Two volunteer coaches from the Lake Bluff Youth Baseball Association, located in Lake Bluff on Chicago’s North Shore, have been summarily and justifiably fired for stripping naked on the field in front of their twelve-year-old players at a tournament at Cooperstown All-Star Village in Oneonta, New York. If that weren’t bad enough, their actions got the team disqualified. If that weren’t bad enough, the coaches had reportedly been drinking. And if that weren’t bad enough, these adult men with the maturity and judgment of ten-year-old neanderthals (no offense to neanderthals) mocked and berated the boys who were distraught over what these coaches’ repugnant actions cost them.
Here is the painful and enraging dialogue recorded by one of the boys:
Coach One mocking the upset boys: What did we do wrong? What did we do wrong? We had some fun.
Boy [upset]: You’re disgraceful!
Coach One [mocking]: Oh my God. Oh my God. The disgrace of it all. Oh my god. Go to your hotel room with your parents if you’re so disgraced.
…
Boy: A parent took a photo.
Coach One [mocking]: Oh my god. The shocking, the horror of a photo. The horror. Who took the photo? Who took the photo? I want to know who took that photo.
Coach Two: Who took the photo of me naked running, sliding around?
Coach One: [sarcastically] Who took the photo? Who did that? Who? What? [sarcastically] The atrocity of that is terrible. It’s terrible. It’s an embarrassment to Lake Bluff baseball.
Boys [upset]: It … is!
Coach One: [sarcastically] Oh my god, it is.
Boy insistent: Yes, it is!
Coach One: [sarcastically] Really?
Boy [upset]: Yes.
Coach One: Why? Why? Why is it an embarrassment?
Boy [upset]: Two drunk coaches stripped.
Coach One: We’re so drunk. We’re so drunk. Really? Am I that drunk?
Boy [upset]: What would make you guys strip?
Coach One: It’s a joke. Take a joke. It’s humor. It’s a funny little act. Little act.
Boy [upset, talking about a teammate]: He’s crying.
Coach One: Yeah. He needs to relax.
Boy [upset]: He never cries in his life.
Coach One: Oh, really. Oh, really.
Boy [upset]: I’ve never seen him cry ever.
Coach One [sarcastically]: Oh my God. We’re going to get kicked out of Lake Bluff baseball. And what’s going to happen with your life? … You’re crying. Really?
Boy [upset]: You’re a disgrace!
Coach One: Oh, really? You’re not a disgrace. Really? What did we do wrong? We’re a disgrace. What did we do wrong? We had some fun. Oh my god. Oh my god. The disgrace of it all. Oh my god. Go to your hotel room with your parents if you’re so disgraced. Please.
There is a hero in this shocking mess of the coaches’ making. It is the young boy whose voice we hear on the recording–the boy with the wisdom to recognize injustice and immorality, and the courage to stand up to a bully twice his size and probably four times his age.
Apparently, these two volunteer coaches never read the Lake Bluff Youth Baseball Association’s policies, which include this: “A Coach is a Role Model WhoIs sensitive to the player’s mental, physical and emotional character.”
Even the players are prohibited from using “obscene … gestures at any time.” At least the boys on the team recognized that stripping naked in public constitutes an obscene “gesture”—not a joke or a funny little act.
Every June in communities all around this country, men shamelessly parade down main streets naked or half-naked—in front of children. Chicago hosts an annual naked bike ride (coming up in just five days)—in front of children. In NYC; Madison Wisconsin; Portland, Oregon, and Fort Collins, Colorado, women are legally permitted to go topless in pubic—in front of children. And we now have grown men undressing in women’s locker rooms—in front of children. So, we shouldn’t be surprised when two grown men indulge in their exhibitionist fantasies—in front of children.
Either physical embodiment has meaning, or it doesn’t. Either modesty matters, or it doesn’t.
Ideas have consequences.