I'm On The Fence.

[stroh]

9 year old kicked out because he pitches too fast.

Lots of facets to this story.  Pretty difficult to take an easy stance.

I didn't realize until the end that it's a developmental league, and co-ed at that.

I wouldn't want my 10 year old girl (playing for the first or second year) to face him.  Simply because she would be too scared to stand in and swing that she wouldn't get anything out of it.

Apparently he has outstanding control which is good.  I guess I also believe he should be allowed to play, and disbanding his team was probably the wrong idea.

I dunno.  Tough one.

Interested in Coach Blader's take.

[1puttpar]

I read the article as well.  Seems to me they could have found a league that he would "fit" in with.  I assume of this was a developmental league, they would have something on an upper level.  If not, then he should play.

[Blader]

File this under "Goofy adult over reactions"

I've noticed that is the age group in baseball where you see the widest spread between the over-reactors and those who are ready to let the kids play ball.

40mph is fast for that age group, but not what I'd remotely consider out of the ordinary.  IIRC, a handful of kids in Blader Jr's league, including Blader Jr., were throwing that hard back then, maybe a few a touch faster.  And it wasn't a very big league, 6 or 8 teams of 9 and 10 year olds.

Blader Jr's (12U) ball team faced a kid this summer who we figured was probably throwing 80-85.  From 50 feet, that ball was on the kids pretty damn fast.  I think we got a few foul tips off of him.  Our kids were asking him for his autograph after the game.

[hobbit]

The article I read yesterday also added some intrigue about the kid opting to play for this team rather than another team.  The other team is run by the sponser of the league, and it indicated this *may* be political payback.  Which is sickening at the 9 year old level.  But this could also be exuberent reporting, where there is no fire to support their smoke.

Regardless, disbanding the team is adult bull*feces* at its worst.

[Spanky]

I think it's stupid. You're too good so you can't play? Dumb.

I really am begining to hate parents at games, especially baseball. My oldest is in a league and the coaches and some parents are just too competitive. The kids just want to play. I see it in soccer too. Some parents and coaches are all about winning and not teaching the kids. They should be banned.

Anyway my $.02 is let him play. There are pitch count rules so he is either going to pitch once a week or part of an inning every game. Either way there are other kids on the team that can play too. Otherwise they wouldn't be undefeated.

[Blader]

The article I read yesterday also added some intrigue about the kid opting to play for this team rather than another team.  The other team is run by the sponser of the league, and it indicated this *may* be political payback.  Which is sickening at the 9 year old level.  But this could also be exuberent reporting, where there is no fire to support their smoke.

Regardless, disbanding the team is adult bull*feces* at its worst.

Youth baseball is rife with payback.  So I don't have trouble believing that might have been a motivation, even though 9 is a bit young for those kinds of games, it is not beyond the scope of what I've seen.

But I've also seen an entire groups of dads grab their balls and bats and walk out of a rec league and form their own travel teams---a rec league where even handicapped kids have played before--because they thought the rules were "too competitive" and pushed their kids too hard.  So I can believe that, too.

Ultimately, these matters seem to turn on control issues.  Someone just wants to be in control, even if the alternative they offer is inferior to the regime they displace.

[stroh]

 

[Clive]

League officials say they first told Vidro that the boy could not pitch after a game on Aug. 13. Jericho played second base the next game on Aug. 16. But when he took the mound Wednesday, the other team walked off and a forfeit was called.

League officials say Jericho’s mother became irate, threatening them and vowing to get the league shut down.  “I have never seen behavior of a parent like the behavior Jericho’s mother exhibited Wednesday night,” Noble said.  Scott denies threatening any one, but said she did call the police.

She called the police because a pre-Little League team forfeited a game?  Where's that Stupid 911 Calls thread again?

League officials suggested that Jericho play other positions, or pitch against older players or in a different league.  Local attorney John Williams was planning to meet with Jericho’s parents Monday to discuss legal options.  “You don’t have to be learned in the law to know in your heart that it’s wrong,” he said. “Now you have to be punished because you excel at something?”

I don't have a huge problem with asking him to move up a class.  Considering he's in a development league, and a coed one at that, he may very well pitch too fast for the kinds of kids in that league.  If he really is that good, why wouldn't his parents want him to move up?  Kids "play up" competitively in tennis and golf all the time.

And it's not "punishment" -- it's your kid being so good at something that he's competitive against older, bigger, stronger kids.

[Uisce Beatha]

I'm on the wall. 

[gleek]

The intent of having separate age classes is to group kids of similar physical development into the same league in some quantifiable manner. If some kid is obviously physically superior to the other kids in the same age class, he should be forced to play in a higher class.

[Clive]

And Scott is just a kid who shouldn't be playing in the LJB, the Liga Juvenil de Baseball de New Haven. Forget the legal ramifications for a minute and deal with the player himself. Scott is good enough to pitch in a much better league -- and that league, the Dom Aitro Pony League for all-star teams, is already available to him.

In fact, Scott plays in it when he isn't suiting up for the Will Power Fitness team in the LJB.  But in that other league, Jericho doesn't dominate.  And that, I suspect, is the real genesis of this story.

"We'd just move him up," said one of my colleagues, a man who runs a youth baseball league in California.

That's dead-on accurate. The most common response to a dominant player in kids' sports is to move him or her up to the next level of competition -- an older age group, a higher classification of league, whatever remedy is available....

In the case of Scott, he already has been given that opportunity. As a member of that advanced, Dom Aitro Pony League, Scott is a good player -- but not the best. He is the No. 4 pitcher on his staff, good enough to go against the top players in the area, but not guaranteed of a blowout victory every time he steps on the mound.

So what is this kid doing in the LJB, a league that is made up significantly of kids playing baseball for the first time? Why were he and another Pony League all-star added to the Will Power Fitness team in midseason?

Why, when the LJB organizers realized that Scott, as a pitcher, was a comical mismatch against the competition, were their offers to move him to a higher age group rejected by the boys' parents, who are now suing for relief and emotional distress?

EDITORIAL