Reminds me of the good ol' days in high school when I umpired kids' Little League games. As a general rule: the younger the players, the worse some of the parents behave. Lifetime ban from participating in youth sports seems appropriate, along with any legal charges the DA comes up with, of course.

I coached youth football for 9 years in Salem and am glad I never saw such deplorable behavior. Our league had a league official present at every game with the authority to forfeit a game and dismiss any coach who went too far. I hope they throw the book at this idiot(and make it a big one).

Sad, but not surprising. Believe it or not, I've had worse. I had a high-school-aged partner pushed to the floor by a parent after an 8th-grade girls game.

This guy shouldn't ever coach or be around kids again, but I bet he will.

I think bad sportsmanship is so common that it's almost expected. I did some moonlighting as an usher for OSU football and was asked to watch the stands above where the players left the stadium when the Beavers lost-in case fans spit or threw things at them. People, including my father, jump to the conclusion that I don't like sports when I say that I believe they are way too important in our culture, but this garbage leaves scars.

What a piece of crap. Man oh man, if I was that 17-year old's father, I'd sure have something to say to this piece of garbage. Takes a real big man to cock his fist at a teenager who's out there ref'ing for little or no money.

On the subject of errant behavior in the public schools, it is interesting, Jack, that you have not mentioned the unfolding sex scandal reported by the Oregonian over the past two days. Reminds one of the situation with the Portland Archdiocese, which you hammered on so strongly. Similar, but with significant differences – instead of a couple dozen clergy (many deceased) over a period of fifty years, the Oregonian is reporting potential offenders in the hundreds over a period of 10 years or so. Another big difference; lawyers are not interested in taking on these cases due to liability caps in the public sector – no deep pockets as in the case of the Catholic Church.

Since the abuse is so recent, we can uncover and prosecute the actual individuals in school administration which allowed “passing trash” – unlike the Archdiocese, which took the brunt of criticism for actions of church officials 20, 30 or 40 years ago.

Finally, based on your historical comments regarding how immoral it was for the Church to try to limit it’s financial liability, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind coughing up a couple hundred dollars annually in added property taxes to fairly compensate the many victims

I umpired Little League when I was in high school too. Man, parents can get seriously out of control.

Yea, but who won?