• Beer and youth baseball don’t mix Beer and youth baseball don’t mix By Duane Shimogawa Jr. – The Garden Island It was one of the best baseball games I’ve seen in awhile, but what transpired towards the end of
• Beer and youth baseball don’t mix
Beer and youth baseball don’t mix
By Duane Shimogawa Jr. – The Garden Island
It was one of the best baseball games I’ve seen in awhile, but what transpired towards the end of the contest, may have outshadowed what the two teams accomplished on the field.
In the hot sun at Kekaha Ball-park yesterday, tempers flared up between other coaches from teams not even playing and an umpire.
For the sake of the league, I won’t mention any names or teams for that matter that are associated with the shameful incident.
Instead, I’ll focus on what really suffered yesterday — the kids and if they thought about their actions and who it really hurt, then they probably would’ve never made an embarrassing scene.
I feel really sorry for the youth baseball players at yesterday’s mustang playoff game.
After all, it’s all about them and if coaches, umpires, fans, or parents interfere with that very fact, then they should be exited from the league.
But what’s really sad about the whole ordeal, may have been the use of alcohol by coaches watching from along the fence.
It was clear that some of the coaches were also cheering for one of the squads on the field and it obviously bothered the field umpire, who at one point, stopped the game and walked over to the third base line and called out the coaches who were watching the game.
While this was happening, I could only look at the kids’ faces, as they witnessed the argument happening from so-called grown adults. For that moment, they were put to the side and the blank look on their faces translated into confusion.
The youths come out to play baseball and for some it’s their passion. It’s their release from school and they just do it because they love the game they have fun doing it. To some, it will be the best times of their lives.
And to have adults spoil their moment, is quite selfish. There’s no room for this type of behavior, especially on the diamond in the middle of the game.
But the silliness didn’t stop at that point. As the game went down to the wire, one of the teams came up to bat in their last inning, with a chance to win the game and secure themselves a spot in the title game.
The winning run was at third and as the ball entered the field of play, he managed to slide into home plate for the victory, which sent their team all the way up to the top of the emotional ladder.
However, just about five minutes after the dust settled, the second scuffle popped up.
The umpire, who was heckled at throughout the contest, ran out towards the coaches, who were spectating from behind the fence and came at them like a bat out of hell.
The shouting match started up and coaches were holding the umpire from getting into a big mix up with the persons he thought was taunting him.
A parent of a youth baseball player mentioned that her child shouldn’t be near this type of environment. She said that this is exactly what she tries to not let her youth see and that it’s really shameful of adults acting like children at a place where it’s all about the youths. I totally agree with her and it’s time to put a stop to this, because if it doesn’t it will only hurt the people we love the most — our youths.
And if we only put them first before anything else, then these type of incidences would be an afterthought for any “sensible” adult. So let’s not confuse the kids with childlike behavior and keep the alcohol at home if attending these events. After all, the kids deserve to be around responsible adults, who don’t act like children!
