Fanhouse.com

West Burlington, Iowa
June 13, 2009

WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa (June 13) - An umpire has emptied the stands at a high school baseball game, ejecting the entire crowd of more than 100 fans for being unruly.

Umpire Don Briggs said he had no problem with any of the student athletes during Thursday's game between Winfield-Mount Union and West Burlington. He said he had to take action because fans were being unruly, yelling and arguing.

However, West Burlington Superintendent James Sleister said he didn't see any unusual behavior and said he thought the umpire overreacted.

This story caught my attention because of the many unruly fans I have seen while attending little league games with Josh and Brian and soccer games with Brian.

I remember watching one of Brian's soccer games at the University of California at Irvine when a fan ran out onto the field and punched the ref in the face over a call he made. The police responded later and took a battery report.

I also remember a time when Josh was pretty new in little league and playing for the royals at Barranca park in Covina. A father in the stands was mad because the manager wasn't playing his son as he thought he should. Words were exchanged between the manager who was in the dugout and the father who was in the stands behind the dugout. At one point the manager challenged the father to "go out in the parking lot and handling it man to man". Both men actually started to move towards the parking lot before cooler heads intervened.

People are so fun to watch. And sometimes they're not!!