Illinois Mayor Punches Little League Umpire, Breaking His Jaw

Josh Luckenbaugh | June 7, 2016
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Sports often bring out intense emotions in all who participate in them, whether that be the players, coaches or fans. And for the mayor of Monee, Ill., Jay Farquhar, his emotions compelled him to punch the umpire overseeing a Little League game last weekend.

According to a report by WGN, “the…incident…took place after the second inning between Farquhar and the game umpire over a foul ball and that Farquhar punched the ump, Farquhar was managing a youth team on which his son plays, involving kids as young as 7.”

What a wonderful example of maturity and level-headedness for the kids and the citizens who elected him.

The umpire, Tim Nelson, gave his side of the story afterwards, claiming Farquhar broke his jaw and called him a drunk. To be fair, Nelson did call a foul tip when a girl on the opposing team swung and missed, and the Monee mayor took exception when Nelson did not abide by the strict letter of the law.

“As unmanly as a man can be, he turned away from me and said, 'You're nothing but a drunk,’” Nelson told the Chicago Tribune. And when Nelson put his hand on Farquhar’s shoulder to face him eye-to-eye, the mayor got violent and struck him in the face.

“I never saw it coming,” said Nelson, who was scheduled to have surgery sometime today after X-rays revealed two fractures in his jaw.

Farquhar issued an apology on Facebook later, but clearly was holding on to some bitter feelings concerning Nelson’s conduct:

...[T]here is no excuse for striking an official,” the Monee mayor said. “In retrospect, it was a reaction which lacked comprehensively best judgement for the coach (me) to defend myself against the physical escalation of the umpire as such I willingly left the field and recognize the need to suspend my helping to coach that team the rest of this season.

While there is no video of Farquhar going down swinging, we don’t have to imagine what the incident may have looked like. Stay classy, Mr. Mayor.

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