Posted on 07/23/2025 11:02:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
Controversy erupted in New Jersey recently when a Little Leaguer was suspended from the state tournament for celebrating his home run with a bat flip.
Haddonfield Little Leaguer Marco Rocco, age 12, celebrated his home run against Harrison Little League last week by flipping his bat into the air as he walked the bases. The umpires immediately ejected Rocco from the game, citing a “safety concern.” He also earned a one-game suspension. Despite protests from his family, Little League International maintains that he broke an established rule. The Rocco family has since filed “an emergency temporary restraining order in the Gloucester County Chancery Division in an attempt to have the suspension overturned,” per the New York Post.
VIDEO AT LINK....................
“He’s played Little League his whole life, and his dream is to make it to the World Series in Williamsport,” Joe Rocco told NJ.com. “We’re in the state finals and are a couple of steps away. We’re on our way there, and now, they tell him he can’t play.”
Joe Rocco also called out the league for hypocritically promoting bat flipping in its social media posts.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I played back in the 60’s and that was a first thing rule.
Never had a chance to break it though.............😏
Brings to mind the flight attendant twerking on video and getting fired and the runner putting her feet out with a fire extinguisher handed to her by her father and getting disqualified.
Uncivilized behavior is just spreading everywhere and I’m glad that organizations are putting down their foot.
If that is true, I could see some hope for their suit.
I wonder, if he had just placed the bat carefully on the ground then jogged around the bases at a leisurely pace would he have been gigged for that as well?.............
I always told my players: “If you hit a dinger, lay the bat down and run around the bases hard. Act like you’ve done it before”.
“The remaining four teams in the 12U division will play on Thursday night in Deptford, N.J., in a double-elimination bracket, with the winner moving on to the Metro Region Tournament,” noted the NY Post. “Haddonfield is among the four teams still in the tournament, which includes Holbrook, Elmor, and Ridgewood.”
The family has no case. The penalty was on the player, not the team. They have more games to play and I presume they have enough players to play the game.
Rules are rules.
Take your medicine and live and learn.
“If that is true, I could see some hope for their suit.”
Most of the videos show just tossing bat to ground. I saw nothing like this one.
No case.
Nope
The kid deserves a suspension. That kind of unsportsmanlike should not be allowed in Little League. Wish MLB would crack down on the bat flipping and excessive celebrations while circling the bases. Did not happen when pitchers like Bob Gibson, Roger Clemens, and Nolan Ryan were allowed to throw high inside fastballs under the chin.
Although I never broke my neck, I just might have been one from whom you learned something important. ;-D
I had to side-step a bat when I struck my little brother out.
Call an out.
It happened to me. I was lucky to make contact, let alone reach base. Whenever I made contact, I immediately dropped the bat and ran for first.
Then in high school they instituted this rule if you dropped the bat too close to the catcher, you were out. I was called out several times....I didn’t think it was all that close to the catcher either.
What would you recommend within the rules.
What would you recommend within the rules.
What would you recommend within the rules.
What would you recommend within the rules.
A ONE-GAME SUSPENSION is certainly not excessive,
Reasonable, I’d say. Let this be a lesson to ya, kid
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