Wow. I think that Rich did the right thing. It appears quite obvious that these bozos intentionally allowed him to be hit.
I posted my comments after reading the ones that were posted. Some of the comments made a lot of sense, and a lot were posted by homer-biased fans and wannabes.
Rich...why did you bring the balls back? I would have just kept going at that point and perhaps returned them at a later date. This sounds like one of those "fun" leagues where you have to make a mad dash to your car after the game, and then check underneath for car bombs.