Baseball Brawl

Holy Man.

Sooo, all four kids are in baseball, in a brand new league that is doing very well. I've coached in past years, but my schedule doesn't allow it this year so I'm on the sidelines. I hate fundraising so I didn't participate in the bottle drive or the bake sale (except to pay $20 for four cookies). SOoo, in an effort to contribute and play with my camera, I offered to take pictures of the kids as a fundraiser - take pictures, print them for $0.19 and sell them for $5. Easy, right?

The last several nights I've gone to the game and pulled kids aside one by one to take their individual picture. I'm very VERY careful to tell the coaches what I'm doing, let the kids know what I'm doing and to stay in plain sight of the parents so they can see there is nothing sinister about it. Sad that this is necessary, but it is.

Tonight I was at Jack's game with Rookie and Wen and my camera. I got some of the kids on Jack's team that I missed last week and started on the orange team. The coach (one of the dads) asked what the pictures were for, I tried to explain it was for the "Player of the Week" and website. He said I needed parent permission to post them. I said I wasn't posting, just taking the picture and handing it off to someone else. He reiterated the need for permission, then said I was not to take a picture of his son. Good enough. THEN he turned to the general public at the field and said very loudly "And I recommend the rest of you do NOT have pictures taken. She needs permission for what she's doing". At this point I said "Fine. Nevermind", stuffed my camera in it's bag and put it down less gently than I should have (though I would NEVER throw my camera!). He continued muttering and I reiterated that I wasn't posting them, only taking them. As he continued I said "I know the rules" and he said something about "good enough if you know the rules but I don't like your attitude and I'll embarrass you here in front of everyone if that's what you're looking for. I've worked with parents like you before... " blah blah blah... Parents like ME? I was one of those parents? YIKES. I managed a stare over the fence at him but was all out of comebacks. I was taking Rookie off the fence for a quick walk away from the situation - unfortunately another mom came over and said I could take other pictures. I tried to brush her off, say "another time" but too late, I started to cry DANGBLASTIT. She was surprized and said "are you alright?". I managed "I'm not good at confrontation" before I snuck away to the soccer field with Rookie.

Once composed, I returned to the field to watch the game, but had to seriously hold it together... I was doing alright until the coach went to the sidelines and the mom who had talked to me started yapping at him. He snapped back at her and then several coaches got on him. Nice for the support, but it was only furthur embarrassment at that point. I walked away again, crying like a loser, and sat with my back to the field with AnnaWen and another boy who were playing their own made up version of Monopoly. There was a lot of yakking behind me, the coach called his kid at one point to pack up and head out... of course that only set the other coaches yipping about setting an example about quitting when you dont' get your own way... By then I wasn't really listening - the coach stayed, apparently b/c his kid didn't want to go home. I played Monopoly for most of the rest of the time, then sat on the bleachers not looking at anyone. When the game was done, I hightailed it out of there.

Steve wasn't home so I called a friend to cry about it (cause, why not cry some more? idiot). I guess the head of the league called while I was on the phone b/c there was a message for me to call him. I just got off the phone. I guess a parent or two called him after the game to tell him what happened. He was p*ssed. He wanted my side before calling the coach, but ended up calling the coach before talking to me. I guess they have history, the coach has complained about how it's run since the start. The head says he has asked the coach not to return, which is too bad, really, b/c he was a good coach in terms of baseball. The coach's defense was "if someone's going to come after me, I'm going to defend myself". Hmm. Interesting.

While I'm terribly embarrassed by the whole thing, I'm glad the parents and the league head supported me through it - at least I know I wasn't misreading the situation or being WAY over sensitive... okay I was WAY over sensitive but not WAY WAY oversensitive.. sigh. Rediculous that the whole thing escalated to that... Maybe I should have just charged the mound?

N