As reported in the Chicago Tribune today...
Dad gets 5 days in jail for softball tirade
A Hanover Park man who threatened a youth softball umpire and spit on a deputy sheriff was sentenced today to 5 days in jail and ordered to take anger-management classes.
Michael Beck, 47, of the 1600 block of Arlington Drive in Hanover Park pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of battery and assault and was sentenced by DuPage County Judge Peter Dockery to 5 days in the jail's work-release program. He also was put on 2 years' probation, ordered to perform 40 hours of public service and write letters of apology to the umpire and sheriff's deputy.
Beck was attending his daughter's softball game July 13 at Sunset Park near Downers Grove when he "became angry with the calls and responded with gestures and obscenities," Assistant State's Atty. Louisa Nuckolls said.
After threatening the umpire with physical harm, someone at the game called police. When the deputy arrived and Beck refused to cooperate, he was arrested, Nuckolls said. "He cocked his head and spit saliva and sunflower seeds on the deputy, and when he was told to stop, he did it a second time."
Beck had been charged with felony aggravated battery and faced up to 7 years in prison but accepted a plea agreement with a lesser sentence and apologized to Dockery.
This story reminds me of one of my first jobs in Roselle as a little league baseball umpire. I would get paid $75 a game to umpire 7 innings of 1st-5th grade baseball. It was a hard job, but the pay was worth it. I had to go to training in the winter at a high school to learn all the rules and after doing it for one summer, I felt like I was pretty good at it and because I love baseball, I enjoyed doing it.
I will always remember one particular game where I was threatened by a players father. It was at Parkside Park, in the middle of a Saturday afternoon. Keep in mind I was 13-14 years old a wearing shorts, ball cap, t-shirt, knee pads, face mask and a big black padded shield. A player hit the ball and ran to first base. He was clearly safe at first base but he turned the wrong way and the first baseman noticed this and went and tagged him and I called him out. (if you turn left to go back to the bag and the first baseman tags you , you are out. It's a basic rule)
One fan started to get very angry and it was the father of the kid I just called out. He swore, turned red in the face and approached me in a very angry manner. I told both coaches the reason why he was out, warned the father if he kept up the angry comments he would be ejected from the field and started the game back up.
The father wouldn't let it go and finally I stopped the game and said he was ejected. I wouldn't allow the game to go on unless he left the park. I believe her was drinking beer out of the mug he was drinking out of, but I didn't know for sure what he was drinking beer. If you throw someone out of a ball game you have to tell the head of the umpires and I told him my version f the events.
A week later I received a letter from the wife of the man who was ejected from the game saying that if I lie about her husband and talk any more about the situation, she would take me to court and sue me for slander. She said her husband was drinking diet soda, not an alcoholic beverage. Blah, blah, blah. I was a young kid umpiring a lids baseball game and I was possibly going to be sued...for what, my baseball card collection?
What a crazy situation to be in at such a young age. I think it made me stronger and realize there are crazies everywhere in this world!
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