Too Good to Pitch

[dadmonson]

Another factor in this is safety. A baseball thrown at such a high velocity is dangerous.

Edited August 28, 2008 by dadmonson

[DragonMaci]

Personally I have always liked playing against better competition, even as a kid.

I was the same even though the only sport I played was social rugby league at luncetime.

I also agree with what Tenzing Shaw said.

[Moebius]

The alternative is that no other team is ever going to play that team.

Okay they win every one of their games by forfeit.

Kudos.

They win every game.

If their goal in the league is to win every game, they've got it.

Well what should their goal be, if not to win? This is sports.

The other teams' goal should be to win every single game they can also, doing everything that they are able. Not to run away whenever someone is "too good". Again I think the decision to outright forfeit is teaching the wrong values to the kids.

Look at it this way - if a master chess player wants to play chess with me, I'm going to say "no". Why? Because I wouldnt' have a chance. If he wants to take some pieces off the board I'll play him. Is it wrong of him to not play the full game (with all the pieces) because someone else demands he do so?

I don't play chess, so I would turn down the master chess player's challenge also. But I DO play basketball, and if Michael Jordan said that he wanted to play me 1 on 1, I'd say bring it on. If I lose, I lose. But I sure as hell would try my hardest to win. As a more realistic example, I am 6'2" and 190 lbs, and in my recreational basketball league I have often had to guard players that are 6'6" or 6'7" and 200+ lbs. Do I sit there and complain about how those players are too big for a rec league and should be banned? No. I go home, I lift weights, I practice, and the next time I meet them I go harder.

[aequalsa]

Do I sit there and complain about how those players are too big for a rec league and should be banned? No. I go home, I lift weights, I practice, and the next time I meet them I go harder.

This is a good point and exactly the problem.

In this circumstance, these parents(I use the term lightly)and coaches have chosen to teach this child that it is unfair to compete when you are better then others, while simultaneously teaching the 99 other kids, that if something is difficult you should just give up. They learn, upon further reflection, that when things don't go your way, and if you are politically connected, then it is possible to legislate the most capable people out of existence. Good lessons.

Can they honestly believe that any "victory" without Jericho will be anything but hollow, post modernist tripe to these kids? They'll know they "didn't REALLY win." My guess is that they believe their children are as fundamentally dishonest as themselves, forgetting that it takes decades of evasion to allow that kind of depravity.

They should be liable for the psychological damage that will inevitably ensue.

[Toolboxnj]

Something is missing from the thread. It is alleged that this is retaliation against the boy for choosing a rival team to play for. It seems that the corrupt officials were trying to take the boy down for this reason, not really his ability. It's a sad case nonetheless.

[JJJJ]

I know that the US and "european" sports systems are a bit different, but at least in Finland it's really common to have good players moved up to play against older players. At least in soccer and hockey, that is the case, and when i played hockey as a kid, i remember our team having two guys who were 2 years younger than the rest of us(one of them plays in the finnish pro-league today).

[John Link]

The more appropriate thing to do--if he is that overwhelmingly better than his age group--is to move him ahead, not ban him.

From the linked article: "League officials suggested that Jericho play other positions, or pitch against older players or in a different league."

[Mammon]

So they told him he couldn't pitch so everyone could have fun.

It seems pretty reasonable to me.

I think it seems reasonable as well. As with putting him in a superior league.

In other words, those with superior ability should not be concerned only with winning, while the same attitude should be tolerated in others. That is a double-standard.

So, we should sacrifice those of lesser ability to those of superior ability, so the superior ones can have their fun. Let's make sure only one kid or group of kid's get to have all the fun. That's obviously the right thing to do here.

This entire arguement is equivalent to arguing over who gets to make the biggest sand pile in the sand box.