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No All-Star performance

Ex-Red Sox star Greenwell leads Little League in ejections

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Posted: Thursday July 15, 1999 01:53 PM

Mike Greenwell thinks the umpire gets his kicks by instigating confrontations. Stephen Dunn/Allsport

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -- Former All-Star outfielder Mike Greenwell is again a league leader -- this time in ejections from Little League games.

Greenwell, coaching an all-star team of 9- and 10-year-olds, was thrown out of a game by volunteer umpire Steve Ward for the second time this year on Tuesday. No other coach has been ejected in more than 400 county and all-star tournament games during the past two months, a league administrator said.

Ward said Greenwell shoved him, threatened him and cursed during an argument over a call at second base in the latest confrontation between the two.

Greenwell denied using obscene language and said Ward was jealous of him.

"This guy targeted me," said Greenwell, a .303 career hitter who played for the Boston Red Sox from 1985-96. "He gets to go to work and brag he threw me out of a Little League game. ... This umpire threw me out of a county tournament game a month ago. It's like he makes purposely bad calls to have this confrontation with me."

Ward, a 37-year-old computer programmer, denied seeking a confrontation with Greenwell, 35.

"If I was out to get Mike or his team, why would I do that?" Ward said. "I have no reason to go after Mike. What benefit would I have gained?"

John Morris, a Little League coach and former outfielder at LSU, witnessed Greenwell's latest outburst.

"That's not a good role model at all," Morris said. "Mike Greenwell, being the player that he was, I would think that he would show a little more self-restraint. ... I think he was kind of reliving his days back in Boston. But now in Little League, you don't do that."

Greenwell and Ward likely won't see each again other for a while. Greenwell's team lost Tuesday 17-9, ending its season.

 

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