Little League is all just good fun, right?
One Little League softball coach is under fire after she was recently caught on ESPN’s broadcast putting her hands on a player, appearing to shush her in a disciplinary manner.
But the incident has become less straightforward, as it appears that it happened between a mother and daughter: Camden-Wyoming (Delaware) head coach Shani Benson and pitcher Shai Benson.
At the end of the second inning in last week’s Delaware-New Jersey clash, Benson’s team entered the dugout as she began coaching them.
It quickly escalated as the player, appearing to be Benson’s daughter, spoke back to her mother and was quickly shushed with a stern finger to the lips that forced her into a full lean-back.
“It’s never good to put one’s finger/hand on anyone, period! It’s a bad look even if it’s her kid!” one X user wrote about the incident.
“Regardless of anything else, she wouldn’t coach another game. Ever,” another wrote.
Others on X felt differently about the incident.
“This is what snowflakes pass as physical assault nowadays? She put her finger over her mouth and told her to be quiet,” a user commented. “There had been a collision at 1B right before this and this girl was upset about it & talking trash. Coach was telling her to be quiet.”
“I just don’t understand the complaints. She didn’t hit the girl, she put her hand over her mouth and told her to be quiet,” another said. “That’s what a responsible adult should do when their daughter is running their mouth.”
It’s apparent, given the split response on X, the situation toes the line of what is acceptable in a setting where the discipline is on display for an entire team and, in this case, a world of viewers at home.
However, the mother-daughter development adds to the fallout of an already controversial situation.
Delaware went on to win the game, 3-1, to reach the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship, where Pennsylvania took the Bensons and Co. down, 5-4.
