The London Majors and Toronto Maples Leafs are facing suspensions and fines following a semi-final game disruption that stemmed from alleged racial slurs.
During Game 4 of the best-of-seven series on Wednesday, both teams cleared the benches during the middle of the fourth inning following a close play at third base. During an exchange, it is alleged that racial slurs were uttered by the Leafs towards multiple London players. When play was set to resume, the Majors pulled their team off the field in protest, which delayed the game for over an hour.
IBL Commissioner John Kastner says, while the Intercounty Baseball League continues to investigate the alleged racial comments, Majors manager Roop Chanderdat was handed a one game suspension for pulling his team off the field. The Majors were also fined $1,000 for causing the delay.
As well, Kastner says after the game resumed in the fourth inning, one of Toronto's players released his grip on the bat, sending it flying in the direction of London's pitcher. As a result Leafs manager Damon Topolie was also issued a one game suspension. It is unknown if the bat throwing was intentional.
Both Chanderdat and Topolie served their suspensions during Game 5 on Friday.
In addition, a "performance bond" of $2,000 from each team will be forfeited if another incident takes place during a future game.
Kastner says, since Wednesday, he's received written submissions from both teams and the game's umpires, detailing the events that led to the alleged racial slurs and game disruption.
"Given the seriousness of the allegations, there's going to be some more fact finding that will take place. It will involve some personal interviews... it is going to be a thorough fact finding, so we can make a determination as to what transpired," he says. "The opinions are very polarized as to what happened. Toronto's version of events is decidedly different than London's. They bare no resemblance to one another."
The IBL commissioner says he is expecting the investigation will take around two weeks to complete.
"We're maybe ten to 14 days away from that," says Kastner. "I think that creates a better environment for us to get an objective and less emotional account as to what transpired."
Kastner says the incident during Game 4 has also led to even stricter regulations within the league.
"We did put four or five other measures in place, which are to ensure the completion of games in an orderly fashion, and to avoid a situation like we had the other night," he says.
If any IBL teams fails to follow these regulations, Kastner says they could be forced to forfeit a game, or they may face suspensions and fines.