But Stepinac coach Pat Duffy, who was also suspended, said Stampfel (above), who is also the Mount St. Michael coach, is using selecting enforcement of the rules. (Kendall Rodriguez)
CHSAA baseball commissioner Wally Stampfel has handed down a one-game suspension to Archbishop Stepinac coach Pat Duffy and Moore Catholic coach Nick Doscher for failing to use authorized umpires for a league game Saturday at Pace University, The Post has learned.
The punishment was handed down Tuesday afternoon by Stampfel, who opted against replaying the game, which was won by Stepinac, 5-3.
“We’re going to honor the handshake agreement between the two coaches to play the game and the result will stand,” Stampfel told The Post. “However, because both coaches came to an agreement that was in direct violation of our by-laws, they’re each going to be suspended for one game.”
According to Section V, subsection A of the CHSAA baseball bylaws: “Officials are to be appointed by either a recognized officials bureau or other group recommended by the coaches and approved by the leagues’ Executive Boards. Bureaus not approved by the league may not be used in any competition (Fall and non-league included).”
Paul Gilvary, who is the president and assigner of North Shore Baseball Umpires Assignors Incorporated, said the game wasn’t on Arbitersports.com, the official site coaches and umpires use to find out about scheduled games.
The first time he was informed of a potential problem was an email from Stepinac athletic director Mike O’Donnell at 1:05 p.m., a little less than an hour before the scheduled start time.
Gilvary wasn’t able to check his email until 2:30 p.m. and by that time the coaches decided to use parents from both teams to work the game.
“There’s a lot of changes in the baseball schedule,” Gilvary said. “It’s very fluid, a lot based on the weather, but also a lot of other factors. I think what happened here was just an honest mistake. I think Stepinac just forgot to get me that change.”
Duffy said he’s been unable to access the site because the computers at Stepinac have been down since April 26 as the school switches servers and when he realized there would be a problem, he frantically called around for umpires but it was too late.
“It was either send Moore home after an hour-and-a-half ride or try and find qualified umpires,” Duffy said. “Moore had a guy there, one of the parents who does public school games and a former player in the CHSAA. I had no issues with it. We found another guy [a Stepinac parent] who does Little League games to work the bases.”
“We agreed to it and agreed not to argue any calls,” Duffy added. “We played the game without incident. The game was over and now the league feels we overstepped our bounds and we should have notified them. The commissioner said he would have sent Moore Catholic home. We’re going to have to serve a one-game suspension. We just wanted to have the boys play baseball.”
Both coaches were informed about the suspensions Tuesday. Doscher said he’d likely sit out Wednesday’s league game against St. Peter’s, but he’ll do so begrudgingly.
“We had a handshake agreement [to use parents as umpires],” Doscher said. “I was upset we played the game and lost. But I get punished? It’s bizarre. The other option was to do what? Get everyone back in cars and head back to Staten Island without playing the game? We’re the visiting team. We’re not responsible for the umpires. I don’t feel like I’ve done anything wrong.”
Stepinac plays Spellman on Wednesday, but Duffy didn’t say if he’ll serve his one-game ban then. He was coaching Tuesday afternoon when the Crusaders lost to Salesian, 7-2.
“I’m waiting to hear from my athletic director,” Duffy said. “I’m not sure.”
Duffy said Stampfel, who is also the Mount St. Michael coach, is selectively enforcing the bylaw.
“Over the last 10 years, I’ve personally witnessed games considered scrimmages, fall baseball games umpired by coaching staffs including Mount St. Michael,” Duffy said. “He’s enforcing a statute in the by-laws and yet he was calling balls and strikes in the fall game. I asked him why that was OK and all he said was that he was covered by the insurance because he’s a full-time employee at Mount.”
Stampfel also issued a similar suspension to Stepinac freshman coach Chris Mentrasti and Cardinal Spellman junior varsity coach Michael Fichter for using unauthorized umpires for a scrimmage on Sunday.
“Nobody contacted me before the game to get my input and if you’re going to do something in violation of the by-laws, you should probably contact someone who is in charge of enforcing the by-laws,” Stampfel said. “We can’t just have any old person umpiring one of our games. Had somebody gotten hurt, it would have been a very bad situation.”
