Doing It For The Kids
Capping a three-game series that began with Mark Parent telling reporters umpire Steve Graves was the “worst umpire I’ve ever seen” after Tuesday’s loss, the third-year Chico manager, also a former 17-year major league veteran, was ejected by Graves tonight in the second inning. Graves appeared to react to something Chico’s head man said from the Outlaws dugout when making the gesture and strolled around as the 6-foot-7 Parent hunched over his side for a colorful conversation before exiting the field.
Parent’s description of how he earned the ejection: “I told him maybe he oughta carry some more baseballs in his pouch so he could quit wearing out the kids who were running back-and-forth from our dugout to give him new ones and he told me, ‘I don’t give a (expletive) about the kids.’ I asked him to say that again and he did, and I told him in my own way I didn’t appreciate him saying that.”
It's worth noting that one of those batboys helping usher in new balls was Parent's 12-year-old son Jake.
Photo credit: Jason Halley/Enterprise-Record