This past weekend (3/21-3/22) my older daughter pick up in the 14u Seguin bomber tournament in seguin tx at Hubber fields. Before I tell you our story the tournament did an awesome job putting on a first class tournament..
******************************************************************************************************************My complaint is against a 14u team parent that has a bad reputation from stealing from other players
bags..As we found out the hard way.. We had games on Sunday for bracket play they had won there game and game off before they played again. So all the players piled up there bags on the first side base line on the outside of the fence where a game was suppose to start playing.. My daughter came out to the car I asked her where backpack softball bag was she said the team piled them up by the fence and she made sure her was on the bottom of pile no one could see her stuff. So we left for 40 minutes when she returned to get her bag her bat was missing from her gear. She called me I was in the parking lot she thought maybe one of her teammates took it out to the warm up area. When she got over there she asked her players on the team if they had seen it.. They said it was not there when they got there gear.. So I immediately went to the director to see if someone turn it in by accidently grabbing the wrong bat out of someone bag.. Wishful thinking..No bat in lost in found. Next we looked in dugouts to see if someone was playing with it no bat was found..As this was going one of the parents called me to tell me we had a flat tire. So I was walking out to the front parking lot complaining to my husband how could someone steal a bat from a kid.. ( now remember she did not lose it nor misplace her bat it was taken from her bag with her team bag piled up. Like we all do at tournaments) When I got off the phone a lady approached me saying I heard your conversation, I was not trying to ease drop but we had a problem last year with a team who is playing in this tournament who stole from us last year. They are called Texas Tornado from San Antonio I told her never heard of them. We are not from here and we have not played them yet.. She said if you are missing something I would check them first.. I told her thanks then called my husband who was by the field. I asked who was playing on the first base side he said Texas Tornados . I then proceeded to tell him the story the stranger just told me .. He went to our head coach who went to tell the Texas Tornado coach he want to see if we could look into their team bags to see if someone accidently grabbed it..One of our player grabbed her orange synergy -9 drop and asked if any one on there team had that bat like the one we where missing. He said no one his team had that bat. The Texas Tornado BLUE game now over and was being sent home for the weekend. Same player that asked coach about bat saw a parent(dad) go into the dugout reach into a players bag and sneak out with a bat he proceeded to walk to the back parking lot. She chased him down as she ran pass my husband and begin to confront the man about to get into his white pickup truck.. He turn way from her trying to hide the look of the bat, she explain to him you have the wrong bat he said no he did not. She demanded to look at it since she new it had been mark by my daughter (My daughter and her teammate had been mixing there bats up all weekend).. Finally she told the guy that your coach has already said your team doesn’t have this bat she finally saw the bat and said that is not your it belongs to a player on our team she grabbed it and ran it back to us. She told me what happen as she ran back to her game that was about to start..I was grateful to get back the brand new bat $200 synergy but I was very pissed off that a grown up stole from my daughter, at a select tournament that hard working parents pay lot of money to travel and watch there kids play and you have parents on a team think it is ok to steal from other people.. Now remember I found out from a complete stranger about the reputation of Texas Tornado BLUE and look where we found the bat with a parent who is on Texas Tornado BLUE.. If I would have got to him first I would have called the cops and press charges but I didn’t know what he looked like just the color of truck..The player went to play her game so I could not get a description of him. I was still pretty TICK OFF, so I waited for the head coach of Texas Tornado BLUE to stop talking to his players. I then told him what one of his parents did he tried to shake it off they someone else gave the other coach the bat and he was bring it back.. I told him no that was not the case he was caught red handed with it in his hand going to his truck..I also told him that I would be posting this on VTD to warn everyone .. I also went and told the director what happened ...I am sending this warning out to all players, parents and TOURNAMENT DIRCETOR if you play in a tournament and Texas Tornado BLUE from San Antonio the played in the seguin tx 3/21. Don’t leave your team or kids gear out it will be stolen or will walk off and you can guess who has it.. I never listen to the softball gossip nor do I pass it around but I am glad I did this one time listen to a stranger.. I would like to say thank you to the stranger in the parking lot who told me about her experience with Texas Tornado that did to her with out your info we would have been out $200 and replacing a new bat that was 10 days old..It was a good thing it was marked. Also would like to thank that special softball player (who I will not name but you know who you are thank you again) that went after the thief of dad who stole a bat from my kid..
My daughter has learn a very hard lesson even grown up parents still and they don't care who they still from..She said I would expect a kid to still but never a parent..She now knows it is not even safe to leave her bag down for a second even at select ball. She is use to her home fields in Dallas/ Ft Worth people don't steal from one another. If anything you loose something you have a chance getting it back if you post immediately. But stealing on purpose is a new one on us..
Thanks for reading my post I am putting this out there so no other kids or parents have to go through what my daughter had to experience but I am sure you will. But at least knowledge is power. If anyone else has problems with this team post it to this post I will be posting it to all Texas area post. It is a shame that select ball is a small family from all areas and you travel to different areas to come across people like this..
Liz Starkey
mom of daughter who bat was stolen
