Southeast Regional

rare occurance

I have seen a lot of baseball and a lot of games on TV and thousands of SportCenters and I have never seen a player throw a ball at another player (pitcher/hitter aside) for the purpose of hurting them or retaliation or anger....never seen it. Couple of thoughts:

• Hitting the other player in the back was cowardly...confrontations that aren't face to face are not on equal footing
• The Cherryville player could have been hurt seriously if the ball had struck his neck below the helmet
• The Code of Conduct is pretty much meaningless as it is not enforced regularly and consistently
• The Cherryville team may have "manned up" for the moment, but they threw away a chance they can never get back and they will never know what their ceiling of achievement could have been. That will haunt them long after everyone has forgotten about their bravado.....American Legion World Series Champions 2011, that could have resonated for a lifetime. "I kicked his ass, didn't I" isn't worth much over time.

Just my opinion, but it just seems like such a waste for all involved.

 

American Legion is the only institution that I know of that makes the players and coaches get on the foul lines and recite a Code of Sportmanship that none of them abide by....the fact that sportmanship is on the decline all over is irrelavant to American Legion because they chose to set a standard that they don't abide by.

Now, since we can all probably agree that sportmanship, specifically in Legion is a problem...how does the forum propose we fix it? As an umpire I feel the umpires have been neutered to deal with it properly...I believe it is something that the individual states and the national program have to be committed to fixing. The NCAA made it a point of emphasis to take care of bench jockeying and poor sportsmanship and it has improved.

 

I was in attendance and saw the whole thing and can still play it in my head in slow motion. With that being said I agree with Braves. What you can't see on the video is after the catcher throws the ball at #15, he immediately turns and hits #35 with his catchers mitt and his fist. He then threw another punch and the fight was on with the catcher and #35, the pitcher and third baseman for Georgia both jumped in on the fight. So for a slight second it was 3 on 1. When the Cherryville boys arrived they took no prisoners. In my opinion there was no way to keep this from happening. I watched Cherryville play in the State and Regional tounaments and #15 is a very emotional and intense individual. With that being I said I saw him score multiple times in those 2 tournaments and celebrate just like he did against Georgia. I may be wrong but I was very close to the field, I thought he yelled back to Trey Drewery "let's go baby"! Hate it happened...Cherryville had their number 1 and 2 ready to go in the next 2 games. Just wanted to say what I actually saw...the video misses a large portion of the fight as it is out of the screen.

 

There are a number of teams in NC that have a well deserved reputation of poor sportsmanship, Huntersville, Cherryville, Taylorsville and to some extent Caldwell (probably residual influence of past coaching, they were somewhat better this year). The coaches are not held accountable for the actions of their teams and allow this type of behavior to occur.
This type of behavior will continue and continue to escalate until prohibitive action is taken. It is the responsibility of the Area and State Commissioners to take corrective action thru official channels. However parents can take action by not allowing their kids to play on such teams. I have always supported legion baseball but if my son had to play on one of the above named teams I would seek his release and have him play somewhere else and if that failed we would move to showcase baseball.
Thankfully we played for a quality coach who would not tolerate poor sportsmanship and disrespect of the game.
It did not suprise me that there was a brawl involing Cherryville, it was somewhat expected.

 

I think you are headed in the right direction T DAWG

 

I appreciate all the "professional" dialogue about this truly unfortunate event. But I think some of you are missing the point when you are trying to single out Cherryville, simply because this happened to them. Because what if it happened to YOU?

Of course this was very unfortunate for both teams involved, but how can one criticize the AL code of sportsmanship? At least Legion baseball is trying. The code is not a promise, but simply something that AL asks players to say before each game. The code is an attempt at good sportsmanship, obviously sometimes its doesn't work, but I can't see why on earth anyone would complain about AL baseball because of this code? There are thugs and/or folks break the speed limit every day, at least AL baseball is trying with the code, honestly it wouldn't hurt if HS baseball made players recite some code too. How can it hurt?

Back to this specific incident, again its only unfortunate. As others have stated, these kids will remember this the rest of their lives,,, "what might have been?" For that reason alone, those young men have got to learn how to deal with things better, whether it be road rage, or getting turned down for a job, or disrespected by someone at the grocery store,,, you just can't go around slugging people. I think IN MY HONEST OPINION, at my age, I would've remember how to behave, I would've remembered to win on the scoreboard not in the fight, I would've even remembered the code, and all the fans who traveled to SC to watch me, I would've remembered all of that and kept my cool. I really believe that,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, that is, until some SOB hit me or a teammate in the back with a baseball, then (to be honest) I believe all hell wouldve' broke loose with me too.

Moral of story,,, don't ever judge someone else because you haven't walked in their shoes. Its a sad ending to a fine season, for both teams.

 

I agree tj. I coached this summer on the State Championship level and SE Regional Championship level. We were "targets" of poor sportsmanship on both stages. I made sure our guys stayed out of any trouble. We didn't retaliate or stir the pot, we let our play do our talking. Being on those stages, Tournament Officials are looking for anyway possible to get rid of you. I made sure our guys didn't do anything stupid. Did our guys want to talk trash, hit people on purpose, go in hard at 2nd base, etc? You better believe it because there were a couple of opponents doing that to us and begging for us to retaliate. Not on that stage, sorry. Very unfortunate for BDR's bunch. I know those guys regret it but I also applaud the teammates for sticking up for their "attacked" teammate. You just have to know how to handle yourself on that stage. Tough to do with you're 17-18 with adrenaline steaming from your uniform, but still... Gotta try to hold back.

 

No one is criticizing the AL code...I think it's fantastic. However, after the first pitch is thrown no one abides by it. My problem isn't with the code, my problem is with the high standard of the code going by the wayside. I'm looking for ways to improve the sportmanship in AL and I agree with T Dawg, when the state and national leadership get serious about improving it than maybe something will be done. It may take what happened in the Cherryville/GA game to move that effort forward. It's a problem and until people get serious about it what you saw in the Cherryville/GA game will be just the start. People have put a band aid on on the sportsmanship problem for a long time but the organizations that have gotten serious about it have found ways to improve it. Right now in AL there is a little consequence for bad behavior. I'm not sure what the suspension schedule is for EJ's and fighting but needs to be looked at again. I realize what happened down in Sumter was unique situation but the potential for that to happen more often is there if something isn't addressed. Sportsmanship is a sore subject for me because players and coaches that demonstrate that behavior end up promoting it whether they think they do or not.

 

Completely understand your point Anonemous, but you criticize AL because some don't abide by the code, and my point is at least AL has the code.

For example, HS baseball has no such code, and I've seen terrible behavior at HS baseball games every spring. Bottomline, you can have all the codes in the world, and someone is still going to break it, at least AL has a code.

As for sportsmanship in general, I agree that needs to be cleaned up, but that is everywhere. I think this is the only area that you/I seem to disagree, because you are coming across that poor sportsmanship is only a legion baseball problem, and that is incorrect.

 

Come on now, no one abides by it??? Really??? Sounds way overly dramatic and I know it is untrue. Let the black eye fall in the appropriate place. There are teams that you play that are always a problem and where does that problem start?? Always with the head coach allowing it. Rare instances can occur with any team in the heat of the moment, human nature. The repeat offenders or lets say regulars with problems starts at the top. I'm a head coach for a legion program and that's how I see it. If my guys act a fool, well it's on me.