Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY/NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES : Little League Dispute Grows Into a Mountain

Exactly what happened at a Little League game in Huntington Beach on a recent Sunday depends on who you talk to.

A 16-year-old umpire at that game at Edison High School says a parent, Robert E. Foster, 40, marched onto the field and punched him--several times.

Foster says he never raised a fist and that umpire C. J. Ellson and league officials have “made a mountain out of a mole hill.”

Nevertheless, Foster of Garden Grove was charged this week with misdemeanor assault and battery, and he agreed to surrender to the district attorney’s office.

According to Ellson, Foster and his wife, Diane, became verbally abusive after Ellson made two calls unfavorable to their son’s team. The umpire said he twice asked them to quiet down, but that Foster responded by slugging him four times.

Foster, however, contends that he only went onto the field after Ellson challenged him to fight.

“I didn’t hit him, as clear as my name is Robert E. Foster. I never even raised the right hand and I’m right-handed,” he said.

Foster said negative publicity has almost caused him to lose his job as a salesman for an Anaheim cabinet company and cost him $3,000 in attorney’s fees, not to mention the grief.

“My wife probably wouldn’t even be able to talk about this,” Foster said. “She hasn’t been able to function at work and all she does is cry every day. None of us have been sleeping.”

He also said he now regrets ever setting foot on the field two Sundays ago.

“I wouldn’t do that again for all the money in the world.”