Police: Umpire Threatened After Parent Ejected

In an apparent case of "sports rage," an unidentified parent of a player was accused of making "terroristic threats" against an umpire at a Little League baseball game in Skippack Township, the Pennsylvania State Police said Monday.

The umpire, a Collegeville resident, was calling a June 3 game at when a parent was ejected from the stands for what police called "obnoxious and rude behavior including using profanity." After being ejected, the parent allegedly made threats towards the umpire. Police said the investigation is ongoing.

Incidents such as this one have received increased news coverage in recent years, but experts differ on whether parental or "sports" rage at youth sports events is a worsening trend or a phenomenon created by the media.

One 2004 study found that more than half of 340 parents who attended their children's soccer games in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. experienced anger during the games. 40 percent of those people said they responded to their anger with actions that ranged from muttering to themselves to yelling and walking towards the field.