by Turn&burn » Mon Jun 14, 2010 12:38 pm
I just heard this story from umpire about shaved bats. Doesn't answer your question, but figured to pass it on.
This last weekend I spoke to an umpire who told me about an incident involving a comeback pitch in men’s slow pitch game. He claimed last year he was umpiring a men’s slow pitch game where a batter hit a come backer striking the pitcher in the face. The pitcher was severally injured requiring emergency response and transport to hospital. Right after the incident the manager of the pitcher and umpire saw the batter immediately return to the home plate to retrieve the bat instead of showing any concern for the pitcher and started heading for the dugout. The umpire quickly reacted to stop the batter keeping the bat in view and it from leaving the field. Despite protest from the hitting team’s manager and batter, the umpire was able to confiscate the bat. At this time players and manager from the injured player’s team started getting a little heated up accusing the batter of using an illegal altered bat. Interesting enough, some of the players on batters team wasn’t anxious to go to his defense and tried to stay out of it. It wasn’t long before the police arrived and took controlled of the situation with the batter nervously still present. Based on the reaction of the batter and his protest of the bat being confiscated, there was a strong opinion by most that the bat had been illegally altered. The umpire I spoke with claimed that he had the right to inspect and confiscate any bats he felt unsafe or illegally used in ASA sanction games. The police officers present seemed to know something about softball and asked the umpire to remove the end cap for inspection. The umpire didn’t feel comfortable with it and suggest the bat be sent in for inspection. One of the officers not happy with the response decided to remove the cap him self and inspected the bat. Sure enough the bat had been shaved. The batter was immediately arrested on assault with deadly weapon. Later the district attorney’s office contacted the umpire for his potential statement in their pursuit of bringing charges against the batter. Surprising enough he never heard back from the DA again.
This year the umpire ended up calling a game for the team that had the injured pitcher. He inquired to the team manager about the player and the out come of the incident. The batter decided to plea bargain due to his inability to overcome the bat evidence and multiple witnesses. Sentencing was pending, but probation was expected. The batter is expecting to lose his job since the company he works for doesn’t allow their employees to have any kind of criminal convictions (company softball team). The pitcher had several reconstructive surgery and metal plate installed to reconstruct his forehead. The doctors claimed he’s lucky not to have suffered any kind of brain damage. The pitcher no longer plays softball for his vision was damaged due to the fracturing of his eye socket. Now that the pitcher has somewhat recovered, he’s obtained an attorney and is now pursuing a civil case against the batter and his team manager. The umpire is expecting to be contacted by the plaintiff attorney to testify on the pitchers behalf, however he is concern about be sued him self for not identifying the bat as being altered and pulling it from the game.