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http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20180411/parent-baseball-coaches-talked-of-beaning-daughter DURHAM, NH -- Police said they are looking into allegations made by a parent of a baseball player in the Oyster River Youth Association (ORYA), who claims two coaches conspired on a plan to injure his daughter in an attempt to intimidate her and force her to quit the league. Durham Deputy Police Chief Rene Kelly said the department is aware of the situation, but as of Tuesday had not decided whether to launch an investigation. In an email to ORYA board of directors Chair Ben Genes, Dan Klein, of Madbury, alleges that two coaches said they would instruct a player to “bean” Klein’s daughter -- strike her in the head with a baseball during practice -- in order to intimidate her into leaving the baseball program. The conversation allegedly took place during a draft meeting to assign players to team rosters. That meeting was held, according to Klein’s email, on March 21 at Libby’s Bar & Grill in Durham. According to Klein, his 11-year-old daughter is the only girl enrolled to play on a team in her division. He said in the email he was informed his daughter was the last player drafted. The email, dated April 7, was also sent to several members of the ORYA board of directors, the Madbury Select Board, Durham Town Council and Oyster River Cooperative School District Board, Lee town administrators, Durham Town Administrator Todd Selig and Durham Parks and Recreation Director Rachel Gasowski. Klein said he was made aware of the alleged conversation by two other coaches who also attended the draft meeting -- Troy Brisard and Kirk O’Quinn -- who found the discussion about Klein’s daughter to be inappropriate. Klein said O’Quinn agreed to put Klein’s daughter onto his roster. In a phone interview with Seacoast Media Group on Tuesday, Klein said he did not reach out to police, nor is he necessarily seeking any retribution against the accused coaches. “I’m not on the board -- it’s not my place to say what’s right for them,” Klein said. “I hope that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again, and that kids will be protected from this sort of language and be safe.” ORYA Director Matthew Glode said the association is conducting an investigation into the alleged comments. “In fairness to everyone involved, we have no further comment until the investigation is completed,” Glode said in an email. Klein said his daughter has played baseball and T-ball with ORYA since 2012 and has enjoyed it, mostly without incident. When she began playing, Klein said, she had several teammates who were girls, but that number dwindled over the years as many girls her age switched to softball. Klein said he has served ORYA in various capacities over the years, including as a coach. He said he is not now involved in ORYA in any capacity other than being the parent of a participant. In his email, he referenced a 2015 quarrel he said he had with an ORYA board member that may have led to lingering animosity, and as a result, motivated the alleged threats against his daughter last month. In a recent email chain forwarded to Seacoast Media Group, Genes wrote to Klein thanking him for coming forward with the complaint concerning his daughter. “ORYA will immediately address the incident in our baseball program and move to ensure our program is 100% compliant with our policies,” Genes wrote in the email, dated April 8. “I will contact Troy (Brisard) and Kirk (O’Quinn) to followup on the details referenced. Please let me know if you have any questions.” In an email to Selig dated April 9, Genes said that the ORYA board had already “taken specific action” related to Klein’s complaint, but it is not known what that action is and whether it is the investigation Glode said was underway. ″(Such) that all sports activities for his daughter are safe and welcoming,” Genes wrote. “We are now beginning a formal investigation into the incident as per our policies and procedures and will provide a summary followup to all our stakeholders.” Email messages left on Tuesday for Genes, Brisard and O’Quinn, seeking further comment were not returned. Their phone numbers were not immediately available.

Seeking info and feedback regarding the few questions I got wrong. Read below. 1. A force is reinstated when a runner retreats past the base to which he was forced to advance. T or F I marked False due to a runner who passes a base needing to be tagged upon returning. Unless I am misinterpreting the question. Correct answer is TRUE 2. No outs, R3 on third and R1 on first. R1 attempts to steal second. B4 interferes with F2, but F2's throw gets R1 out. During the play at second, R3 scores. B4's interference is ignored and R3 scores. T or F. I put false due to the interference from my understanding runners return back their base start of pitch. Correct answer is TRUE. What if R1 gets caught in a rundown because hes thrown out by a mile? Kill it if first attempt is not successful? 3. A coach physically assisting a runner during playing action is interference. T or F. I put TRUE and apparently its false. Any feedback is welcome.

Fired up the AppleTV to watch the video clips of Orlando Arcia scoring from 1B on an infield single and escaping from a 3B-HP rundown (this had to be good!) to discover that the Orioles vs. Brewers game is the Featured Free Game of the Day. When prompted to login (I just have a lapsed, standard account), I noticed that the cost for a Year's Subscription is... only $19.99!!! The monthly is $24.99. This may have been a misprint, but I took a shot, and sure enough, I was charged $19.99 for the rest of the year of premium baseball coverage. Happy Independence Day! Watch some baseball!

Everyone needed a helmet, and there weren't enough to go around.

My name is Derek, I live in Cincinnati. I just started umpiring a few months ago and absolutely love it. I grew up playing baseball, and have been trying to get into umpiring for a while. Right now I am just working slow pitch soft ball. I am working as many games as they will give me, and I am still asking for more. I want to umpiring baseball, being new to umpiring this forum has been great for weeding through the equipment that I need. I am absolutely loving the competition on every pitch to get the call right. If anyone could help steer me in the right direction regarding getting into umpiring baseball or any other advise I would greatly appreciate the help.

Some of the leagues that I umpire for play under MLB rules. I know in federation, coaches are allowed one offensive conference per inning... What is the rule on that for MLB? You see all of these MLB players talking with their 3rd base coach halfway up the line so often and the umpires never say anything.

Had a situation tonight that I wonder if I booted... High school JV (FED rules). Home team's jerseys have large sleeves - enough that when the batter is in position the sleeves hang down about 3" below his arm. Pitch comes in high and inside and barely brushes the hanging-down sleeve. Runner takes off for 1B, and I call him back and call a ball. HC argues. I said that clothing only applies if it is "reasonably well fitted" (2-40-1). However, in reading 8-1-1, it appears that that only applies if the shirt is not being worn "properly", and all the uniforms are that loose. Batter ended up getting ball 4 on the next pitch anyway, so it didn't make any real difference, but I'm trying to make a learning opportunity for myself from this.

For those of you that use Facebook. I am the admin of a closed group called Umpires - Federation Group Feel free to join us. We have almost 500 members. I try to keep it civil. Umpires - Federation Rules

Ok, so I had this happen to me today. This kid had thrown his bat twice before, and both came with warnings. On the third instance he hit a ball, with a runner on 3rd base, to the outfield but threw his bat causing him to be out/ejected. The kid on 3rd scored. One side's coaches argued that the kid should be returned to 3rd because he threw his bat which should result in a dead ball. The other side's coaches argued that the ball was live because he hit the ball and THEN threw the bat. The umpire decided that the run was to be counted and that the ball was a live ball. Was the umpire correct here? And does an ejection after a thrown bat result in a dead ball?

I'm sure there have been other topics like this, but I thought about this driving home from the fields last night, thought I would post a topic for it. CATCHER PET PEEVES All catchers have pet peeves of umpires, and are always willing to tell stories or complain. (Tight zone, Hand on back, trying to talk to them, etc..) But what are pet peeves WE, AS UMPIRES have for them? They can be our friend at times, protect us, and sometimes help us out, but them can also be our worst nightmare. Feel free to start posting your personal pet peeves that catchers do, and we'll see where this goes!

Hey everybody. Please call me Axe. I have recently got the umpiring bug again, as I took something like a 20 yr break from it. I don't even remember why I stopped in the first place. I hope I can make some sort of contribution here as well as learn/relearn a few things. I have to note that this forum struck me as the place to be, as an umpire, to discuss umpiring and everything related. Thanks for that.