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.

[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!

[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.

[JRutledge]

This is just another attempt to soften our kids and make everyone feel good about themselves. I am so glad I am not a parent in this day and age, because I would be going crazy. I would especially feel upset by these middle class, “booshee” parents that think the way to success is to never allow your kids some failure. And this story is just another reason why I do not want to work games with little kids in the first place.

When I was a kid playing LL, we ran laps if we jumped out of the batter's box for thinking we were going to get hit by the baseball. I was scared just like other kids were of the baseball. Until I got tired of running laps and "Man Up" and stuck it out and became a rather good player. Then I made the All-Star team in my last year largely because it became our practices were much harder than games, I learned to play. That training helped me become a starter as a freshman a private school (which never happened) in Missouri. I would have never achieved that without being knocked down. Now we have a bunch of parents that cannot teach their kids come courage, they want to protect them from certain failure, instead of teaching them how to get better through adversity. Or instead of teaching them how to work harder and beat those pitchers the next time. When is this madness going to stop!!! No wonder we have kids cursing out their coach when they do not play. We never teach them how to rise above failure.

Peace

[ozzy6900]

Here is a follow up story on this matter.

From the New Haven Register :

Parents of 9-year-old, 'too good' for league, taking legal action
By Pamela McLoughlin, Register Staff

08/26/2008

NEW HAVEN — The fight between youth baseball league officials and one of its teams over a player whose pitching is said to be too good for batters is moving from the ball field to the legal field.

Leroy and Nicole Scott, whose fast-pitching son, Jericho, 9, is at the center of the dispute, met Monday, along with another player’s parents, with prominent attorney John Williams to see whether the season could be saved. Williams said Monday he will take legal action to try to get Jericho’s team into the upcoming playoffs, where they belong after an 8-0 season. He also will sue the league over the pain and suffering of Jericho and the other young players.

League officials offered to move the team’s 13 players to other squads after they tried to dissolve the team last week because the coach, Wilfred Vidro, refused to pull Jericho off the pitcher’s mound as requested by league officials.

Jericho’s pitches are so fast and accurate that league officials and some parents feared their kids weren’t able to play freely, league attorney Peter Noble said recently. All the players on Jericho’s team declined to move and are sticking together.

Williams says the league officials are out in left field.
“This is a terrible, terrible thing happening to these kids,” Williams said. “Not only does it spoil their summer and their childhood, but it tells them it’s more about winning than doing your best. Everything we value children in athletics for, this is the antithesis.”

Leroy Scott said Jericho remains sad about the situation, blaming himself for the team’s troubles, troubles that keep them from playing ball.

“He’s trying to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Leroy Scott said. “The kids are suffering because they were looking forward to the playoffs.

Scott said no one from the team of 13 has sided with the league, and league officials have declined to answer their many questions, leaving no choice but to approach the situation legally.

Parents will hold a car wash and other fundraisers to offset the cost of hiring Williams, known for being willing to tackle out of the ordinary cases.

Noble had no comment Monday, but said over the weekend the league has only the best interest of kids in mind and it is intended to be fun.

Vidro, who couldn’t be reached for comment, has said he never resigned, even though Noble has said that he did. When Vidro refused to remove Jericho from a game Wednesday, the other team walked off the field as Jericho began his warm-up pitches.

Vidro has said Jericho’s expert pitching should be looked upon favorably by other teams and parents because it will only help make their kids stronger players.

But Noble said Jericho’s pitches are so good that some of other children feel getting a hit is hopeless and are discouraged from the start. Noble admits Jericho’s pitches are not haphazard or apt to hit people.

The Scotts and Vidro said they believe league officials wanted Jericho off the mound because those officials wanted another team to win; a team that was in first place prior to Jericho’s appearance and is sponsored by Carlito’s Barber Shop, where a league official has a haircutting chair.

Noble said league officials are trying to find a traveling or other advanced team for Jericho, a New York Yankees and Alex Rodriguez fan. But Jericho’s mom, Nicole, said she wants him to feel good about using his talents on a team that could benefit most from his efforts.

Pamela McLoughlin can be reached at [email protected].


©New Haven Register 2008

Now the big problem with all of this is that the president of the league is the manager of what was the 2nd place team (now the 1st place team - surprise, surprise, surprise!).

Originally Posted by JRutledge

This is just another attempt to soften our kids and make everyone feel good about themselves. I am so glad I am not a parent in this day and age, because I would be going crazy. I would especially feel upset by these middle class, “booshee” parents that think the way to success is to never allow your kids some failure. And this story is just another reason why I do not want to work games with little kids in the first place.

I've been saying this for over 10 years now and people have been telling me that I was wrong. Well, here is the proof that the "sissy ways" and the coddling of the 1990's have finally caught up to us!

[Emperor Ump]

And I'm sure there havent been other pitchers like Randy Johnson who intimidated batters coming up the ranks.

I know there's a video of a MLB player bailing out on Johnson before he releases the pitch, but I can only find Johnson hitting the bird on YouTube right now.

These kids will be better for the experience if they win or lose.

[JugglingReferee]

Gretzky had the same problem - he excelled among kids his own age. Can they not move the player up an age group or two, (or three?), like they did with Gretzky. Obviously it worked... just look at history.

[jdmara]

Originally Posted by 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.

I agree Steve! It's different if he is throwing the ball at 55 mph and wild as heck but he is accurate! To me, this is like hitting a pitching machine You're not going to get hit Johnny, swing the stick!

-Josh

[gsf23]

This kinda stuff here is exactly why we will all be speaking chinese in 20 years.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

Gretzky had the same problem - he excelled among kids his own age. Can they not move the player up an age group or two, (or three?), like they did with Gretzky. Obviously it worked... just look at history.

Just because he can pitch at a higher level doesn't mean he can hit, field, run, etc. at the higher level. And should he be forced to move up a level? Shouldn't that be up to his parents?

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by gsf23

This kinda stuff here is exactly why we will all be speaking chinese in 20 years.

We might as well be, since some of us can't even spell "America" correctly.


Pssst....check your signature.