. Funny thing was that I had the same team the next year and was ready for trouble but they didn't even recognize me. I was happy the other team crushed them, though.

Oddly, in our county, the assignments considered least desirable in terms of safety are inner-city middle school girls' games. The schools don't have their own fields, so they play in various parks, often on fields that are quite isolated. It is not uncommon for young thugs, usually not associated with the school, to cause trouble. They try to watch the game from inside the backstop, then act outraged and surly when the ump tells them they can't stay there. Foul language under their breath, mumbled threats, things like that. Wouldn't happen at a varsity game, but these guys know where the pickings are easiest.

Almost all the trouble around here stems from slow-pitch softball. Combine young hotheads full of testosterone with a few beers before the game, and the results are predictable. The very worst incidents have been in slow-pitch tournaments where some team from another state gets pounded in their first game, starts drinking, and then plays their losers' bracket game on some field miles from nowhere. When they start getting pounded in that game, they know they're going home and have nothing to lose by becoming unruly. They also know that if they're banned from the tournament next year, they can always sneak back in under another name. Give me the main field and the top division every time.