Caught on camera: Youth baseball coach with bat charges at parent

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A parent and a coach are banned from a south side baseball park after a video posted to social media showed one man charging toward another with a bat after a kids’ game Sunday. 

Indianapolis Sports Park owner Helga Scaringe said the Cincinnati Flames youth travel team had just played the Evoshield Midwest Canes. All of the players in the game were 13 years old or younger. 

“Everybody wants to win. But one, we’re mentors for these young people,” Scaringe said. “And two, we need to teach them how to deal with conflict.”

The video, which was posted to Facebook by a parent, shows adults working to separate the two men before anyone gets hurt. The video does not appear to show either of the men strike each other. 

Scaringe said the man with the bat was a Cincinnati Flames coach and the other man is a parent of an Evoshield Midwest Canes player. The Cincinnati Flames said they have fired the coach. 

The owner of the ballpark said her staff called 911. An IMPD spokesperson said police responded and tried to “keep the peace.” No one reported any injuries, and no one is facing charges. 

“I would hope that this was a one-time incident,” Scaringe said.

The game was part of a United States Specialty Sports Association (USSA) tournament. The Indiana USSSA director said the association is investigating the incident. Depending on what they find, the association could take disciplinary action.

Scaringe, whose son is the Indiana USSSA director, said she hopes the kids can learn from the fight: “How to not react. How to deal with conflict and better ways to deal with it than these two people.”

The staff at the Indianapolis Sports Park serves beer to adults during games. Scaringe said she believes the parent had been drinking but the coach had not.

The coach declined our request for an interview.