WEST BEND – A situation came to light in Iowa recently where an umpire at  high school baseball game in Iowa ejected 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 the game between Winfield-Mount Union and West Burlington.

But Briggs said the fans were “unruly, yelling and arguing.”

The game was delayed 40-minutes, Briggs called police as a precaution, and when play resumed West Burlington won 12-11.

Police said there were no arrests. An officer said he “saw no unruliness” and the superintendent from one of the schools said he “didn’t see any unusual behavior” and felt the umpire “overreacted.”

Preps On The Net posed the situation to Wisconsin coaches and umpires.

LOCAL REACTION…

“The umpire has the authority to ask anyone and all to leave the confines of the game if it is in the best interest of the teams and the game itself,” said Plymouth baseball coach Butch Cain noting it’s difficult to comment when “you don't know the specifics of what lead to his or her action.”

“Fans have become more difficult at many activities, as we have seen the number of fans able to attend games or no fans allowed in some areas.

This is an interesting topic because of the stress that some of our fans carry with them because of our current economic times. Some built up energy and frustration may come to a head at a sporting event,” said Cain.

Bruce High School coach Larry Villard said it was tough to make a fair judgment without knowing more of the game situation. 

“I can't imagine over 100 people being that bad to eject them all,” said Villard. “Fans are most often ejected from contests for using obscene language toward a coach, official or player, not for just disputing calls unless it gets very personal.”

“Officials have control of the game and I guess I would have thought if it was getting that bad that it was disrupting the game, that the umpire would or should have brought both coaches together and had them tell the crowd to cool it or the game would be ended,” Villard said.

 “When good officials do their job they are hardly ever noticed! I have umpired many baseball games and coached many more and have never seen or heard of anything even getting close to something like this.”

Joe Waite, the media relations director of the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association and assistant baseball coach at Cumberland High School felt, “clearly the ump overreacted.”

“I feel bad for some kid’s grandmother that got run out of the game.  On the other hand, I understand his frustration.  It's too bad the school officials couldn't have just told the unruly people to settle down or leave,” said Waite.

“For many years my grandfather ran the West Bend softball recreation leagues. He did the scheduling as well as coordinating of the umpires for all the leagues,” said Kewaskum High School baseball coach Doug Gonring.

“He would have meetings in his basement with the umpires and at times I would happen to attend. One thing I always remember distinctly grandpa always stated; if an umpire does a good job, nobody will know they were there.”