Tuesday, August 26, 2008

9-year-old boy told he's too good to pitch

This is disgusting. How do you tell a kid he's too good to play? That pretty much goes against every lesson you're trying to teach kids in youth sports. I can understand that the other kids may not like playing against him, though it seems hard to believe that a nine year old could be that much better than his peers. But I can't see where one game where the opposing team has to face this kid is so difficult for them that it's better just to teach them that when things are hard, you just quit and go home. It sounds like there's some other political issues going on, and maybe the kid's mother isn't very easy to get along with, and that's a real shame, because adults letting their petty problems get in the way of their kids having fun is pretty sad. I just don't understand how facing a tough pitcher is doing anything to the opposition other than making them better hitters. Maybe they can't hit against him, but after facing him, it should be easier for them to hit other pitchers. I'm sure there's more to the story than we see here, but still, I really think everyone would be better off if they let this kid pitch and just stop making a big deal about it.

8 comments:

  1. If it truly is a developmental league, then it is valid to ban players who ought to be playing up. In our Spring teeball season, by the end, we had some kids who were really hitting the ball too hard for teeball. Especially with 4 year olds on the field. This particular case does seem to be very political though.

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  2. The thing is, it's not the beginning of the season, it's the end, they're supposed to be going to the playoffs. If they had a problem with the kid playing, they should have put him somewhere else before the season started. Punishing him and his team now for being too good is just stupid.

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