ANGOLA, N.Y. — There are few feelings like watching your child’s baseball game.
It’s a feeling Teresa Hageman and Cathleen Traver looked forward to all week until an incident that took place Saturday morning, which ultimately resulted in a youth baseball director being removed from his role.
The two are parents of Evans Youth Baseball players, and during Saturday’s game, Traver’s 7-year-old son Levi caught the attention of the opposing coach during the game.
Traver said Levi was playing in the dirt and got dirt in his eye, causing him to rub his eye. However, the opposing coach took that as Levi mocking his player, who had just struck out.
The coach approached Levi and began shouting his number, those in attendance told 2 On Your Side.
“He was screaming, face blood-red, blood-curdling scream with a bat in his hand,” said Hageman, who observed the incident.
Levi crawled up into a ball and began crying in fear.
“He made the whole field go quiet,” the boy recounted. “He yelled at me for no reason.”
At first, Cathleen said nothing was done about it. Her son said he never wanted to play baseball again. They issued a refund and told her to have a good summer.
But then the situation grabbed the attention of social media.
Hageman posted about the incident, and within hours, Evans Youth Baseball released this statement, saying they “have a zero-tolerance policy for such behavior” and assuring that the coach, who is also the club’s director, has been removed.
Hageman and Traver said they appreciate the gesture, but that it doesn’t fully resolve the problem. Levi still doesn’t want to play baseball again and is still hoping for an apology from the coach.
“Just man up and say, ‘Hey, man. I'm sorry,’” Traver said.
Here is the full statement from the club:
Evans Youth Baseball is deeply committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for all our players, families, and volunteers.
This past weekend, an incident involving one of our board members occurred. This behavior in no way reflects the values and standards of our league or our board as a whole. We have a zero-tolerance policy for such behavior and assure you that the board member was removed.
We fully acknowledge the distress caused by this incident and have taken steps to address it appropriately. To prevent such incidents in the future, Evans Youth Baseball is working towards creating a coach vetting system to ensure our players are in the hands of the right individuals on game days. Our focus remains on creating a supportive environment where every child can enjoy the game of baseball.
We sincerely apologize to the affected family, the children involved, and all those who were impacted.
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