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This is just so wrong on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin.  Jericho Scott (Spelling errors corrected.) JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer wrote:
Mon Aug 25, 7:17 PM - ET NEW HAVEN, Conn.
Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player — too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.
Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho's team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho's coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.
But Vidro says he didn't quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league's field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch.
"He's never hurt any one," Vidro said. "He's on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?"
The controversy bothers Jericho, who says he misses pitching.
"I feel sad," he said. "I feel like it's all my fault nobody could play."
Jericho's coach and parents say the boy is being unfairly targeted because he turned down an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of one of the league's administrators.
Jericho instead joined a team sponsored by Will Power Fitness. The team was 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when Jericho was banned from pitching.
"I think it's discouraging when you're telling a 9-year-old you're too good at something," said his mother, Nicole Scott. "The whole objective in life is to find something you're good at and stick with it. I'd rather he spend all his time on the baseball field than idolizing someone standing on the street corner."
League attorney Peter Noble says the only factor in banning Jericho from the mound is his pitches are just too fast.
"He is a very skilled player, a very hard thrower," Noble said. "There are a lot of beginners. This is not a high-powered league. This is a developmental league whose main purpose is to promote the sport."
Noble acknowledged that Jericho had not beaned any batters in the co-ed league of 8- to 10-year-olds, but say parents expressed safety concerns.
"Facing that kind of speed" is frightening for beginning players, Noble said.
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.
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?"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080825/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bby_too_good_to_pitch
Mark Twain wrote:
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on.
Mark Twain
Baron Miller wrote:
Grace ruins the idea that you are fully in charge.
Baron Miller
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I agree, this is wrong.
Sports is about excelling, not trying to reach neutral buoyancy.
As someone who has coached both Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth Baseball in a community that adds it's own league rules (for fairness) I can understand the frustration by the players, coaches and parents of the pitcher's team.
(I hope that the mom didn't actually threaten anybody, because that's a lack of sportsmanship.)
Moving him up an age division may be an option, but never should the league tell a kid he is too good to pitch or too fast, and ban him from pitching. Looking through my (older) Cal Ripken league rules, I can find nowhere where it states that a a pitcher is disqualified for thowing too hard.
However, as a (former)coach, I was concerned about a hard throwing kid, who also threw amazing breaking balls. I wanted to make sure that he still had an arm by high school and college. Pitching was a weak point for my coaching skills, but the thought that I used was:
1) limit the number of breaking balls that he threw in a game, and ease off the speed and work on location
2) follow the league rules for the number of innings he could pitch in a week.
3) ultimately, and this was hard, I gave him up to another Babe Ruth coach who had pitching as a strength. (his mom is still mad at me, as she never understood that her son had a much better chance of getting to the High school Varsity level with this other teams coach, than with me. (Our team did have a better league record than the team that picked him up, but this young pitcher is playing JV for one of the local high schools now, and If he kept pitching for me, he would still have the same throwing imperfections that I knew were there, but didn't know how to correct.
Too bad that Jericho has to contend with "fairness rules" that aren't even in any Little League Rule books. The League representatives should be proud to have a youth at that age who can throw so well and hard, It'll make all the other hitters in the league that much better.
My questions:
1) is the team that he declined to play for in the same division or are they a seperate 'select' or All star travel team?
2) if he declined to play for a team that is in the same division but stacked is he being punished?
3) if the team he declined to play for is an All Star team that is in a seperate select league, why did his parents choose to play him in a 'recreational' or skills league.
Any other coaches or former(my kids are past are past this age now) coaches that have some thoughts I missed?
If ya hafta ask
ya'll never understand
Keep your politics out of my sports.
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