This article was just posted on Yahoo from the Associated Press:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ens_youth_game

MTD, Sr.

Hi ya Mark!
 

Clemens is a sports dick. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever construed him to be a good or a fair sport. Making lots of money for playing a game doesn't mean you're going to be a mature adult and act accordingly. As we all know the opposite is generally true.

Money tends to multiply one's character. If you're a bit of an ***, compound that with big money and the result is big ***.

I have yet to see any reason to put any stock in the actions or 'phsycotic' ravings of sports stars, or movie stars, or...

He spit sunflower seeds at the umpire! Good thing there wasn't a piece of a broken bat laying around. We all know how important those 10-year olds games are ... sarcasm.

http://www.craigdailypress.com/

This link has a photo that makes it appear he wasn't even coaching!

From the version of the story that I read, I think that the ejection was unwarranted (of course I wasn't there) and was done for publicity by the young umpire. The guy wasn't even coaching, and apparantly, a sunflower seed hit the cuff of the umpire's pants. The umpire then IDed Clemens by name and threw him out of the complex, and many of the participants and fans weren't even aware of what happened. I think before we jump to conclusions on Clemens and call him a bad guy, we should truly examine what happened here, coulda just been an overzealous young umpire anxious to have a story to tell.

Hanson said the umpire told him that although Clemens didn't say anything, the pitcher spit a sunflower that hit the ump's pants cuff.


"There was a pile of 250 to 300 sunflower seeds there, I don't know how the umpire knew that was the one," Hanson said.

What a stupid statement. If someone spits on you, you know it. You don't have to pick out a seed from the ground.

Who said he was coaching? The post said he was a spectator.

From what I have seen so far about this case, the Rocket did nothing to warrant this action, and he handled it well, he left the area, as directed. This looks like a no-story, only made into one because of the Rocket's celebrity.

[Edited by DG on Aug 3rd, 2004 at 08:54 AM]

I have to agree with DG. I think this is all about who he is, and not what he was at the time (a parent).

One thought I had was;

Does an umpire have the ability to toss an unruly parent. At least where I work, we do not. If we have a problem with a set of fans/parents, we go to that teams manager and tell him to get control or we suspend the game. If someone is becoming violent, cops are called to handle it.

When I coached, I expected the parents to control themselves, they knew it, and they behaved. Never had a problem with parent's behaviour. I did have one ejected once by an umpire, when he complained loudly about a call. No profanity, just a loud complaint. It was a young umpire and I told the booking umpire after the game what happened and that the young umpire had no right to do what he did. When I began umpiring I expected the coach to handle his parents, just like I did when I coached. And this usually works. If the parent uses profanity, or racial comments, or is violent in actions, then suspend the game until the parent can be removed by site management, or the cops, or he leaves of his own accord.

Well well well. Looks like it was not Clemens at all. The league came out and said it. Clemens said it. much ado about a whole lotta nothing. So much for Clemens being a sports dick.

How does that crow taste?

The director of the league/tournament issued a statement apologizing for the event. The 22 year old umpire was in error and mistakenly thought that Clemens was responsible for the sunflower seed flying over the fence towards his position at first.

So, he kicked the call (even the director admitted that all parties agreed that the call was wrong) and then tried to eject a spectator. We've had this discussion before folks, you CANNOT eject a fan. Have the coach/manager or site director handle those that can't control themselves.

Clemens may have an attitude, but he was not wrong here.
As a Cub fan, it pains me to say that.