Your Outta Here! Ump Tosses Crowd
Written by Nolan Thomas, Monday June 22 2009
An umpire has emptied the stands at a high school baseball game, ejecting the entire crowd of more than 100 fans for being unruly.
During a high school baseball game in Iowa between West Burlington High School and Winfield Mount-Union High School, umpire Don Briggs had heard enough and tossed out the entire crowd and would not let the game resume until everything had been settled.
The incident could have been a
It all started when the coach of Winfield Mount-Union rushed out of the dugout to complain about a call from a close play at the plate. The runner was called safe at the plate and the coach considered him to be out. He ran out onto the field in order to tell the umpire just how he felt about the call.
Seeing that the players were preoccupied with the current argument going on, the third base coach for
Due to the on the field calls, and arguments from the coaches of both high school teams, it resulted in the fans becoming angry with what was happening. Once the crowd got into the action, the upset and angry umpire decided to make a stand. Rather than continue to deal with what was transpiring, the umpire decided to just eject the entire crowd from the game all at once.
According to umpire Don Briggs, the fans were becoming unruly, were yelling and arguing with him, and at that point, he felt that extreme action needed to be taken. It was at that point, that umpire Briggs gave warnings to both of the coaches, as well as the fans in the stands and that they all needed to settle down.
A boisterous fan in the crowd then yelled out at the umpire, and that was enough to push Briggs over the edge, who then gave the crowd the heave ho, and told them to leave. He also called the police. At the same time, the school superintendent was contacted and told of the situation.
The umpire called the police as a precaution.
In addition, West Burlington School Superintendent James Sleister said he did not see any unusual behavior and said he thought the umpire overreacted.
Umpire Don Briggs said he had no problems with any of the student athletes, but the crowd’s unruliness required him to take action.
Iowa High School Athletic Association officials said the umpire’s action may be a first.
In the end, after a substantial 40-minute delay and numerous discussions, the crowd was allowed to stay if they refrained from making any more negative comments towards the umpire. The police were kept on hand to escort the crowd out if any inappropriate behavior continued to occur.
(Source AP News)
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