Fork and Beans

[fastpitchdad05]

What's it going to take for it to be a mountain?

Oh, I dunno...maybe an appreciable risk of injury, for starters. A bleeding brain? Surely you can't be serious. The ball hit him square in the face, and he didn't even flinch.

Ban the coach for life? Prosecute for assault and battery? Withdraw scholarships? Does anyone here actually believe that there was some sort of conspiracy to cause an injury?? Because without such an intent, the reactions posted in this thread, and the punishments suggested, are way overblown. The scorn the softball community is more than enough to correct this coach’s behavior. Anything beyond that is overkill.

Ladies and germs...I submit to you the one (and probably only) time you will see Master Skarp come anywhere near an admission to being wrong.

Yes, believe it or not, that is exactly what this is/was.

It's good to see you grow.

Anyone who has followed my posts on this board at all knows that I haven't the slightest problem with admitting when I'm wrong, or that I'm entirely human and subject to making mistakes just like anyone else. I offer my opinion and analysis, just like anyone else, to be accepted or rejected, agreed or argued with, just like anyone else's.

That said, what in the holy F are you talking about? Where, exactly, in that post, was there anything resembling a retraction or an admission of error?

Gotcha.

Damn. That was easy. You're slippin', dude!

I'm definitely an asshat magnet. You got me there...

Brilliant!

[Skarp]

I don't think physical harm was the intent.

Of course it wasn't. Nor was it an even remotely probable outcome. Which renders 90% of the posts on this topic ("Off with his head!") pretty much ridiculous...

[anonlooker]

DugoutDad & Hare,
No I don't condone what happened. But nor do I condone the sanctimonious pricks promulgating hysteria for their own smug self-satisfaction. Read MoeFoe's post, and AI's post - once the Law of Unintended Consequences kicks in, all bets are off, and nothing good can come of that. Nor do I think half a million hits on YouTube are good for the sport.

This won't be dealt with on YouTube, or Heybucket, it will be resolved between the parties involved. They have no obligation to air their laundry in public, nor should anyone (of sane mind) expect them to. So really, there's nothing to see here, (other than a few arbiters of supreme justice wiggling their little pitchforks for comic relief. But the Bucket has always been good for that!) Long live Heybucket

[Sam]

So if the intent of throwing a softball 60 mph at an individual's head was not to injure him.... then....pray tell.....what exactly do you morons think the intent actually was?

This was the coach telling the umpire, "I'll show you, motherf#^ker." He wanted to cause this umpire some pain. He had no idea that the ball would hit the umpire in the mask. It could have hit him in the throat or any other place on his body that was not fully protected. Serious damage wasn't done, but it certainly was very possible.

There isn't any room in the game for people that do this type of thing. They (players included) conspired to hurt another human being because they didn't like the way he was officiating a MEANINGLESS GAME!

I guess some idiots are OK with that.

[Blind Squirrel]

Helen

Hellen.jpg (30.23 KiB) Viewed 5336 times

Mama always said if you don't have something of value to say, make fun of Helen Keller.

(Helen's half-brother) Tommy Squirrel

[fastpitchdad05]

So if the intent of throwing a softball 60 mph at an individual's head was not to injure him.... then....pray tell.....what exactly do you morons think the intent actually was?

This was the coach telling the umpire, "I'll show you, motherf#^ker." He wanted to cause this umpire some pain. He had no idea that the ball would hit the umpire in the mask. It could have hit him in the throat or any other place on his body that was not fully protected. Serious damage wasn't done, but it certainly was very possible.

There isn't any room in the game for people that do this type of thing. They (players included) conspired to hurt another human being because they didn't like the way he was officiating a MEANINGLESS GAME!

I guess some idiots are OK with that.

What he said ^^^^

[Skarp]

So if the intent of throwing a softball 60 mph at an individual's head was not to injure him.... then....pray tell.....what exactly do you morons think the intent actually was?

This was the coach telling the umpire, "I'll show you, motherf#^ker." He wanted to cause this umpire some pain. He had no idea that the ball would hit the umpire in the mask. It could have hit him in the throat or any other place on his body that was not fully protected. Serious damage wasn't done, but it certainly was very possible.

There isn't any room in the game for people that do this type of thing. They (players included) conspired to hurt another human being because they didn't like the way he was officiating a MEANINGLESS GAME!

I guess some idiots are OK with that.

"Conspired to hurt another human being"? That's absurd. Umpires are geared up to protect themselves from balls deflected at every angle and thrown by the likes of Jenny Finch. If it is "certainly very possible" that a ball thrown straight down the pipe by a 16 or 17 year old girl will cause injury to the ump, then there's a much more important issue that we ought to be discussing.

They "conspired" to send a message. Nothing more. Was it acceptable? No. Should it be condoned? Absolutely not. But nor does it remotely justify the forming of a lynch mob. But then some idiots are okay with lynch mobs.

[fastpitchdad05]

So if the intent of throwing a softball 60 mph at an individual's head was not to injure him.... then....pray tell.....what exactly do you morons think the intent actually was?

This was the coach telling the umpire, "I'll show you, motherf#^ker." He wanted to cause this umpire some pain. He had no idea that the ball would hit the umpire in the mask. It could have hit him in the throat or any other place on his body that was not fully protected. Serious damage wasn't done, but it certainly was very possible.

There isn't any room in the game for people that do this type of thing. They (players included) conspired to hurt another human being because they didn't like the way he was officiating a MEANINGLESS GAME!

I guess some idiots are OK with that.

"Conspired to hurt another human being"? That's absurd. Umpires are geared up to protect themselves from balls deflected at every angle and thrown by the likes of Jenny Finch. If it is "certainly very possible" that a ball thrown straight down the pipe by a 16 or 17 year old girl will cause injury to the ump, then there's a much more important issue that we ought to be discussing.

They "conspired" to send a message. Nothing more. Was it acceptable? No. Should it be condoned? Absolutely not. But nor does it remotely justify the forming of a lynch mob. But then some idiots are okay with lynch mobs.

"The great and powerful Skarp has spoken!

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain..."

[jtat32]

How the hell can we have an intelligent discussion about this when we keep cycling back to the "idiots who are OK with this"?

If someone has expressed an opinion that they are OK with this, please use the quote function to identify where this was said. If you do so, be careful to consider the context of the statement you are quoting, because it is easy for others to subsequently use the quote function to show that you are an idiot with poor reading comprehension or analytical thinking skills.

Either way, we can move on from this particular point with the knowledge that:

- Yes, there are some idiots in this discussion who are OK with this.

or

- We are in 100% agreement with this, but differ in opinion on what the consequences should be. If this is the case, any further reference to those that are OK with this would be idiotic.

After we do this we can move on to more interesting discussions:

- What should be the consequences of this?

Personally, I'm not all that interested in this discussion. I have a general opinion on parameters, but this case doesn't affect me directly and my opinion won't affect anything.

- How do these things come about?
- What are the responsibilities of all of those involved (coaches, umpires, players, and parents) to make sure things like this don't happen in the future.
- What do we learn from this that we can individually apply to make the sport an even better experience?

These are the questions that I'm much more interested in discussing.

[Skarp]

These are the questions that I'm much more interested in discussing.

What, you mean useful, substantive discourse? When it's so much easier to simply label the opposition as stupid and evil? What antiquated backwater do you hail from, pray tell? You're clearly way behind the times...