[greymule]

One of our guys was named in a lawsuit.

He was one-man umpiring a co-ed league where the players all live in a large condominium development. I've filled in there, and it's low-level play. Women hit a smaller ball. Games are usually very high scoring, as few players can field the ball. No lights. Four-inning games of 29-23 are the norm. They have some limit to the number of runs or batters in an inning, and that often is what ends the inning. Throughout the league, there are a few former Little League heroes who think they are in the big leagues. (Many readers will probably feel that such a league is inherently unsafe.)

The fields are in the center of this sea of condos. The management mows the grass, but that's about all the maintenance that is done. Nobody ever lines the fields or does any raking, so you can imagine what the batter's boxes and infield look like. They throw down rubber squares for bases.

Here's what happened:

Runner on 2B, batter gets a base hit to the outfield. Runner rounds 3B and heads for home. However, when he is halfway home, he tries to reverse direction, and slips and falls on the grass, which was a little wet from an afternoon shower. Runner tears up his knee and is carted off to the hospital. (Don't know whether or not they tagged him out.)

Lawsuit claims that as the runner was approaching the plate, he remembered that the near corner of the plate was sticking up. (This is true. The budget-price plate had originally been hammered in flat to the ground, but the material had torn with use, and now one corner protruded and couldn't really be flattened.)

So the change of mind on the part of the runner resulted not from a belief that he would be put out at the plate, but from his remembering that the plate was unsafe. (Why the runner, with the faulty plate in mind, couldn't have planned to slide or something, I don't know.)

Many parties were named as being at least partly at fault, including the condo association, the league, and naturally, the umpire. Perhaps the company that manufactured the plate, too. If AT&T had a phone booth nearby, they might have to defend themselves as well.

This happened several years ago. It's still in the courts.

I remember that in another case, about 30 years ago, one local softball player sued another after being hit with a thrown bat. I don't know the details, or even whether the bat was thrown accidentally or in anger. But I do remember that the two were friends and continued to be friends throughout the lawsuit. I think the friend who threw the bat was not at financial risk, since somebody's insurance was going to cover the damages one way or the other.