An entrance sign at the Taunton Western Little League complex advertises an end-of-season celebration, but before that good time arrives, the last stretch of the playoffs will be played without umpires.
The Greater Taunton Amateur Baseball Umpire Association has “overwhelmingly voted to suspend further officiating services to the league” after unruly fans harassed a pair of game officials, allegedly threatening them with violence.
City Councilor Chris Coute has hope that the umpires will switch their minds after he convened a meeting Friday with officials from the league, umpires union and Mayor Shaunna O’Connell.
“Both organizations came with open minds and I think in good spirits,” Coute told the Herald Friday afternoon. “We had a very productive meeting, and we are hoping the end result is we end up with umpires back at Taunton West Little League in the very near future.”
If the umpires don’t return, coaches would assume officiating, Coute said, adding he believes that’s the way it’s been following the incident last Monday.
A decision should be made soon, Coute said, as the umpires union had to go back to its “rank-and-file members” to decide how the season should finish.
“It’s a little too soon to know what options will be viable solutions,” the Mayor’s Office said in an email to the Herald.
The situation unfolded when umpires David DeOliveira and Paul Nadeu called back a two-run double late in a quarterfinal game because they ruled they had not put the ball in play, GTABUA President Dominic Damiano told the Taunton Daily Gazette.
DeOliveira and Nadeu stopped the game, and later, coaches and parents became verbally abusive towards them, with several men following the umpires into the parking lot, getting in their faces, the Gazette reported.
The losing coach, Tyler Doehler, is the league president. In a statement posted on Facebook Thursday morning, he called the behavior “absolutely unacceptable and does not represent the values and standards we uphold.”
The league has taken the matter “very seriously,” Doehler said, by suspending all of those involved in the incident from the park indefinitely, offering to play games without spectators and pay for a police detail for added security.
Doehler noted no players, managers, coaches or parents have been ejected from a game, including Monday’s, so far this season.
The league breached its contract by allowing the behavior to occur, the eight-member GTABUA Executive Board determined, according to its statement.
“No official in any sport should have to experience what these umpires endured,” part of the statement read.
The incident highlights a handful of bills filed earlier this session by Beacon Hill lawmakers who say their legislation aims to better protect sports officials from verbal and physical abuse.
At least 18 states have enacted legislation specifically defining assaults on sports officials as crimes or other legislation that could protect sports officials.
State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, a Barnstable County Republican, is looking to make assault and battery on a sports official — a referee, umpire, linesman, timer or scorer — an arrestable offense as a misdemeanor, but under another bill, it would be considered a felony.
Penalties would include either an imprisonment of at least 90 days but no more than 2 ½ years in a house of correction, or a fine of at least $500 but no more than $5,000.
Before being elected to office in 2020, Xiarhos spent 40 years as a police officer in Yarmouth. He told the Herald he doesn’t remember spectators being as aggressive towards sports officials as they are now.
Xiarhos believes social media and an overall lack of respect in general are the drivers behind the increased incidents of abuse.
“Respect is a law,” he said. “This is not just kids doing this, these are adults doing this. Adults need to be better role models and act appropriately, be better citizens, and when you get upset you don’t need to become violent. This is sports.”
