Barney Suspended For 1
Year From Reston-Herndon Adult Softball League For Verbal Abuse
At Men's Tournament
Thursday, October 17, 2002
Kids' pitcher and first baseman Barney has been suspended for one year due to verbal
abuse at a Reston Herndon Adult Softball Council men's
tournament game Tuesday night at Baron Cameron Park in
Reston, according to league
sources.
Barney, whose real name is Chris M., was involved in an incident
with the
girlfriend of a player on T&A Contracting, one of
the teams in the Kids' Tuesday night men's division.
Barney's suspension from playing in RHASC leagues and
from attending any RHASC events is currently under
appeal.
According to
witnesses, Barney and the unidentified girl began
exchanging insults while T&A Contracting were
playing their preliminary round tournament. The
heated exchange grew to involve the T & A players,
the Kids, and the umpire working the T & A
game. The 10-minute fracas was settled without any
injuries or punches thrown.
Apparently, the incident
stems from the Kids-T&A game on September 10th in which
T&A were forced to forfeit due to an illegal bat being
used. Barney and manager JK had pointed out the
illegal bat to the umpire, which led to verbal protests from
T&A which resulted in the forfeit.
This latest incident,
however, occurred when the two teams were not playing against each
other; the Kids were waiting at the field to play the next
scheduled tournament game.
"[RHASC Commissioner] Steve
Adamson--without getting any other side to the story--has decided to suspend me from RHASC for an entire year.
But T&A can tell an umpire that they are going to wrap a softball bat around
[the umpire's] head without
any repercussion," said Barney when asked about the incident.
In an email sent on
Wednesday to Barney, Adamson said that the verbal abuse "was
documented in multiple complaints received by the league"
and that the abuse occurred "in front of multiple women fans."
Furthermore, Adamson stated that Barney "will not be permitted back into this league until
[he] has supplied a written apology for [his] actions of last night to at least five
of the offending [sic] women."
Besides affecting the
rest of the Kids' tournament games on Sunday, Barney's
suspension will also impact Blue Water Grille's coed tournament
games on the same day.
"Hopefully,"
said Blue Water assistant manager Glenn Arnold, "Matt K.
will be able to come out and pitch for us on Sunday. I
feel bad for Barney, but you really can't go around calling
people cock-sucking whores."
