NewsUmpire throws out crowd at HS game
Tossed all fans in attendance following controversial callBy Ed Eagle / MLB.com
06/14/09 7:18 AM ET
High school umpire Don Briggs took his power of ejection to a heretofore unheard of level Thursday.Tossing out a player? Too mundane. Giving the heave-ho to the manager? Boring. Throwing the entire crowd out of the game? Now we're talking.
Briggs, who said he's been umpiring high school games in Iowa for nearly 10 years, threw out every last one of the approximately 100 fans in attendance for a game between West Burlington and Winfield-Mount Union high schools following a controversial call in the fifth inning.
"I know it sounds like I'm the bad guy -- but it was the crowd," Briggs told the Des Moines Register. "If I got the control to ask one person to leave, I feel like I can ask them all to leave."
The incident began when Winfield-Mount Union coach Scott McCarty came out to argue whether a ball that had been hit was foul or fair. While the debate was going on, West Burlington coach Jeff Housel tried to score his runner from third base, claiming no timeout had been called.
When Briggs sent the runner back to third, he said the home West Burlington crowd became unruly. There were no school administrators at the game at the time, and McCarty declined to remove any of the offending fans, so Briggs took it upon himself to clear the park. He even borrowed a cell phone to call local police to help with the ejections.
"In one area, most of the people were really being mouthy -- not all of them, but most of them," Briggs said. "And they don't say nothing when you look at them. They waited until you turned your back.
"I can get it to the point where we can play it safely with the kids. There was a lot of people yelling and arguing, so I made the decision. The kids were great, so I didn't have any problems with the kids."
West Burlington superintendent James Sleister arrived at the scene and, after a delay of 40 minutes, convinced Briggs to continue the game. Fans were allowed to return under the premise that "anyone making a negative comment toward the officials would be ejected from the premises and could be charged with disorderly conduct," according to the Burlington Hawk Eye newspaper.
"I talked to people from both school districts and both coaches, and they didn't seem to believe that the crowd was anything out of the normal," Sleister told the Register. "They questioned some calls, but they said nobody was yelling loudly or yelling profane. I think it was an overreaction."
Both coaches also believed that the umpire's decision to clear the crowd was a bit over the top.
"I've heard a lot worse during a game, I guess I'll say that," McCarty said. "But it turned into a playoff atmosphere after that [delay]. People were cheering, making plays. [West Burlington] had a great diving stop. It turned into a heckuva game."
West Burlington, perhaps inspired by their revitalized crowd, rallied from an eight-run deficit to beat Winfield-Mount Union, 12-11, with the winning run coming on a steal of home in the seventh inning.
"Like I told the other coach after the game," Housel said, "this is one you'll never forget."
Ed Eagle is a reporter and editor for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
