You can play a lot of sports in the rain and the mud, but baseball is not one of them.
A game for the Cal Ripken League in Montgomery County, Maryland, had to be canceled Thursday because of a feud between a firefighter and the Takoma Thunderbolts.
A baseball coach told News4 that at batting practice a long fly ball soared over a fence and hit a pickup truck in the parking lot at the nearby Silver Spring Fire Station. Then the coach said a county firefighter deliberately flooded the field.
Video shows a stream of water.
Players with the Thunderbolts, a collegiate men’s team, said some time went by after the ball hit the truck. Then they saw a fire engine back out of the station on University Boulevard.
Moments later, a huge stream of water began cascading onto the field on which the team was about to play.
A player ran to the station in an effort to get the water turned off but was met with a stream of angry words.
Max Eckert and Brock Hunter, players on the Thunderbolts, shared what happened next.
“I see some players rushing off the field because water is being shot onto our outfield, which, then we spend a lot of time fixing the field up as it’s been raining every single day,” said Eckert. “And so I ran out there thinking it was a mistake and just saying ‘Hey! Hey! You probably want to turn that off or redirect it,’ and then things got a little heated from that point on.”
“I come from Virginia, you know, the team we were playing is from Virginia, so a lot of families drove an hour-and-a-half in traffic to hopefully play after all this rain, and didn’t get to play,” said Hunter.
Hunter said a lot of the players were unhappy and it all made for “a crazy experience.”
The Montgomery County Fire Department took the incident seriously, issuing an apology on Friday.
“We want to express our sincere apologies to the players, teams, Cal Ripken League and all fans and families impacted by this disruption,” the statement reads in part. “We understand how important this venue is to the community, and especially to the young athletes who look forward to these events.”
Montgomery County Park Police is investigating. It’s not yet known if the firefighter responsible was placed on leave.
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