Loss Feels All Wrong To Beardstown Softball Team
Categories: Misc
BY MATT WING
Journal-Courier
Imagine being three outs away from winning a state championship. Now imagine losing the title before another pitch is thrown.
Parents, players and coaches from the Beardstown Girls Junior League All-Stars are crying foul after Beardstown was ruled the loser in the championship game of the Girls Junior League Softball State Tournament in East Chicago, a tournament that feeds into the Little League World Series.
“They basically took a state title away from us, and I’m pretty upset about it,” said Craig Myers, who coaches the team of 13- and 14-year-olds.
Beardstown had rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh inning to take an 8-6 lead against the Burbank Nationals Wednesday when the game was suspended because of darkness. Both teams were to return to the field the next day to complete the game.
But when Beardstown arrived, it got a nasty surprise. Tournament officials learned Thursday morning that they had made a mistake: Games suspended because of darkness cannot be continued. Instead, the score reverts back to the last completed inning, and the game is over.
Burbank had won 6-3.
“It was really emotional and we did cry a lot, but then we just kind of sucked it up and went home,” said Lynne Griffin, a Beardstown player. “And now I know a lot of girls don’t want to play All-Stars next year and their parents don’t want them to, either, because they don’t want to put up with this again.
“It was just a really bad time.”
Beardstown protested the ruling but was told nothing could be done. Parents have been making phone calls appealing to Little League officials in an attempt to have the ruling overturned, but so far, have had no luck. Parents say they will protest as long as they have to in order to get their team into next weekend’s World Series qualifier in Ohio.
Bill Davidsmeier, the father of a player on the team, was furious when his daughter called him on the way home from Chicago to tell him what had happened.
“She called me from up there and they had just got done and she just kept saying, ‘Daddy why do we even play?’” Davidsmeier said. “I’ve been her dad for 13 years and there’s never been a question she’s had that I didn’t have an answer for, and as soon as I got off the phone I just sat down and cried. I didn’t have an answer for her and I just felt completely helpless.”
Wednesday’s game was delayed in the seventh inning. A Beardstown player was called out after singling home two runs to tie the score at 6-6; an umpire ruled she had stepped out of the batter’s box. After an appeal by the Beardstown coaching staff, the call was overturned by assistant tournament director Sean Gibbons, who called the Little League Regional Office in Indianapolis for assistance.
That prompted the Burbank coach to argue the reversal. The game was delayed 45 minutes, and by then it was too dark to continue. The teams were told to return to the field the next day to finish the game.
But when Beardstown returned, the team got a different story.
“We came back Thursday and went through our warm-ups and everything and I just happened to look over there and saw the other team wasn’t warming up and I thought that was a little strange,” Myers said. “Then I talked to the tournament director and he said that the Little League district director was going to be there in a couple minutes and he wanted to have a meeting with both teams, and all of a sudden I thought something is not right here.”
Beardstown’s players, parents and coaches were shocked.
“This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen happen in Beardstown Little League, or any Little League tournament for that matter,” said Rita Lindley, a parent of a Beardstown player. “This tournament was rigged.”
Wedryk, the tournament director, admitted that the game should not have been suspended. He said he was not present when it was. Still, Wedryk said everything was handled by the book.
“We tried to do a classy job with the thing and I know they’re disappointed but I had to stand up on my own two feet and tell them what the decision was,” he said. “I was straightforward with them and I was honest with them and I didn’t pull any punches.”
Tournament officials asked the players to line up on the field to receive their first- and second-place pins after the game, but Beardstown refused to take the field.
“At the time I just told the girls to stay in the dugout. They wanted us to go out on the field to accept our second-place pins and I told the girls we weren’t going to do that,” Myers said. “I huddled the girls after and told them they were the state champions.”
The Beardstown contingent had to stay in the Chicago area Wednesday night for Thursday’s scheduled completion. Other fans and relatives drove to Chicago from Beardstown Thursday afternoon, only to find there was no game.
Wedryk said he got word from Indianapolis at 11:30 a.m. Thursday that Burbank was declared the winner. Instead of calling to notify any of the Beardstown coaches, he waited until 5:15 p.m., after Beardstown had already taken the field for pre-game warmups.
“You would have to get ahold of everybody by phone, and making that kind of announcement by phone is kind of rotten, I think,” Wedryk said.
Some Beardstown parents were outraged that they had stayed overnight for nothing. Wedryk said Friday there was nothing he could do about it.
“I had no regrets about them spending an extra night or getting extra lodging or getting extra meals,” he said. “There’s nothing I could do about it. If they had to pay it, they had to pay it.”
Myers said he talked to a few parents from Burbank who said they didn’t feel right about the situation. Not everyone from Burbank felt that way, though.
“The rest of them were yelling at us to be quiet and things of that nature,” he said.
The state tournament marked the last scheduled tournament of the summer for Beardstown, whose team members include: Taylor Myers, Morgan Davidsmeier, Lynne Griffin, Taylor Cooper, Kennedy Dotzert, Kait Herter, Darrian Gregory, Allaina Leischner, Jordan Welker, Kennedi Lindley, Megan Icenogle and Jennifer Janssen.
Parents said they hope the incident won’t turn their daughters away from softball.
“You’re talking about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (to go to the World Series). This may never come around again,” said Steve Griffin, another parent. “I grew up in Jacksonville and I was on a few all-star teams in Jacksonville and I still have those memories, and these are 13- and 14-year-old girls and this will probably be etched in their minds for the rest of their lives.”
August 9th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
This is truly sad. No wonder we can’t keep the kids on the field and off the streets – they are being taught here that the rules are made up as you go along and the best team isn’t anything to be proud of.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I am a Burbank National Parent and I have a few things to say about the whole thing.
First of all, and Im sure every Beardstown parent would agree, the officials we had were the most awful set of umpires I have ever seen in my life. At the state level, all leagues better make sure the umpires they are using, know the rules inside and out. Do I think what happened was ridiculous – yes I do. I would have rathered had the opportunity to come back in the bottom of the 7th and beat them. The game wasnt over, as Beardstown would like to have everyone believe, they didnt win anything up to that point. It was the top of the 7th inning and we were home team. As far as our parents acting ridiculous, I beg to differ. They actually had parents yelling to our girls, “Dont worry you wont win a game when you get to Ohio and hurray to the teams that beat you.” Our parents were simply defending their children – like any GOOD parent would. These are 13 year old girls (some only 12), that they were yelling these things to. Why would anyone wish ill will on a 13 year old little girl? Shame on the parents from Beardstown who acted like children. Your players had more dignity and class than you. At least your players wished our girls well which is more than I can say for their parents. The girls and parents from Burbank National had nothing to do with the decision that was made . If they want to direct their anger somewhere, put it where it belongs, on the umpiring staff. They are the ones who blew the game for you, not us. See ya next year….
August 19th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I truly feel sorry for Beardstown also that they had to lose this way. We never meant to win this way either but it just happened that way. We also had a hard time in sectionals versing the East Side team because the umpires were very unfair, so not like we had the best time either. I play on the Burbank National state champion team. Some of the people started telling you guys to be quiet after we said “Good game ladies” because you guys replied very rudely with vulgar language and getting in some of the parents faces. The umpire had made a call that the Beardstown caoch decided to protest against. If he had not done so the game would have went on and we could have had a fair and complete game. Instead the fans and coaches were still going crazy while Beardstown was warming up for the inning and the call was overturned. We got angry and did the right thing by calling Williamsport to get the official ruling. Over all it resulted in prolonged protesting that led to the officials incorrectly calling the game because of darkness. Therefore the fault lies in the hands of the umpires. Perhaps if the game was called by a more professional umpire instead of a sixteen year old boy with his father the right calls would have been made. Furthermore, you guys would of had to go to regionals first to advance to the World Series.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:25 am
okay, i am a beardstown allstar player and i have a few things to say as well. first off, i know everyone can agree that we didnt have umpires that knew what they were doing. but about the comment saying it was beardstown’s fault the game was delayed, thats not true at all. the call that one of our players foot was out of the box was over ruled because not her whole foot was out of the box. and if the burbank coach knew the rules, he would have known that the whole foot had to have been out of the box. the burbank coach argued for 45 minutes about a call that had already been made. therefore, everyone on the beardstown side kindof asumed that the coach knew the rule about the game being delayed by darkness. it wasnt fair to the players on either team that the coach had to argue until it was too dark to continue. now i know if i was a burbank player i would not feel good about the way i “won.” both of the team’s parents reacted badly to the situation. there was no need to make us come to the ballpark the next day just to find out that the championship title had been taken away from us. it was kindof upsetting that the tournament director would have rather seen all the beardstown girls fall apart than just calling our coach and letting him tell us. our girls honestly thought that the burbank team would want to continue the game and not win the way we did, but we were deffinitley wrong. none of our parents yelled “dont worry you wont win a game when you get to ohio and hurray to the teams that beat you.” beardstown players are still saying that we are the state champions because we truly are. there are 7 innings in a ball game and burbank won because they were ahead in the 6th. thats not a finished ball game. and the worst thing of all is we were playing on a little league BOYS field with NO lights. this was a state championship game, not a minor league game. starting the game at 6 was pathetic. we could have easily started the game at 1 or 2 and would have been able to play the full game and know who the true champions were. the tournament director wouldn’t have known what happend if he was there considering he was asleep thorugh every game. this had to have been the worse state tournament that anyone has ever seen and much worse, experienced. and yes, we will see you next year burbank, preferrably on a field that suits the condition of a state champioship game.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
i am also a beardsotwn player. i would like to say a few words about the whole situation. firts off, the burbank parent has all the right to say what she commented. thats perfectly fine. this was my last year to ever play on an allstar team for i would be to old to play again. we had gotten 3 or 4th place every single year. i wanted so bad to win like i had a taste for it. i agree with every single thing kenndedi had to say. i know for a 1000 % fact that if burbank was in our shoes and the events that happened to beardstown happened to them, they’d also react like we did. but i know for another 1000% fact that if it had happened to them.. we would have said ‘wait, we can play them out and see who the real winners are’ than just sit there and ”win”. we not be the most well mannered team but we were taught to play with intergritey and pride. we would of played it out even if we did want to just say oh okay, we wont argue with that. i was the ONLY person from beardstown that went up to that fence after we were bawling like babies and said ‘good game burbank, you were deffinantly our biggest competion and i respect you for that’. the burbank girls looked a tad sympathetic but looked more eager to get the trophys. it was very disrespectful. i dont want this to seem like a sob story, it isnt. the beardstown girls even ordered tee shirts.. that say “state champions 2009?’ on the back ‘nooo we got screwed!’
i hope you sleep well at night burbank. you seem very ignorant group of people that had no love for the game and had to weasel through it. hey, you had to say stuff about our parents, you can take some of our thoughts. just do one thing and google ‘bearstown softball’ and see how many hundreds of things come up. you’d be suprised.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
i watched the game and beardstown was deffinantly the better team. burbank would have gotten beat. but i talked to the crying beardstown girls afterwards bcuz i live across the street from the park, and they said if they had played it out and burbank had beat them fair and square off course they would be sad but theres nothing you can do. beardstown is without a doubt in my 17 years of watching, playing, and coaching softball and baseball, state champions