CYEATHAWK, we did have some good times in the 80s playing fast pitch. George Davis was part of the problem. All he cared about was his beer sales and generally that is not a good combination. Beer + testosterone = bad judgement! Competitive juices flow during those games due to it isn’t easy to hit the really good pitchers. There was an ump that sometimes came drunk and did a terrible job. One night in a city championship game he missed pitches that were strikes and our pitcher was getting quite upset. Bases were loaded and our pitcher and catcher have a conference. The very next pitch was a rise ball and our catcher stays down like it’s a drop ball. The pitch hits the umpire straight in the mask and he takes two steps backwards and falls on his butt. He wasn’t hurt but I don’t believe he umped another one of our games drunk again.
Hey mac....ditto on the fun, competitive juices and good pitchers. Little known fact.....George was a pitcher. Or tried. My first year playing was on a rec. league team. Just a bunch of young baseball players who passed the hat on starting a fast pitch team. Well, my first experience with George was when we entered the big memorial day tourney down at Hawthorne park....you know the one where the old south field had a left field porch about 140 feet. And our first game was against a commercial(sponsored)team. Well, we were all excited and terrified until we saw George on the mound. Needless to say it became a track meet and we ended up 10 running them. Going through the obligatory handshake line as we were laughing and smiling George in no uncertain terms made sure to let us all know we accomplished nothing because they suck. That was my first exposure to George. The rest is history and we could talk for days on end about him. Anyway, back to topic.......fastpitch by nature is much more competitive and intense....but I only heard of one incident like with an ump being assaulted. Have you seen or heard of things like this?