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From the Albuquerque Journal 5/12/09

By James Yodice
Journal Staff Writer
What would have happened if Babe Ruth had been ejected for calling his shot in the 1932 World Series and never had a chance to swing the bat?
A scaled-down version of that scenario played out at Carlsbad High School on Saturday, when a senior from Santa Fe High, in the final at-bat of his prep career, decided to go out with an act of bravado.
It was the first round of the Class 5A state tournament when Konrad Mueller stepped into the batter's box and pointed to the left field wall — in a game his team was losing 10-4.
It was Mueller's indication that he planned to hit a home run. Just like Ruth did 77 years ago with the New York Yankees.
The Bambino hit a home run.
Mueller did not.
He was ejected on the spot and engaged in a heated argument with the umpire, who disqualified him. Carlsbad coach Kenny Groves said Mueller bumped the umpire "two or three times." Before the ugly episode was over, local law enforcement was called in to restrain the angry Demon.
"Konrad plays like Pete Rose, and I hate Pete Rose," Santa Fe coach John Morrison said with a laugh. "But that's the way Konrad plays. We were two outs away from losing, and he did his best imitation of Babe Ruth, which is not something I would have condoned."
Efforts to reach Mueller for comment were unsuccessful.
New Mexico Activities Association assistant director/spokesman Robert Zayas said Monday that he hadn't heard about the incident, which included no fights or arrests, just a lot of boiling tempers on the field and in the stands.
Moments before calling his shot, Mueller apparently kicked dirt on home plate, only seconds after the umpire had cleaned it off.
After the ejection, teammates tried to restrain Mueller and officers escorted him off the field, according to a report in the Carlsbad Current-Argus.
Groves said the report was accurate. Morrison said it was misleading. He said he pulled Mueller away from the umpire and told an assistant to take Mueller back to the dugout. Morrison said it was there, in the dugout, that an officer restrained Mueller.
When Morrison questioned the ejection, he was dismissed, too, as was a Santa Fe assistant coach. Groves said three Santa Fe coaches were ejected.
"I regret that he did it," Morrison said of Mueller. "Yet I'm not sure it warranted an ejection. I would say it was inappropriate."
Tempers flare
The pre-ejection and post-ejection stories don't exactly paint a picture of sportsmanship.
Morrison said Carlsbad fans had been taunting Mueller, who was Santa Fe's starting pitcher.
Groves said Santa Fe players and coaches — and some chirpy fans — had been griping about umpiring throughout both ends of a doubleheader.
"During the first game Saturday, their coaches and some of their kids were unruly to fans and umpires. They were very unruly," Groves said.
Morrison countered: "We had a very heated playoff atmosphere, which I think was great. There were comments from the fans that I thought reflected an intense playoff environment."
Carlsbad decided midway through the deciding game to bring in a couple of officers just in case, according to Groves.
"I am puzzled by the presence of the police, who simply made it harder for me to contain my players and my parents," said Morrison. "I just thought the police presence inflamed the entire situation."
"He is hypercompetitive, and he often does fire up a crowd, for and against him," Morrison said of his player, adding that he wonders what would have happened if Mueller had stayed in the game.
"Honestly, it might have been interesting to see it play out," he said.
Carlsbad's take was more somber.
"It degrades our sport," Groves said. "It got to the point that it was out of hand."
"There are two kinds of people in this game: those who are humble and those who are about to be." Clint Hurdle
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Here's the report from the home town paper.

Cavemen win series vs. SFHS
By Jeff Keller
Current-Argus Sports Editor
Posted: 05/10/2009 12:04:57 AM MDT

CARLSBAD — The Cavemen secured a berth in the state quarterfinals as they took two-of-three games from the Santa Fe High Demons this weekend at the Cavemen Corral.

Carlsbad took Game One of the series, 6-1, Friday evening. The Demons claimed Game Two Saturday morning, 13-5. Carlsbad bounced back to claim the deciding Game Three, 10-4.

After dropping the second game of the series by eight runs, the Cavemen wasted little time building a lead in the third and final game of the series.

The Cavemen retired the Demons in order in the top of the first inning and Ryan Armendarez reached base with a one out walk in the bottom of the first inning.

Jered Meek then reached base on a single and Matt Chavarria drove in Armendarez and Meek with a two RBI triple to centerfield.

Game Two starting pitcher Trey Gonsalez then drove in Chavarria with a sacrifice fly RBI to put the Cavemen ahead, 3-0.

The Demons were held scoreless over the first three innings. Carlsbad put five more runs on the board in the bottom of the third inning.

Parker Stephens led off the bottom of the third inning with a walk. Meek drove in Stephens with an RBI triple to left field.

Chavarria then drove in Meek with an RBI single. Andrew Castillo drove in two runs in the inning for Carlsbad with a two RBI double to left field that put Carlsbad ahead, 7-0. Duce Ford drove in another Cavemen run with a single to put the Cavemen up, 8-0.

SFHS scored its first run of the game in the top of
the fourth inning on an RBI single by Roby Romero.
The Demons cut the Cavemen lead to 8-2 in the top of the sixth inning on an RBI double by Kyle Mayfield.

The Cavemen put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning as Stephens reached base on a single and eventually came around to score on a passed ball, and Armendarez drove in the final run of the game for the Cavemen with a groundout RBI.

Santa Fe put one run on the board with one out in the top of the seventh inning on an RBI triple by Anthony Ratliff.

Santa Fe's Konrad Mueller then stepped to the plate and took the first pitch for a ball from Gonsalez.

Before the second pitch of the at-bat, Mueller stepped into the batter's box and raised his left hand and pointed to the fence in left field, appearing to try and call his shot.

Mueller was immediately ejected from the game by the home plate umpire. Mueller threw down his bat and began to argue with the home plate umpire. His teammates tried to restrain him and eventually law enforcement officials were called in to restrain Mueller and take him off of the playing field.

The incident with Mueller was one of several confrontations between SFHS coaches and players and the umpires during Saturday's two games.

Cavemen coach Kenny Groves said the numerous confrontations were disrespectful to the game and he was proud of the way his coaches and players conducted themselves in the series.

"I am very proud of our coaching staff and I am very proud of our kids because we never said a bad word to their kids, their coaching staff or anybody," Groves said. "We did a great job of keeping our composure and I couldn't be happier about that."

Gonsalez said he and his Cavemen teammates tried to block out all of the confrontations and delays that ensued from the Santa Fe players and coaches.

"We just tried to keep our heads focused strictly on the game," Gonsalez said. "We weren't worried about any of the outside things. We weren't going to get into any of that."

Eventually after the delay, the game resumed. The Demons plated one more run in the top of the seventh but Santa Fe's Andy Hyde grounded out to shortstop for the final out of the game as the Cavemen picked up the game and series victory.

Gonsalez got the win on the mound for the Cavemen in Game Three as he went the distance striking out four, while allowing nine hits. He gave up four earned runs and walked two batters.

Gonsalez said his fastball and curveball were working well for him Saturday. He said at the start of the game he understood the importance of the game, but he didn't let it get to him.

"At the beginning of the game I knew this game was huge," Gonsalez said. "But I didn't feel the pressure too much. We have been in big games like this before so I felt pretty good."

Meek and Chavarria had multiple hits for the Cavemen as both went 2-for-3 in the game. Chavarria drove in three runs in the Cavemen victory.

Mueller was the losing pitcher in the contest as he pitched two-and-one-third innings allowing eight runs on six hits. He walked two, hit one batter and struckout four.

With the victory, the Cavemen move on to face the No. 1 seed in the state tournament La Cueva at 11 a.m. Thursday at Rio Rancho.

Gonsalez said the Cavemen are looking forward to facing La Cueva.

"We are excited to get to play La Cueva," Gonsalez said. "We have been wanting to play La Cueva for a long time. I know that they say they are the best, but I hope that we can overcome that."

Groves agreed with Gonsalez's statement.

"We have to go up against La Cueva and I can't wait," Groves said. "They are the best team and they are No. 1 in the state and that is who we want to play La Cueva has kind of earned the reputation like Carlsbad has, or even had if you want to put it that way, but I don't think our kids are intimidated by them. I think we are equal to them. They may be rated No. 1 and they may have a lot of good pitchers, but I have a lot of confidence in these kids. We can play with anybody in the state if we play well and don't make very many mistakes. So we are looking forward to it."

In Saturday's first game, the Demons took control early as they plated six runs in the first two innings. Hyde had an RBI ground rule double in the top of the first inning, while Roby Romero drove in two more runs for the Demons in the first with a single to left field.

Romero brought in three more runs in the top of the second with one swing of the bat. He blasted a three-run home run over the left field fence to put the Demons up, 6-0, going into the bottom of the second.

Carlsbad cut into the SFHS lead in the bottom of the second as Gonsalez led off the bottom of the second with a walk.

Castillo then drove a two-run home run over the right field fence to cut the Demon lead to 6-2.

Nate Freeman reached base on a walk later in the inning and Stephens advanced Freeman to third base with a double to left field.

Meek drove Freeman and Stephens in with a two RBI single to right field to cut the SFHS lead to 6-4 after two.

Romero added to his RBI total for Santa Fe in the fourth inning as he drove in a run with a single to left field that put the Demons ahead, 7-4.

Mueller put the Demons ahead, 9-4, in the top of the fifth inning with a two-run home run to left-centerfield.

SFHS added four more runs in the top of the seventh inning with an RBI bases loaded walk by A.J. Trujillo and a three-run single by Kyle Mayfield.

The Cavemen scored the final run of the game in the bottom of the seventh on a sacrifice fly RBI by Josh McCormick. Stephens, Meek and Castillo had multiple hits for the Cavemen in Saturday's first game. Stephens was 2-for-4, while Castillo was 2-for-3. Meek went 3-for-4 in the game.

In the three game series, Meek went 7-for-11 with four RBI, five singles, a double and a triple.

Groves said even when his team dropped Saturday's first game, he was still confident they would prevail in the series.

"I was never nervous today," Groves said. "Even when they were up 13-5 I felt like we were going to score runs. We were seeing the ball well all day. After the first game we went into our locker room and I was not nervous, the kids were not nervous. The players felt like they could beat this team and they did. I am very proud. I would have liked to end this series in two games, but Santa Fe had a good day. They hit the ball well and made some good plays out there. They can be a very good team, but in a best two-out-of-three series, the best team always comes out on top."
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quote:
Originally posted by spizzlepop:
Before the second pitch of the at-bat, Mueller stepped into the batter's box and raised his left hand and pointed to the fence in left field...


quote:
Originally posted by spizzlepop:
...exactly paint...


That's it spiz! He was pointing to the left field wall...



...and telling the grounds crew exactly where to fix the paint on the left field wall!



quote:
Morrison countered: "We had a very heated playoff atmosphere, which I think was great. There were comments from the fans that I thought reflected an intense playoff environment."
Carlsbad decided midway through the deciding game to bring in a couple of officers just in case, according to Groves.
"I am puzzled by the presence of the police, who simply made it harder for me to contain my players and my parents," said Morrison. "I just thought the police presence inflamed the entire situation."


sounds to me as if it was more than an "intense playoff atmosphere"......and since when does the presence of police make it harder to contain players and parents?...

The PIAA requires us to read this to each coach and team captains at the plate meeting....

"PIAA requires all registered sports' officials to enforce the sportsmanship rules for coaches and contestants. Actions meant to demean opposing players, team, spectators and officials are not in the highest ideals of interscholastic education and will not be tolerated. Let today's contest reflect mutual respect. Coaches please certify to the umpire that your players are legally equipped and uniformed according to NFHS rules. Good luck in today's contest".....

Actions meant to demean opposing players, team, spectators and officials are not in the highest ideals of interscholastic education and will not be tolerated......

will not be tolerated.......
quote:
Originally posted by johnny appleseed:
PIAA, you are saying that by pointing to the wall is deameaning to the other team? I think the ump acted way too quickly. Give the kid a warning but his actions do not call for an ejection. It's like a pitcher pumping his fist after getting a big out. Is that taunting, should he be ejected?


Gestures are enough......under NFHS Pointing at players, chest thumping , throat slashing gestures, shaking fists at players all fall in the actions umpires are to forbid.....

its pretty clear from the reading the accounts, that this kid wanted to go out with a bang....and got his wish....

Umpires cant be too strict in this...had that gesture started a full scale brawl, then everyone would be saying that the umpire let it get out of hand.....as to your thougth that the umpire acted too quickly......quite honestly only our (umpires) opinions count in this instance....
Last edited by piaa_ump

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