Mitch Williams lived up to his “Wild Thing” nickname Saturday at a Catholic Youth Organization basketball game in Medford, N.J.
The former Phillies hurler cursed at a female referee who was calling a basketball game in which his daughter, a fifth-grader, was playing for St. Mary of the Lakes against Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Williams, who now sells his own brand of salsa and who later this month starts hosting a Phillies pre-game show on The Big Talker 1210 AM, told us yesterday that he was sorry for using the f-word while yelling at the ref. “I’m emotional when it comes to my kids. What I saw happening was completely unfair,” Williams said, referring to his daughter’s team being fouled repeatedly with a lack of calls from the refs. Williams also appears regularly on the morning show on 610 WIP-AM, and is a Phils post-game analyst on Comcast SportsNet.
The apology isn’t doing much for Ron Martin, who oversees referees as the Camden Board 34 independent assigner. He said yesterday that he called St. Mary of the Lakes to say that although the season ended last night, if Williams “is going to appear at any games next year, we will not officiate them. If he enters the gym in the middle of a game, we will stop officiating.” Martin is executive editor of the Burlington County Times. “A lot of people challenge calls, but when someone hits on one of the magic words, we can’t tolerate that stuff,” he said. Martin said Williams’ outburst is “not indicative of St. Mary’s athletic program. There are some great people over there,” he said. The 33-year-old female referee declined comment yesterday.
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1. JPWF13but....
sometimes in these pee wee sports you do get mightily biased (not just incompetent) refereeing/umpiring
- what's a parent or little league coach/official to do when that actually happens?
I suppose they could use video tape to make their case in a calm rational manner
Bite their tongue and later, after the game, explain to their kids that sometimes life can be unfair and that it's how we react to such situations that defines our character.
But I'm just spitballin' here . . .
Lose the game and move on. It's 5th graders! Williams daughter is either good at sports in which case she is going to play hundreds of games in her life, and this one will only matter if it is remembered as the game Daddy made a jackass of himself, or she is bad at sports, and she doesn't care anyway. I imagine if this one ref is horrible all the time, Williams could go to his school offials and alert them to the problem, but he should go no further than that.
Society should've listened when Earl Weaver said Mitch was more dangerous than cancer.
- what's a parent or little league coach/official to do when that actually happens?
My coaches always used to point out that 1) life is sometimes unfair and 2) over the course of a season these things even out.
You cannot be serious.
That being said, many of the other guys we worked with would do everything they could to make the game as quick as possible. Since you get paid by the game, its in the umps best interest to make it quick. Those guys were really crappy umps and the parents and coaches and players knew it. I didnt feel bad for them when someone got on them.
Of course, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it... but a lot of these low level refs and umps arent just bad, they simply dont try. and that's a real travesty.
I must really be missing something because I can't see why this is wrong or crazy or ...anything but correct. Every athlete/team has bad calls that go for and against you, and in the end, it usually evens out. Unless, of course, there's a massive conspiracy amongst officials to sink one particular team.
And nice username, 12! What a hilarious mess.
I can hear Lennon saying, "Client 9, client 9, client 9"
I'm just glad Mitch Williams has a life that involves baseball. IIRC, wasn't he constantly getting threats after the Carter thing? Yeesh.
I think it is. At my sons' Little League games, the umps have total latitude to remove any parent who gives them grief. At one game last sumer, after a pitch that was called a ball, one father turned to another and said quietly, "Where was that one?" The ump heard him, called time, walked over and told the parent he'd have to leave if he heard one more word out of him.
And I'm fine with that. I don't want the kids to learn that it's fine and dandy to yell at an unmpire.
Ditto on the well-done for #11. I didn't pick it up either.
Well, it's official: I'm confused. First, I figured I must have somehow made a reference that you guys picked up on, but which was unintentional and clearly eluded me. Then I simply assumed there was some mocking going on. And, finally, I googled "Lennon- client 9," and now I'm back to being confused.
Probably should have just feigned comprehension. This happened to my sister recently; she was given a book/tote bag as a gift with a bunch of iron-on letters so she could personalize the bag. She had no idea what to put on the bag and so I recommended the phrase "I poke badgers with spoons." She thought it was clever and original, and I did not mention that it's a line from an Eddie Izzard performance. At college, a couple of guys who loved Eddie Izzard got a big kick out of her bag and kept talking about how funny it was. They, at one point, asked if she knew where the line came and she was apparently a pretty convincing liar {"Of course I do!"]. She was not too happy with me.
And so, in conclusion, ladies and jelly-spoons, I absolutely intended whatever reference I made and fully understand it....unless it was dumb and it that case I do not acknowledge writing because, uh, I was dead at the time.
The Client 9 reference is to the handle in #12. If you haven't seen the news in the last 24 hours, the Gov of NY, Elliot Spitzer, was named in a prostitution bust. He was "Client 9". The Beatles White Album has a sound collage "Number 9", in which John Lennon (I think it's him) repeats, "Number 9" in a haunting voice.
But you may have other hidden gems in your post that zoomed right past me. :)
Actually, Lennon found the "number nine" on an examination tape, and worked it into the piece. I have no idea who the actual voice of the announcer on the tape is, but it isn't one of the Beatles.
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