Moments after going down to defeat at the Little League World Series, two players from the Coon Rapids Little League team shamed themselves, their team and the city and state they represent by spitting into their hand before shaking hands with the winners from Arizona. "We kinda noticed it a little bit when they shook our hands cause after the game, after we went into the dugout, all our hands were wet and we were like, ‘where did that come from 'cause it wasn't raining?," said Arizona pitcher Skylar Palermo.
One of the offending players, Tanner Lowe, is Coon Rapids head coach Mark Lowe's son. Lowe was the hero for Coon Rapids in several previous games, but was the losing pitcher in this game giving up seven runs in the fifth inning. The other offending player was Cody Herrmann.
Unfortunately, the disgraceful spitting act is not an isolated incident for Lowe.
During a game in the District One Classic, the 235-pound Lowe purposely lowered his shoulder and ran over an opposing catcher trying to score a run. Contrary to Little League rules he was not ejected from the game although he was called out. Lowe got up and went laughing back to the dugout while the injured catcher had to be removed from the game.
At the state tournament, after a rocky performance, Lowe was removed from the mound by his coaches and responded by throwing his glove over the dugout. Again, umpires failed to act upon this unacceptable behavior.
According to Little League sources in Coon Rapids this type of unchecked behavior was a regular occurance with Lowe. Perhaps because of his size, perhaps because of great abilities as a player.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune chose not to print the names of the offending players from the World Series spitting incident. In not naming them however, this implicates every one of the other 11 boys on the team. What happened and who did it are no secret. The game was seen from coast to coast on ESPN with their faces and the hideous act caught on camera. The Star Tribune is more than happy to give their names when it's about hitting homeruns and game winning hits, but it's a secret when they behave badly. On the flip side, KSTP-TV named Lowe in their original report of the incident the day after the event.
