Little League Parents Strike Again
May 16, 2018 at 2:37 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
There is a video that is burning holes in phones and computers across America over the last two weeks. It’s been shared hundreds of thousands of times, and I know I have watched it more than 30 times just to make sure I see everything there is to see.
It is mesmerizing.
In this video, a Little League game has just finished at the Indianapolis Sports Park. The first frames of the video show a coach racing around the corner of the third base dugout and heading behind the bleachers. We now know the coach was on his way to confront a parent from the opposing team who had been yelling at him during the game.
The coach was from a team based in Cincinnati, and his name is Paul Melvin.
The dad’s name is Kyle Wang.
Wang’s son used to play on Melvin’s team, but he doesn’t anymore.
So, they’ve met.
Wang’s other son, Scott, is quoted in the Indianapolis Star as having called the paper to apologize for his father’s actions, while Melvin has apologized for his behavior in hopes that he alone – and not his team – would face punishment.
The video is a fascinating study in people and how they respond in crisis situations. As Coach Melvin comes charging around the dugout wall and behind the bleachers with bat-in-hand, he runs around one woman to get to the object of his anger. But he then proceeds to run directly into three other people, including an adult woman, who are in his path. He didn’t try to avoid them.
My friends with psychology degrees, I think, would agree that shows this man was not out of control at all, but is fully aware of what he is doing. It also says he was full of bravado and didn’t really want to fight anyone. If he really wanted to take a bat to that dude, he would have run over everyone in the way to get to Wang.
As people are holding the coach back, Wang begins to move forward to join the fight.
That’s where it really gets interesting.
That same woman who Melvin ran around to get to Wang starts screaming at Wang for his role in the fight, asking “What are you thinking…there are women present!”
She is yelling at this man, while at least three guys are holding down and trying to remove the bat from the hands of the person who is the coach of the team she is connected to.
At no point does she turn around to chastise the coach.
Also, as the scuffle seems to be peaking, a woman comes into view from the lower left side of the camera holding a baby carrier … with a blanket over it. I watch a lot of Law & Order and I am graduate of the Warsaw Citizen’s Police Academy, so I can tell you that means there was a high probability there was a baby in that carrier. So, a woman who can clearly tell that a physical confrontation is occurring, walks her child from the safety of wherever she had been to well within range of that bat either being swung or thrown and hitting that child.
And then the kicker … someone nearby the person video-taping the game and the skirmish afterward alleges that Mr. Wang has clearly been drinking alcoholic beverages … at the little league park.
I can’t prove that of course, but it does add up, doesn’t it?
Grown-ups have one job as adult human beings – to raise up younger human beings to become adults. While no one is perfect, this a massive failure to live up to that responsibility. One man is a dad, who is charged by God and society with the task. The other is a coach, who voluntarily put himself into a position of leading young people.
Legally, Wang didn’t do enough to have the title of “dad” taken away from him. The coach, however, doesn’t deserve the opportunity to keep coaching this summer. Beyond that, we’ll see.
There’s one last thing to notice in the video of the event in Indy. Take a look at the dugout from where the coach ran from. Every player is frozen, staring at the man in whom they put their trust and faith as baseball players as he is running out to settle a conflict with a baseball bat.
Not one of them moves.
Not one of them so much as turns to look at another.
They watched the whole thing, every disgusting second.
Wouldn’t you like to ask them what they learned from their coach in that moment?
So, as you are sitting at Boggs Park or in Leesburg or Mentone or the CCAC or wherever your kid plays ball this summer, and the umpire calls an eye-high strike, or the opposing coach sends a runner home up by 14, or your kid’s coach moves your child from shortstop to right field … stop. Just stop, stay seated, keep your mouth shut, and remember what your job is.
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There is a video that is burning holes in phones and computers across America over the last two weeks. It’s been shared hundreds of thousands of times, and I know I have watched it more than 30 times just to make sure I see everything there is to see.
It is mesmerizing.
In this video, a Little League game has just finished at the Indianapolis Sports Park. The first frames of the video show a coach racing around the corner of the third base dugout and heading behind the bleachers. We now know the coach was on his way to confront a parent from the opposing team who had been yelling at him during the game.
The coach was from a team based in Cincinnati, and his name is Paul Melvin.
The dad’s name is Kyle Wang.
Wang’s son used to play on Melvin’s team, but he doesn’t anymore.
So, they’ve met.
Wang’s other son, Scott, is quoted in the Indianapolis Star as having called the paper to apologize for his father’s actions, while Melvin has apologized for his behavior in hopes that he alone – and not his team – would face punishment.
The video is a fascinating study in people and how they respond in crisis situations. As Coach Melvin comes charging around the dugout wall and behind the bleachers with bat-in-hand, he runs around one woman to get to the object of his anger. But he then proceeds to run directly into three other people, including an adult woman, who are in his path. He didn’t try to avoid them.
My friends with psychology degrees, I think, would agree that shows this man was not out of control at all, but is fully aware of what he is doing. It also says he was full of bravado and didn’t really want to fight anyone. If he really wanted to take a bat to that dude, he would have run over everyone in the way to get to Wang.
As people are holding the coach back, Wang begins to move forward to join the fight.
That’s where it really gets interesting.
That same woman who Melvin ran around to get to Wang starts screaming at Wang for his role in the fight, asking “What are you thinking…there are women present!”
She is yelling at this man, while at least three guys are holding down and trying to remove the bat from the hands of the person who is the coach of the team she is connected to.
At no point does she turn around to chastise the coach.
Also, as the scuffle seems to be peaking, a woman comes into view from the lower left side of the camera holding a baby carrier … with a blanket over it. I watch a lot of Law & Order and I am graduate of the Warsaw Citizen’s Police Academy, so I can tell you that means there was a high probability there was a baby in that carrier. So, a woman who can clearly tell that a physical confrontation is occurring, walks her child from the safety of wherever she had been to well within range of that bat either being swung or thrown and hitting that child.
And then the kicker … someone nearby the person video-taping the game and the skirmish afterward alleges that Mr. Wang has clearly been drinking alcoholic beverages … at the little league park.
I can’t prove that of course, but it does add up, doesn’t it?
Grown-ups have one job as adult human beings – to raise up younger human beings to become adults. While no one is perfect, this a massive failure to live up to that responsibility. One man is a dad, who is charged by God and society with the task. The other is a coach, who voluntarily put himself into a position of leading young people.
Legally, Wang didn’t do enough to have the title of “dad” taken away from him. The coach, however, doesn’t deserve the opportunity to keep coaching this summer. Beyond that, we’ll see.
There’s one last thing to notice in the video of the event in Indy. Take a look at the dugout from where the coach ran from. Every player is frozen, staring at the man in whom they put their trust and faith as baseball players as he is running out to settle a conflict with a baseball bat.
Not one of them moves.
Not one of them so much as turns to look at another.
They watched the whole thing, every disgusting second.
Wouldn’t you like to ask them what they learned from their coach in that moment?
So, as you are sitting at Boggs Park or in Leesburg or Mentone or the CCAC or wherever your kid plays ball this summer, and the umpire calls an eye-high strike, or the opposing coach sends a runner home up by 14, or your kid’s coach moves your child from shortstop to right field … stop. Just stop, stay seated, keep your mouth shut, and remember what your job is.
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