A youth baseball coach from Oklahoma who’s been banned for life by a national organization is speaking out.
Michael Ryals, the 38-year-old coach, has been accused of instructing his 12-year-old son to hurl a ball at the opposing team’s dugout.
“Man, I don’t want to be seen as the bad guy,” Ryals said during a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports. “…I don’t want to be hated. I don’t want my kid to be hated.”
The incident, which went viral after a video of it circulated on social media, took place when a team from Oklahoma coached by Ryals was playing a team from Nebraska during a tournament Memorial Day weekend in Kansas City. According to Ryals, the opposing team’s players were verbally abusive when his son was pitching.
“Just kids being ruthless kids,” Ryals said. “I don’t think any kid should be in trouble for what they said, but he (Ryals’ son) reached his breaking point.
“He told me he was going to throw the ball in between innings and I said, ‘There’s consequences for it. You should really think that through, but there is consequences for it.”
United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA), which sanctioned the tournament, not only has banned Ryals for life but also has suspended Ryals’ son for five years, according to USSSA CEO John Latella.
USA TODAY Sports is not publishing the name of Ryals’ son because he’s a minor.
Who’s responsible for what happened?
Ryals, when told it sounded like he was saying he was not responsible for what his son did, replied, “If they want to put the blame on me, I’ve let it ride on my shoulders. I’m his dad. I’m a grown man. I’m not going to answer that question because I don’t want people thinking he’s any worse than he is.”
Two people associated with the team coached by Ryals said the parents of players think Ryals told his son to throw the ball into the dugout. Those people spoke on the condition they not be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Brandon Magni, the coach of the opposing team, wrote on Facebook he thought Ryals was responsible for what happened.
Ryals’ son, 12, has thrived on the 11-and-under team. Even though he’s 12, he qualified for the 11-and-under division because he’s in the fifth grade, which triggered a “grade exemption.”
Magni, in a post on Facebook, said Ryals’ son threw a 70 mph fastball into Nebraska’s dugout and one of his players got hit, according to OutKick. The Facebook post has been deleted.
“Nobody was even possibly remotely hurt,” Ryals said, citing a chain link fence in the back of the dugout for absorbing the velocity of the thrown ball.
Ryals said he also knows his son never would have thrown the ball if he had told him not to.
“I mean, I have all my heart of regret,” he said.
