Controversy

After Monday's game there was an alleged altercation involving the visting clubhouse attendant and two members of the media; one from New Britain and the other from Hartford.

What I was told was that after speaking with Rock Cats manager Ricardo Ingram, the two men apraoched the New Britain starting pitcher for the game, who was eating his post-game meal.

Now this is not uncommon. The players respect that you are on deadline and have a job to do and in return, you make the questioning go as quickly as possible.

As the pitcher, Ryan Mullins agreed and began answering questions, the attendant -- who is an employee of the Defenders -- told the scribes that they were not allowed to talk to Mullins. Supposedly, the attendant got in the face of one writer and may have pushed him.

After the two writers left, supposedly the attendant followed them out onto the concourse, yelling at them and got in front of the same writer who may or may not have been pushed in an attempt to prevent him from going back to the press box. That writer allegedly pushed the attendant out of his way. As a result, the attendant claimed he was assaulted and is going to press charges.

How much of the above is accurate, I don't know. I do know the writers have recordings of part of the altercation and that they, as well as the attendant, have spoken to the police.

More than once in the course of when I returned from the Defenders' clubhouse that people tried to get one of the writers to stop working on hie stories and to talk with the police. The writer refused because he was on deadline and his livlihood is at stake if he misses deadline. he said once hsi work was sent, he would talk.

Some of the people who came to get the writer handled the situation professionally, while others did not.

I have an opinion on this, but reserve the right to voice it until I can hear more details.