Governing bodies of Little League can’t decide whether bat flips are good or bad. Now a New Jersey boy is suffering the consequences. 12-year-old Marco Rocco from Haddonfield, New Jersey has been suspended one game for bat-flipping while celebrating a game-winning two-run home run on July 16, which resulted in his team winning a sectional.
Following the celebration umpires initially ruled Rocco out, citing “unsportsmanlike conduct” and “horseplay,” but eventually awarded the runs on appeal — but ejected the boy and suspended him for the following game. This means that as it stands the 12-year-old stands to miss the first game of the New Jersey state tournament due to the suspension.
The Roccos family is requesting a court injunction to allow him to play. Technically he broke league rules by celebrating with a bat flip, but the family also says the ruling is extremely hypocritical considering that Little League itself posts videos of kids celebrating with bat flips without being ejected.
To this end the family has a serious point. In the past three years Little League has posted dozens of videos celebrating bat flips, which in turns sends a message to its players that it’s okay — only to now be suspended when they do it.
In addition there’s also an argument to be made that the 12-year-old was simply modeling behavior from Major League Baseball games, where bat flipping has become a part of the sport. In a statement the boy’s father, Joe Rocco, claims his son was caught completely unaware when he was ejected for bat flipping.
“He was so confused,” the father said. “He didn’t understand what was going on. On the car ride home he was saying ‘How can that be against the rules? If I knew I was breaking the rules I never would have done it.’”
It’s now up to either the New Jersey courts to block the ruling, or for Little League’s East Region headquarters to intervene considering the hypocrisy in the ruling. The game set to be missed is of monumental importance, as the winner of the state tournament advances to regionals for a chance to play in the Little League World Series.
