Bench clearing brawls are not uncommon at baseball games. But the one that occurred at a baseball game in Colorado between two teams of seven-year old children did not involve the players but 15-20 adult spectators who got into an extended fight.
Why? Because the adults were upset with a call. Made by the 13-year old umpire. No, really.
According to police, one parent was upset with calls made by the game’s 13-year-old umpire. Things devolved quickly, and in a really depressing moment at around four seconds of the video, you can see the children in the field fleeing for safety.
Police said by the time they were called and showed up at the field, the brawl was still going on. “I think the saddest part in all of this is we’re talking about a 7-year-old baseball game,” police spokesman John Romero told KDVR. “I think it’s the parents who have to grow up.”
A woman’s voice can be heard on the video repeatedly and urgently appealing to Jesus to come and stop the fight, a somewhat forlorn hope since he does not intervene even when major tragedies are occurring, and it looks like he was as usual busy elsewhere and it was the police that had to take care of things.
in the video, I heard someone invoking the name of Jesus
Amen
Sports teaches kids fair play and competitive honor.
Allegedly.
Now if only it could teach the parents.
.
The Jesus lady was awfully demanding for someone seeking deliverance of God (which Christians constantly declaim they’re not worthy of). “Right now, Jesus! … Father, right now!” Hey, don’t put me on hold!
ridana,
Same thing; those parents once were children.
OK, so I thought that this kind of behaviour was a privilege of European football (not handegg, but what you Americans prefer to call soccer) parents. Clearly I was wrong.
Looks like a normal minor league hockey game to me. As some silly person put it, hockey game is another name for riot in Canada.
@ 5 mnb0
Handegg? Don’t you mean “throw ball”?
[Emo Phillips:] “Throw Handegg League? Or Throw Handegg Union? Die heretic!”
According to the Grauniad, Kids pay for parents’ brawl at Colorado baseball game involving 7-year-olds, “The Bear Creek Junior Sports Association said Wednesday that it has zero tolerance for such behavior and canceled the remaining games for both teams of 7-year-olds.”
They should have let the kids play the rest of the games and banned the parents.
Yet more evidence that a lot of youth participation in sports has nothing to do with the children and everything to do with the parents trying to live vicariously through them.
Given that I know some people from work here in the Toronto area that have been involved with Junior Hockey, and have heard stories from them… I only wish I could be the slightest bit surprised.
@7 & @8
Down here in the Antipodes, they are known as Cross Country Wrestling and Bum Sniffing. Neither of which should be confused with our indigenous game, Marn Grook.
/Language Lesson
chigau@10, That’s broadly what I was thinking, but ran into two difficulties (in no particular order): First, would it be fair to ban any parent who was not present? (Determining who was not present, and ensuring only those parents are attending, both seem difficult.)
Second, this seems like a teachable moment. The kids should understand why what happened was wrong and why their parents are banned, but their parents obviously have more time with the kids and are perhaps more likely to be believed — and it seems plausible some(? many? most?) of those parents aren’t going to be teaching the lesson which should be taught.
Nonetheless, I did concur cancelling the games seems a bit over-harsh. When things like this happen in some professional sports, the governing authority sometimes requires a rematch to be played in an empty stadium. I hesitate to suggest that for a kids game, as it does seem healthy and sensible for parents to be present — provided, of course, the parents are themselves sensible, clearly not the case here.
Gross parental misbehavior has been a common enough issue in children’s baseball as long as I can recall. I declined to sign Eldest up after her first season past T-ball for this very reason of parent aggression, lack of self control, and hands off attitude on the part of the program directors, coaches, and refs.
Our kid’s soccer league has strict rules regarding comportment of its parental units on the sidelines. We have to sign an agreement to conduct ourselves according to club standards of being a positive example, including things like not coaching our children from the sidelines and not engaging in a back and forth with the other team’s parents. Coaches are not above marching right over to tell parents to pull their shit together (although primary responsibility for that goes to team manager, who is a parent), and someone who violates conduct policy will first be asked to leave the field for the duration of the day’s game or practice, second offense they are restricted to watching from the parking lot for the remainder of the season, third offense they’re banned from practices and games, possibly for life, depending upon severity.
Other clubs don’t always have behavioral requirements. You can tell just by the stress levels of the players and how often they look to the sidelines rather than focusing on the coach, their teammates, and the game, even if the parents happen to be more or less behaving themselves that day.