Chris Kelly says he deserved to be suspended by the Corner Brook Baseball Association, but he has a problem with the level of discipline handed out.
Kelly was suspended for 15 games for his conduct during the provincial junior A baseball final held at Jubilee Field in Corner Brook two weeks ago.
The 20-year Corner Brook native won’t be back on the diamond this year unless the West Side Monarchs — the team he plays with in the local senior baseball league — earn a berth in the league final.
He was among four players who were disciplined by the association for behaviour during the recent provincial tournament.
Brad Greene was suspended by the association for five games of senior ball with the Aces and 10 games of Barons baseball.
Two other team members — Tyler Gardner and Markus Tarbett — received one-game suspensions.
Kelly is not happy about it.
“For what I did, I didn’t think I deserved such a long suspension,” Kelly said.
Corner Brook Baseball Association president Jason Mosher said Kelly was suspended for leaving the Barons bench and going to the beer tent during the championship final against the Capitals and ripping up his Barons jersey and throwing it on the field.
Gardner and Tarbett received one game suspensions for leaving the bench and going to the beer tent during the championship final.
Greene was suspended for aggressive behavior towards the coaching staff, umpires and some of the players during the tournament and abuse of equipment.
“That kind of behaviour isn’t acceptable for anyone wearing a Barons jersey,” Mosher said.
Kelly, meanwhile, said that he told the coaching staff he wasn’t impressed with how things unfolded on the weekend. He said he expressed his disappointment over not being given a chance to play and didn’t like the fact some of the younger players saw the field and he didn’t play an inning in four games.
“For them not to even given me a shot; I just thought it wasn’t fair and I said a couple of things when the weekend was done,” he said.
Junior Barons coaches Christian Wareham, Cory Lockyer and Darrin O’Quinn would not do an interview on the suspensions when contacted.
