Parents showed bad behavior




This past week, as the father of a son participating in the Camarillo Pinto A PONY Baseball playoffs, I witnessed one assistant coach screaming cuss words as she ran down the baseline toward the umpire when a call did not go her way.

In a second game, I witnessed another assistant coach, or parent, I don’t know which, storm onto the field yelling obscenities and insults at the opposing team’s manager, challenging him to a fistfight in front of our boys. All the manager had done was exercise his right to question (without cussing or yelling) an umpire’s decision that time had run out to begin an additional inning.

Doesn’t the Camarillo PONY Baseball Association have us all sign a pledge at the beginning of the season on which we give our word not to behave shamefully?

Was the way those adults acted really the example we want to set for those 7- and 8-year-old boys?

That it is certainly not the example I want them to be setting in front of my son.

When we think back on it, does such behavior make us feel proud?

Is there any way that we can choose to act differently the next time a call doesn’t go our way or when a call does but the opposing manager has a valid point in questioning it politely?

I know things can get heated, but please, for the sake of our boys, next time try to handle these situations with more maturity and class.

Robert Blair
Camarillo