Psycho Coach

Holy crap – you won’t believe this.

Sunday Jack had a baseball game and then a soccer game immediately following. We were in a neighboring town and the opposing coach was an asshole. I don’t think that’s subjective. He was yelling at his players, the umpire, Jack’s coach.

In the 2^nd inning Jack was on 3^rd base. The bases were loaded and the batter whacked a long shot into the outfield. Jack came around the score. The next kid came in as the ball was coming home. The catcher missed it and the ball rolled around. The catcher scrambled to get the ball and Jack was still in the area.

“He’s obstructing the catcher!” the coach yelled at the umpire, pointing in Jack’s face. “He should be out!”

The umpire (who was not the greatest) shrugged it off as the coach continued to yell. Eventually Jack jogged back to the dugout. He was close to crying and muttering that we was not in the way (which is debatable).

As the game went on, Jack’s team dominated. They were winning 17-7 as he went into the bottom of the 5^th and final inning. This was the other team’s last chance.

Well wouldn’t you know it, that other team went on an incredible tear. Hitter after hitter blasted the ball into the outfield. In a remarkable comeback they scored 11 runs to walk off with a win. Jack’s team was beaten.

At this point, Jack is at risk for being late to soccer. I grabbed his stuff and rushed him off. I got him in the car and my boy just fell apart. He’d just gone through a heart-breaker of a loss; it was too much for him.

“That umpire was so awful. And we just kept dropping the ball. And that coach!”

“He was pretty bad,” I responded.

“I wasn’t in the way on that play where he yelled at me. Then he mouthed something to me as I was walking away. I think he mouthed the f-word.”

“He wouldn’t do that, Jack. He was over the top, but he wouldn’t do that.”

Jack was upset, but he was ranting about everyone and everything. I calmed him down, told him it was part of the game, got him ready for his soccer game.

So…fast forward to the 5^th grade BBQ that evening. The mom of Jack’s friend came up to me.

“Mike, I heard about the craziness at your game. We were at the field right afterwards and saw the whole argument going on.”

“I didn’t see anything,” I told her. “I rushed Jack out of there as soon as the game was over. What happened?”

“One of your players said that they other coach used the f-word at him. A bunch of the other players heard it. Your coach was right in there and there was apparently a big argument.”

Woosh. Suddenly Jack’s story got a hell of a lot more credible.

Turns out there was all kinds of mayhem that we missed. I’m not sure what’s true and what’s part of a rapidly inflated rumor, but it appears:

• This coach went through the handshake line after the game and instead of “good game” said something to our players involving the f word. This is apparently confirmed by 3-4 kids.
• This coach had instructed his players to try and hit our catcher with the backswing of their bat in the last inning. That way the catcher would be called for interference and the batter is sent to first base. Twice in a row in the final inning our catcher was struck by a bat. One of the opposing batters apologized to our first baseman after getting on base and claimed he’d done it on his coach’s orders.
• This coach was barking at players on our team. This I know for a fact and he only stopped it when our coach went and got in his face.
• This coach tried to get our coach to fight him in the parking lot.

Unbelievable, right?

The entire league is involved at this point (as it should be). Incident reports have been filed. Hopefully this ass-monkey is removed from coaching. It’s Fall Ball, so this guy is not in our league. His league is in another town, so there’s only so much our league can do – but hopefully he gets the boot.