Too good for LL . . .

[greymule]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,410162,00.html

I accidentally appended this to the crossword puzzle thread, but here it is to start a new one.

[mick]

What a predicament for all concerned.
Glas I'm just readin' about it and not dealin' with it.

[kylejt]

Jeez! We had a kid that was throwing 55mph at age nine. Some kids even cried before they went into the box to face him. But ya know what? The league got better for it, started playing up to HIS level, and that propelled them to Williamsport. This kid ended up striking out 18 in six innings in WP, and is now playing on a scout team for the Angels. But the whole league got better because of his skills, instead of sending him elsewhere.

[canadaump6]

When I was 13, the local league I played in had very unbalanced teams. Some were made up of weaker players (such as myself), while others had guys who had devestating speed from 55 feet. We had a lot of "games" where we played 4 and a half innings, were lucky to get more than 2 plate appearances per player, most of us struck out at least once, and after an hour and 15 minutes we were done because of a 10 run mercy rule. Nobody improved, the games were a waste of time, the dominant teams acted like jerks, and our team left with a bad taste in our mouths.

It looks like we have another stacked little league team. They should let the pitcher and his team dominate the remainder of the season, then at the end of the year have all coaches fill out skills evaluations for each player. These evaluations can be kept over the winter, and the next year they should hold a day where all kids in the league have their skills evaluated a second time. The coaches can then hold a meeting where they draft players based on both evaluations, so that every team has an equal mix of "A", "B", "C" and "D" players.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Originally Posted by canadaump6

When I was 13, the local league I played in had very unbalanced teams. Some were made up of weaker players (such as myself), while others had guys who had devestating speed from 55 feet. We had a lot of "games" where we played 4 and a half innings, were lucky to get more than 2 plate appearances per player, most of us struck out at least once, and after an hour and 15 minutes we were done because of a 10 run mercy rule. Nobody improved, the games were a waste of time, the dominant teams acted like jerks, and our team left with a bad taste in our mouths.

It looks like we have another stacked little league team. They should let the pitcher and his team dominate the remainder of the season, then at the end of the year have all coaches fill out skills evaluations for each player. These evaluations can be kept over the winter, and the next year they should hold a day where all kids in the league have their skills evaluated a second time. The coaches can then hold a meeting where they draft players based on both evaluations, so that every team has an equal mix of "A", "B", "C" and "D" players.

Buck up and get in the box...

First guy to make contact is a hero on your "unbalanced" team...

It's not like you see this guy every game...

Take it as a challenge...

[SanDiegoSteve]

When I was nine and in Little League (I know this isn't a LL, but it's the same age group) we had this one left handed big kid in LL Minors that could really throw hard. We didn't have radar guns back then (as we had to get to our games in horse and buggy ), but this kid could bring it! Nobody gave us a break, nobody even thought twice about it. We had to buck up and take our hacks. He struck me out quite a few times. But I remember the day I got a triple off him, too. He made everyone better by being that good.

One other thing that bothers me about this BS case is that the parents said that the kids are scared, but that the boy is a very accurate pitcher. If he's that accurate, what do they have to be scared of? I could see it if he was really wild and was nailing batters left and right, putting kids in the hospital with broken bones. But he's accurate!!! Jeez, what a bunch of mama's boys on these other teams. If I were one of the teammates of this pitcher, I wouldn't accept reassignment to one of the teams that wussed out. I'd rather not play, thank you.

[canadaump6]

Originally Posted by Nigel Tufnel

Buck up and get in the box...

First guy to make contact is a hero on your "unbalanced" team...

It's not like you see this guy every game...

Take it as a challenge...

I don't know why you think it is fun to get owned by some team, knowing that the challenge of hitting this pitcher is way above our heads. Are you really serious in saying that youth non-competetive baseball leagues should have stacked teams? Think about all the time, money and fun gone to waste.

[ozzy6900]

Originally Posted by greymule

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,410162,00.html

I accidentally appended this to the crossword puzzle thread, but here it is to start a new one.

First off, this is not a LL league. They are not affiliated with LL in any way. They are a local league made up of 4 teams that play each other and sometimes play neighborhood teams. I am not an advocate of LL but it is unfair to the LL Organization to associate this story with them.

Now, I have seen this young boy throw and in my opinion, he is no threat to anyone at all. He is nowhere near as fast or accurate as my son was at 9 years of age but he is darn good for his age. If he continues, I'll probable see him in HS Varsity down the road. Personally, I think that the parents of the opposing teams are a bunch of wimps that need to get their noses out of the kid's games but then as I stated above, this is a private league that uses a ton of "home rules". Their "rule book" is almost a thick as the OBR book is!

I am interested in this story because my son was throwing close to 60 MPH at age 9 and he was the 2nd rated pitcher in the LL association at the time! He had kids afraid of him too, but neither the league nor the parents ever pulled the crap as in this story. Even when he drilled a poor kid in the hand (the batter's fault) and broke the kid's fingers, my son was never asked to stop pitching. In fact, he was encouraged by all the coaches to continue pitching!