Sports

SCL comes down hard on Peanuts, Backman

• South Georgia manager Wally Backman is suspended eight games, while reliever Mike Colacchio and first baseman Brandon Woolard get three games stemming from the Macon melee.

Paul Dehner Jr.

ALBANY — After a Monday that was full of deliberations and meetings, the South Coast League finally doled out punishment Tuesday for the brawl and forfeit last Friday in Macon.

And it came down hard with the stiffest penalties in the history of the league, particularly — and once again — for South Georgia Peanuts manager Wally Backman.

Backman accepted his third suspension of the season, this time an eight-game penalty for his team being pulled off the field.

Reliever Mike Colacchio was suspended three games for throwing at Macon’s Carlos Arroyo to ignite the brawl and Arroyo two games for walking to the mound with a bat in his hand. Peanuts first baseman Brandon Woolard also was given a three-game suspension — two of which he has already served — for bumping into an umpire earlier in that game.

But the brunt was unleashed upon Backman. Though not the acting manager during the scuffle and forfeit, having been tossed earlier in the game for arguing a home run call, he took responsibility for the actions of his assistant coaches in forfeiting the game and will serve the suspensions they would have been levied.

“The fundamental flaw is you can’t have games forfeited by pulling players off the field,” SCL CEO Jamie Toole said. Added Toole: “Benches clear, throwing at players — that happens. But most importantly, you can’t have forfeits. It doesn’t look good for the league, the team or people involved. It’s important this never happens again.”

Backman contends the forfeit would have occurred regardless, as the umpire told his assistant coach Larry Olenberger five more players would be ejected on top of the four already gone after the brawl with the Music in the seventh inning.

Backman also left three pitchers behind because they were short a hotel room. That would have left 14 of his 23 players unavailable when adding three more used up earlier in the game.

Admitting the team probably should have waited for the ruling to play out, Backman said the same result would have occurred even if he wouldn’t have had enough position players to fill nine spots when the game restarted.

And while it wasn’t Backman’s decision to forfeit, rather than make Olenberger and pitching coach Buddy York serve the games, he took on his assistant coaches’ suspension.

“I did think it was blown out of proportion,” Backman said. “We did it the way we did it because initially I wouldn’t have had coaches because they were all being suspended. I’ll take full responsibility for the coaches‚ actions. But it doesn’t merit what it is.”

This was Backman’s third individual suspension this season. He was given three games for bumping an umpire in a loss at Aiken June 12 and three games again for an altercation in the press box after a loss at Anderson on June 26.

But Tuesday, once again the former major leaguer expressed discontent, feeling the situations have been magnified because of his name.

“Everybody has put a bulls-eye, especially on my back,” Backman said.

Toole claims otherwise, despite this being the third incident with the Peanuts in a month and a half.

“At some point, you do question, ‘Is this problem just with team or isolated incidents that have happened?’ At the end of day, I don’t think we ever try to go into it saying we are tired of these guys; it’s not that approach. We have to handle it as an isolated event.”

The event leaves the Peanuts without a manager — again. Yet, the team is 6-0 when Backman is suspended this year, though, it still represents a significant loss.

“We lose some intensity,” Colacchio said. “Wally brings such a presence when he is the game and in the dugout. That is the biggest thing. (We miss) his presence being out there, making calls and telling people what to do.”

But for players like Jasha Balcom, the games continue and winning remains the top priority, regardless of distractions.

“We are professionals, we know what our approaches are, our jobs are,” he said. “We know what he expects of us. It is a little bit different, but we know what we have to do. We know regardless after the game if we don’t do our job, we are going to have to talk to Wally.”

Toole just hopes he won’t have to again. With 35 games left in the season, the league would like to avoid more issues. For all the negatives which have stemmed from the Peanuts games, there also have been equally as many positives.

Three South Georgia players have been signed back to affiliated baseball and the team dominated its way to the first-half championship, going 33-11.

And Toole says he isn’t looking to toss Backman out of the league, even if another suspension-worthy “event” occurred.

“The league has no grudge against the Peanuts,” said Toole, adding the South Coast League is unique in that it owns all six teams. “We are all in this thing together. We don’t look at it as one more action and he’s gone. It’s important to not be looking for reasons to come out and punish.

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