Umpire offers his side of the on-field fight with Roosevelt Brown – The Vicksburg Post

Kendrick Wooten describes himself as a ‘laid-back person’ who is down to earth and does not get angry easily. As a former college baseball player and current high school coach, he said he’s seen enough arguments on the field to make them right

That’s why, he said, the situation he was involved in at Key City Park in Vicksburg on Oct. 12 seems so bizarre.

Wooten, who worked as a home plate umpire, was involved in an on-field altercation with coach Roosevelt Brown that went viral on social media and got both men suspended by one of Mississippi’s youth baseball sanctioning organizations.

Wooten contacted The Vicksburg Post on Saturday to tell his side of the story, a week after the incident and a day after Brown did the same.

“It was very, very strange. I have been a referee for at least five years. I am a former college baseball player myself. And I have never been involved in anything like this as a player, as a coach or as a referee,” said Wooten. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. It really shocked me. If anyone knows me, I’m a laid-back person who doesn’t bother anyone.”

Brown, a former Major League Baseball player who runs The Sandlot training facility in Vicksburg, coached his Sandlot Legends 9U team in a game against the Aggies from Choudrant, Louisiana, on Oct. 12.

Wooten, a 28-year-old who played baseball at Mississippi Valley State and is currently an assistant coach at Greenville High School, was the home plate umpire.

The incident began in the bottom of the third inning, when Wooten called a strike on a high pitch and Brown disputed the call while standing next to the first base dugout.

Wooten explained his call, then walked to the dugout and ejected Brown from the game. Neither Wooten nor Brown said they had had any confrontations with each other before that time.

“He kept going on about it, so I was like, ‘Okay. Coach, we’re not going to do this. I’m going to give you a warning.’ We kept going back and forth so I called the time and warned him. He kept talking, so I threw him out of the game,” Wooten said.

What happened next is the main point of the story. It’s also where Wooten and Brown vehemently disagree about the series of events.

Wooten said he walked up to Brown to make sure he left the field, while Brown said he thought Wooten was being overly aggressive.

“When I threw him out of the game, I walked over to make sure he left the park. “I didn’t walk up to him like I was trying to be aggressive with him,” Wooten said. “As I walked towards him, he kept talking. I said something like, ‘Coach, we’re not going to do this. I kicked you out of the game. Would you please leave the field?’ When I came closer to him, he scolded me with a blasphemous word and said: Get out of his sight.

Kendrick Wooten

A video on Facebook shows the altercation, but not the exact moment it became physical. The camera is focused on home plate and Wooten walked just out of frame as he approached the dugout.

Brown can be heard on the video saying, “You better back up,” but most of their verbal altercation is drowned out by the crowd noise.

Brown admitted he pushed Wooten away. Both men agree that someone threw a punch immediately afterwards, but disagree on who delivered the punch. Brown claims it was Wooten. Wooten claims it was Brown.

“When we were closer to each other, he waved at me and pushed me. When he swung, he missed, but he pushed me and we got into an altercation or something. I saw in the paper that he said I threw a punch, but I never punched. He’s the one who punched me and pushed me,” Wooten said. “He threw the punch and pushed me, so now I’m trying to defend myself.”

Brown also said he was trying to defend himself.

“Anyone with any sense will regret it. But do I regret defending myself? No, Brown said.

Wooten and Brown were out of the camera’s view when the confrontation turned physical. By the time they came back into view, they were at the bottom of a pile of bodies. Brown said he tackled Wooten, and both men were swarmed by other coaches who tried to break it up.

Only 10 seconds had passed from the moment Wooten sent Brown away to the moment they started fighting. It was broken off within a minute.

“Because we are there with 9-year-olds, I feel very sorry for those children. Those kids wanted to play baseball there. I was in the same shoes about 15, 17 years ago when I played USSSA ball,” Wooten said. “I felt bad because this isn’t me. I stepped out of character in front of a bunch of 9 year olds. In my head they are still babies.”

Wooten added that he doesn’t consider himself the type of person who looks for fights.

“I come from a good family, both on my mother’s side and my father’s side. I’m not the type of person to get aggressive with anyone else. For me to become aggressive, you have to do something to me,” he said.

Grand Slam, the sanctioning body for the tournament, has a rule that sets a line that neither coaches nor referees may cross during a dispute. It is designed to prevent incidents like this. Brown did not leave the dugout area, but Wooten crossed the imaginary line as he walked toward it.

Wooten said if he could do it again, he wouldn’t have approached Brown.

“After I threw him out, I should have called the (tournament) director and told him that I have a guy on the field who doesn’t want to leave and talks crazy or whatever, and I need someone to guide him, ” said Wouten. ‘That’s the only thing I really should have done. Other than that, I don’t really regret anything.”

In the aftermath of the incident, Grand Slam suspended both referees working the match — Wooten and Deatrin Cooper, who is also from Greenville — as well as Brown and his brother Michael from the tournament. Grand Slam sanctions a number of youth baseball tournaments in Mississippi.

Michael Brown also coached the Sandlot Legends and came to his brother’s rescue. The video shows him throwing at least one punch into the pile. Wooten said he was at the bottom of the pile and was not hit.

“(Michael) really touched me,” Roosevelt Brown said.

Cooper, who was working as an on-field umpire, came to Wooten’s aid in the scrum and was among those who tried to break up the scrum. He said Grand Slam simply suspended everyone involved and that he had no ill will about it.

“I can handle the suspension because we came out together. But the altercation had nothing to do with me,” Cooper said. “Kendrick did the right thing. He was protecting himself.”

Mississippi Grand Slam state director Mike Narmour said any suspensions will last until the organization completes its investigation. Because of possible legal action from everyone involved, he said he wasn’t sure when that would be.

Brown and Wooten both indicated they planned to file charges against the other. However, on Friday afternoon, Vicksburg Police Department Deputy Chief Mike Bryant said no active arrest warrants had been issued in the case.

“I have distanced myself from the situation. I have a real short-term memory. I won’t let something like that get under my skin,” Wooten said. “I spoke to my dad a few days ago and he said agree to it, so I stopped. I’ve been living the same life since it happened.”

The Sandlot Legends 9U team wrapped up the season with last weekend’s tournament in Vicksburg. The 11U team played at an event in Ridgeland this weekend, without the Brown brothers coaching them, and then won’t play again until the spring season begins in February.

Although they had clear differences, Brown and Wooten also agreed that they would like to resolve the Grand Slam situation and try to move past it. Wooten said he will simply try to keep his distance from Brown and his teams when they cross paths on the national travel ball circuit.

“If his team is in a tournament and I have to mention that age, I’m just not going to mention his games,” Wooten said. “I will avoid me and him. That is a solution for me.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post’s sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper’s 140-year history. The New Jersey native graduated from LSU. During his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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