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Chris got banned from the Great Western Series which became the Pan Am. He got banned at the Hawaii leg, on the North Shore of Oahu at Turtle Bay when he was playing a Hawaiian team on the "Show" field filled with inflateable bunkers, right in front of everyone at the trade show.
While I don't agree with what he did, I do understand what he did and I might actually do the same thing...this doesn't excuse what he did and it should always be cause for a large penalty...what happened? Well, he shot out a player on the Show Tape, then the player stepped off the field, and proceeded to shoot Chris four times, Chris spun and emptied his hopper on the dead player...much yelling and shouting ensued, much of it from the watching players. The real reason he was banned? because he was still on probation from and incident at Pendleton the year before that involved minors and a fight. Chris was in tears at the awards ceremony, but his teammate, Dan had to ban him. Dan also banned another pro player at the Pan Am Las Vegas 1-on-1 last December for throwing a fit at a decision and kicking a bunker.
I think that players that have a history of bad behavior, whether justified or not, need to have some sort of penalty levied against them if they act out...especially if an organizer (series or just for the tournament) grabs his "package" and talks to the possible offender before the tournament, putting him on notice that if anything happens, penalties will fly, AND be enforced.
Those of you local will remember that (not just at tournaments) there have been "tankings" (a tank making contact with someone's head makes a surprisingly clear sound), rocks being swung, and plain fights breaking out. Luckily, there usually are clearer heads nearby and everyone jumps on the combatants and it usually comes to naught (being short has it's advantages...the haymakers just go over your head and hit someone else
)...parents sometimes are the offenders, but none of that should be tolerated at all, especially at a major tournament. I know of one guy who cost his team a tournament because he started bonus balling a ref...possibly something stronger should've been done, after all, he dumped at least 30 balls on the "offending" ref. but I believe they just basically pulled all his surviving teammates and slapped a major penalty on his team, making it impossible for them to even think about making it into the semi's. And to make things worse, I bunkered one of them later and made them scream like a girl...oh wait, she was a girl...
The organizers can make a difference...if they choose to.
Ray "you know who I am" N.
