
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 10, 1993                   TAG: 9306100009
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUIT SWINGS FOR THE FENCE OVER SOFTBALL RIGHTS

When our founding fathers wrote about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, were they thinking about softball?

Henry H. Craighead thinks so. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, he says a Roanoke umpire violated his constitutional rights by unjustly throwing him out of a game sponsored by the city softball league.

Craighead, coach of the Bee Bo women's softball team, says the "willful and wanton acts" of city recreation officials didn't stop there. His team was disqualified from another game, he claims, on trumped-up charges that it didn't have enough players.

The coach is taking his case to a higher umpire in Roanoke Circuit Court, where he filed a lawsuit seeking $4 million in damages.

Four million dollars?

Craighead, the suit explains, had been "harassed, intimidated and embarrassed." He has suffered "great mortification, humiliation, shame, vilification, exposure to public infamy, injury to his good reputation, and has been and will forever be hampered in his pursuit of happiness."

Although the lawsuit named the city of Roanoke as the only defendant, most of the allegations involved umpires hired by the Parks and Recreation Department.

Following his team's disqualification, the suit claims, an umpire ejected Craighead from a later game for no other reason than he "had to get Craighead before the season was over."

Craighead, whose reputation as a civil rights champion recently led Roanoke's NAACP branch to name him its citizen of the year, filed the lawsuit himself.

Among his past legal efforts, Craighead has fought a federal procedure that allows judges to fine people who bring frivolous lawsuits. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

"You can quote me as laughing," City Attorney Wilburn Dibling said when asked for his reaction to the lawsuit.

"The courts don't exist for the purpose of reviewing the actions of umpires in amateur sports contests," Dibling said. "I think this reflects a sad commentary on the over-emphasis of what are supposed to be games."

by CNB