Partner stands up, then looks down

[Mark Padgett]

Today was the final day of the season for our local rec league. During my third and (thank goodness) last game (8th grade boys), we had a parent who obviously had graduated from Imajerk University with a degree in not knowing the rules. In fact, I'd bet he has a doctorate in it.

Anyway, he was really obnoxious and finally I went to that team's coach and reminded him that in this league, coaches are totally responsible for the behavior of parents. He was pretty good about it and went over to tell the clown to knock it off. The guy "blew up". He started yelling at me and my partner. I went toward him and told him that if he didn't zip it right then, he was out of the gym. He kept it up. Then, it happened.....

My partner (who is my son-in-law) is 6' 7" tall and played DI ball. He's a pretty big guy. He calmly walked over to the guy, got right in front of him and looked down right into the guy's face and said, "Did you want to say something to me, little man?"

The guy went pale, closed his mouth, gathered up his stuff and walked directly out of the gym. After the game, we were walking out to our cars when we saw the jerk. He deliberately walked two aisles out of his way to avoid coming near us.

I knew there was a good reason my daughter married this guy.