Phillies

Mitch Williams Reportedly Called a 10-Year-Old a “Pussy” and Then Had His Pitcher Throw at the Kid

By Kyle Scott

Published: May 16th, 2014 · 3:37 PM EDT

---

Deadspin has obtained video and additional eyewitness accounts of Mitch Williams’ behavior at the Ripkin Baseball youth tournament last week. In addition to getting into a heated argument with an umpire and being ejected, Williams also reportedly called the opposing team’s 10-year-old pitcher a “pussy” and ordered his pitcher to throw at the kid:

While video of the Saturday ejection is still suspiciously unavailable, we were able to acquire footage from Sunday’s championship game between the Williams-coached Jersey Wild and SJ Titans, another elite 10U baseball team from New Jersey. The film at the top of this post shows an interaction between Williams and some SJ Titans players. Multiple witnesses report that interaction consisted of Williams calling the SJ Titans pitcher “a pussy.” Children on the team heard this, and one asked his parent on the ride home what it meant. The comment sparked a meeting behind home plate between SJ Titans coaches, umpires, Williams, and a handler (one witness called him a “babysitter”) assigned by Ripken Baseball to keep Williams in line after Saturday’s ejection.

Here’s video of an incident that happened in the fifth inning, when the SJ Titans pitcher came to bat in the leadoff position. Watch as Williams says something to his catcher, after which the catcher goes out to the mound to say something to his pitcher. SJ Titans coaches and players overheard this interaction, and report that Williams ordered his pitcher to intentionally hit the SJ Titans batter with the first pitch. One witness told us it was in an attempt to knock the SJ Titans pitcher out of the game.

Deadspin has video of both incidents, though the quality and lack of audio makes it difficult to tell exactly what’s going on. But judging by the video of Mitch confronting Lenny Dykstra at an autograph signing, I’d say he was in his hostile stance here.