Legion baseball - you can't make this stuff up

Over the years some of the most bizarre things I've covered have occurred in American Legion tournaments. They just seem to be a magnet for weird and wacky things to occur. Games ending at nearly 3 in the morning, juiced up scores the later you get into the tournaments and verbal spats between opposing fans.
But some of the things that happened Friday at the state tourney in Arlington Heights were absolutely off-the-charts strange. To think the day actually started with a ho-hum 4-2 win by Palatine and Clint Terry to eliminate Elk Grove.
When I arrived at Rec Park on Friday afternoon the score was 15-14 (apparently Mattoon went for two and got it). Then I found out that Rock Island led 12-1 and was on the verge of winning by the 10-run rule after seven innings when Mattoon rallied for a lead it carried into the ninth inning. Naturally, Rock Island loaded the bases and a couple of hits that found holes later, it now led 18-15. Of course Mattoon loads the bases, but a pair of strikeouts end the threat and now Palatine-Belleville are starting about an hour late.
Going into the fifth inning, it's an excellent pitcher's duel between Palatine's Mike Schoolcraft and Belleville's Tyler Rybicki. Naturally, there's no way there can be a game like this at this point, so the hit parade begins and Belleville takes a 13-12 lead into the eighth.
Then came one of the scariest things I've seen. With a runner on first, Palatine's Ryan Shober bunts and the third baseman fires to second and hits base umpire Bill Orris in the head. I've gotten to know "Father Bill" (Yes, he's a preacher in real life) through baseball, football and basketball and his kids' participation in sports locally, and he's one of the nicest people you'll meet. Fortunately, after a few minutes on the ground he was able to get up and actually finish the game. So Palatine scores 4 runs and goes on to win.
I went over to the Legion hall to do my stories since now Belleville-Rock Island have an elimination game to play which starts around 8:15. It's also a race against time since Rec Park has an 11 p.m. curfew (because of a state tourney game years ago that ended in the wee hours of the morning and made nearby residents a bit unhappy.). A little after 10 p.m. I head out to see what's going on and there's a huddle on the field of umpires and Legion officials and players milling around on the field with Belleville ahead 9-4 in the sixth. Someone says there's a discussion of a protest by Rock Island made a couple of innings earlier regarding a misinterpreted ruling of an interference call.
After a lengthy discussion, it's determined the protest is correct and the game will revert to the top of the fourth where the play occurred with Belleville up 7-4. Of course, now it's about 25 minutes to 11 and there's no way in Hades of finishing this game, so it's decided to suspend it until 10 a.m. Saturday with the championship to follow.
I'm telling you, WHO COULD MAKE THIS STUFF UP!!!! There's nothing quite like Legion ball for this kind of craziness.