Accused of Hitting Little League Umpire, Man Must Write on Sporting Behavior

A Garden Grove father charged with assaulting a 16-year-old umpire during a Little League game was ordered by a judge Wednesday to write a 1,000-word essay on the “proper behavior of spectators at a sporting event.”

Robert Foster, 41, faced a maximum of six months in prison after he pleaded no contest to assault and battery. On June 15, Foster marched onto the Edison High School baseball field in Huntington Beach and reportedly slugged the umpire who had made two calls against the baseball team of Foster’s 15-year-old son.

Orange County Municipal Judge Michael J. Beecher also placed Foster on three years’ probation and ordered him to pay $950 in fines and perform 80 hours of community service. He also banned Foster from Little League games without the written approval of a probation officer.

Outside the courtroom, Foster said that the incident “was just a misunderstanding” and that he worried about how the publicity would affect his children’s desires to play in high school and community sports.

“I just hope my kids keep playing ball; that’s all I’m concerned with,” he said.

In deciding against a prison sentence, Beecher said the defendant already had been “exposed to a great deal of extremely unfavorable publicity, and if he continues to live in the area, he will find it a handicap.”

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph P. D’Agostino said the sentence was a “wise decision” by the judge, who dismissed a Probation Department recommendation that Foster be sent to jail.

“Basically what he said is that this would not be worth jail time just because a lot of people are interested” in the case, D’Agostino said.

The umpire, C. J. Ellson, had filed a complaint with Huntington Beach police saying Foster and his wife, Diane, became verbally abusive when Ellson made two calls against their son’s team.

Foster then came down from the bleachers and hit the umpire four times before other spectators could intervene, the complaint said.

Foster originally pleaded innocent to the charge, saying he only raised his left hand when the umpire challenged him to a fight.