Uechi-Ryu.com

Last night I participated in an Over 30 "A" divison league game. These teams have some of the leagues best and most experienced players.

In the bottom of the seventh, their team was down 2-1 with one out and a player on first base. The batter proceeded to lean his shoulder into an inside pitch to get onto first base.

I noticed this right away and began discussing it with some of the guys on the bench. The action was not dismissed by the players on the field although no mention of it was made by our players after the inning was over.

In the top of the eighth inning, with no out and a man on first base, our left fielder was hit by a pitch in the leg. He made no apparant attempt to get out of the way. The pitcher charged off the mound and screamed at the umpire that it was intentional and that the batter should not be awarded first base. This of course brought an onslaught of words between the batter and the pitcher. The pither accused the batter of not using the bat to get on base and of course the conversation centered on this at bat and th at bat concerning the previous hit batter the last inning. When the inning was over the runner who was hit by the pitch and the pitcher began to rant at each other. All kinds of names and swears were thrown at each other. The player from our team was surrounded by 4 OR 5 of the opposing teams players. I saw what was going on and ran out to the field to save our player from being thrown out or sucker punched. I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around and placed my body in between his and the other 5 guys. I didn't even say a thing to the any of the other teams players and began ushering our player away from the group. Of course he was still ranting and continuing his tirade about the previous incident and that the other guys didn't think that their feces smelled as bad as anybody elses.

Subsequently, a potentially explosive situation was quelled because the player that I was leading off the field was not allowed to continue to taunt the other teams players face to face where one of them could snap and lose it possibly resulting in a physical attack.

Think of how you would react if you were taunting someone with 4 of his buddies right there next to his side. Would you be able to stop one or all of them if they decided that they had heard enough of your trash talking?



------------------
Len

Len,

As you know, we have discussed these things before.

In these situations Emotional highjacking is King.

Pretty hard to keep one's cool in "trash talk" exchanges, in spite of training to the contrary via verbal Judo etc.

We are what we are, and the what that we are
will rear its ugly side no matter how much we try to keep it in check.

------------------
Van Canna

Len,

Nice move.

Removing your teammate from the verbal fracus was probably the best thing you could have done. Keeping your wits about you with all the shouting and posturing was quite a feat in itself, congratulations on diffusing the situation. Sounds like you were pretty quick on your feet.

An Emotional HijackER, can't do the deed with the victim not there. (not to mention there were 4 or 5) With the group/tribe potential, things could have gotten ugly.

Hey, wasn't there a thread on baseball bats a while back?

A question:
I know things were pretty hot out there, but did you happen to notice the reactions of others, other players, fans watching, or even the officials? Was there anyone else even looking like they might give you assistance?

Watch those knuckle balls.

nick

The first baseman for the other team was the closest to our player and he was "sticking his chest out" and trying to bump our player. The argument was between their pitcher and our player and when the inning was over their players converged around our player with the pitcher and the first baseman both standing inches apart from him.

I just stepped behind him and used my right arm to spin him to his left and placed myself in between him and the other two players. Once I was between them I pushed him toward our bench and away from the group. At this time our bench was converging and many of our players were now in between us. Our player never stopped mouthing off and was constantly shouting over his shoulder at the other team but he did not resist me as I pulled him toward our bench.

I new that I would not be hit as I stepped into the middle of the altercation. There was no reason for any of the other players to hit me. By turning my back to them I was conveying that I was not going to be a threat to them and they understood that by my actions.

Who knows what might have happened if I was not the first one on our team to get there.


The umpire behind the plate did not make any attempt to break it up and the base umpire was keeping his distance as well. These umpires do not want to get hit themselves and would much rather wait and see if something is going down. Usually they will just walk over to the bench and tell the managers that the game will be suspended or forfeited if the fighting is not stopped.

Earlier in the season a very good ballpayer on our team sucker punched a player on the other team and was ejected and suspended for 6 games. I did not want to see this happen again, that is why I interjected. The reason the guy on our team ran over to the other bench was that the other teams player was swearing and being a foul mouthed jerk as soon as he arrived on the field. Our player told him to keep his mouth shut because his 7 year old son was on our bench. The guy then began a tirade of insults at our player and was continuing to run his mouth off while he was putting his spikes on while on the bench. I was standing next to our player on our bench and I could see rage in his eyes and expression as he watched his son start to cry. He said "I have taken enough of his mouth, he is making my son cry." Then he turned and bolted for the other bench. I was in pursuit but could not catch him as he made it over to the other bench and hit the garbage mouth right in the side of the head. I pulled him out of the fracus but it was too late. The umpires threw him and the other guy out. The league rule for fighting is a six game suspension and that was what the two players received.

I was mostly trying to save our player from being coerced into fighting and having him ejected and suspended.

Who knows if he would have punched the other players, but I wasn't going to make the same mistake of not stepping in before a punch was thrown.

In the first incident, I could have stopped him from getting to the bench if I was quick enough to realize that he was going to go over there and punch him.

In the second incident, I ran over as soon as I saw the pitcher head of fthe mound in the direction of first base instead of to the dugout.

------------------
Len

Len,

Again, nice move.

From your description, the umps were doing the ‘hockey’ style of ref-ing, if they’re going to fight, let the boys have at it until one or both get tired. And it appears the players were into a major p!$$!ng contest. Neither action from the umps or players can lead to any good if let go.

Your decisive action, plus the turning of the back (excellent psychologically), and your player, possibly not really wanting to get physical, all led to peaceful results. (relatively speaking of course)

As I read your explanation of the event, I was reminded of my own observation skills. Is it something about martial arts that allows us to separate ourselves from the action and record this information accurately? It’s erie that the total time of this confrontation was probably less than twenty seconds, but you mentally recorded virtually all action on the field. (I do the same, then dream about it for the next few weeks {this goes with the fighting in your dreams thread}) Be interested in hearing what further conversations your teammates will have about this incident, and whether it matches what happened. I have noticed people under stress will come up with what “actually happened”, and they will in no way match each others stories.

Do you think the knowledge of others on the field about your involvement in martial arts was a factor at all in this?

Sorry to keep bugging you about this, but so very often an incident like this will happen and if not diffused IMMEDIATELY, can lead to ramifications we don’t even want to think about. Baseball bats, guns in car trunks, and nasty lawsuits, to name just a few.

You may not think much about ‘just reacting’ to the situation, but I see your actions as part of what our studies of martial arts is all about.

nick