Kid punished for being too good?

[susiestar]

Has anyone else read about this? This kid throws an amazing fastball. He refused to join the league champion team, joining another team. So now they are refusing to let him play at all??

Maybe his mom did call the cops. Not sure what for, but she did. I think this is pretty sad. I don't know much about baseball, maybe this is too fast a pitch. So teach him to pitch at different speeds?? Something other than telling the entire team they have to join new teams. I HAVE seen this kind of maneuvering in soccer and in basketball. Where you ahve a really good player who won't play on the "best" team, then pressure is put on the coach and the other players because they are winning against the big name team.

What do you all think?

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-toogoodtopitch&prov=ap&type=lgns

 

[mrscatinthehat]

Oh how crappy is that. Too good at something. I would be angry also if I were that mom. That is so bogus. We try and get our kids to excel at something and sure enough someone has to try and make it a bad thing. I am just can't believ this.
beth

 

[donna723]

I don't really know how I feel about this. My son played baseball for eight years and the skill levels vary a lot at this age. Not all 9 and 10 year olds are beginners ... some of them are pretty darned good. A lot of them start playing T-ball when they're five and by nine some are very good players. This boy probably doesn't belong on a team of beginners playing against other beginners, and partly for his own good too. What will HE be learning if he's not challenged! They say he's never hit anyone or hurt any other player but I can understand the other parents worrying about it. But to ban him from playing ... absolutely NOT! If you want to look at it that way, probably most of the guys playing in the Major Leagues now were better than the other kids their age when they were playing Little League. Should they have been forbidden to play - of course not!

We live in a very small town and they're lucky to come up with two full teams in each age group. But one strict rule is that kids must play with their own age group - not by what grade they're in but by age with a birthdate cut-off. I have seen a lot of "manuvering" though by the coaches and league management about which kids play on which team. Most leagues try to divide them up evenly. The manager of our league had a son a year older than my son, and this kid was a pretty good player. When his own son was 9, the 9 and 10 year old age group was divided pretty evenly between the two teams as far as age and skill level. The next year when his kid was 10 (and mine was 9) they put all the 10 year olds on one team and all the 9 year olds on the other except for one other little boy who was very advanced! Of course, the 10 year old team won ALL their games and the 9 year olds LOST all of theirs except for one! Curiously enough, the next year when his son was out of this age group, they went back to dividing them evenly again! You wouldn't believe how riled up small town folks can get about something like this! Lots of hard feelings!

 

[Abbey]

I think putting him in a different league is a great idea. I know my oldest, when playing baseball, was not the best. The coaches were great about rotating players no matter what your skill level was. I can see how it would be intimidating to new players. Poor kid. He just wants to play ball.

I'd be pretty PO'd as a mom as well. I wouldn't lose my control, but explore other opportunities. If he's that good, some league would pick him up even if he's under aged.

My daughter had a similar thing happen with water polo. She's VERY good. When she came for the summer, she enrolled in a local league to keep her skills up during the summer. The 'fun' league said she was too aggressive, so she went to an all men's league. They kind of laughed and said they'd be soft on her. Well....you don't know my daughter. She'll take you down in a heart beat in the water. It took one practice session with them being 'kind' to realize that she meant business. She was at that point, one of the guys.

I hope this boy's mom finds him his nitch.

Abbey

 

[donna723]

The thing of it is, if a team has some very talented, very skilled players, they DESERVE to win! That's the whole point. I realize that they're all learning and at this age that's what it's all about, but this boy could end up making a career of baseball if he's that good. Why hold him back? Of course, there should be somebody there that really knows what they're doing because a boy that age who is pitching too aggressively can do permanent damage to their elbow joint and that's not good.

 

[DammitJanet]

We had a little boy on one of Jamies basketball teams who was so very talented way back when. Maybe around age 11 or 12. I know we won the league championship that year...lol. We called him our little Micheal Jordan. He was a tiny little kid but oh boy could he play.

We played on a county rec ball team and I know that I heard that this kid had been picked to receive some scholarships up at DUKE and UNC for summer basketball camps. I have long forgotten his name but I would bet my right arm he is playing pro ball now.

 

[Sara PA]

I think the adults need to grow up.

My son was a hard thrower. And he wasn't wild. We heard the he-throws-too-hard thing all the time. One set of namby-pamby coaches tried to get him to take something off his pitches but they were lousy coaches in a league where they were way over their heads. My son wasn't the hardest thrower in that league, just the hardest thrower on our team.

Some kids do get scared when they go up against hard throwers. It's the game. If you are so scared to bat, go up, take your three strikes and sit down. But remember that you don't get better playing against bad players, you get better playing against good players.

It's not fair? altogether now..... Life's not fair. And sports are suppose to teach our kids about life.

(Hey, remember back when kids played sports for fun and it was all good because sports taught you about life? Back before the adults were so involved?)

 

[donna723]

When my son played high school basketball, we had several players who were really good and one kid on the team who was fantastic! Should they have banned him because he was "too good" and it was unfair? Hey, he had to go to school somewhere and we were just lucky enough that he went to our tiny little school. Was that "unfair"? He was 6'10" and had a grandfather who was a college basketball coach who had been working with him since he was a toddler! Them's the breaks! He wasn't a natural talent either - he worked himself half to death to get as good as he was! He was also a straight A student and had his pick of colleges - they fought over him. He went on to become a first round draft pick in the NBA and played for several years. Should they have held him back because he was "too good" and it was unfair to the other kids? Hog wash!

 

[WhymeMom?]

It's always a tough call when you find people at either ends of the spectrum......my son was on a t-ball team with a kid who could do it all......he would pitch, hit, catch........when ever anyone hit on the other team the rest of the kids would just clear out of the way and let this kid take over......literally he was a one man team......needless to say the rest of the kids on the team never got much enjoyment out of the game and my son never played baseball again......I'm all for kids with talents, but if the kid was that good let him play with more advanced kids.......what's the fun in playing a no-hitter game anyway......even big league? How boring to play for everyone, even the pitching wonder....... Guess it becomes a question of: for the "good" of the individual or the group? Mom was out of line on police call........ Isn't the idea to build sportsmanship in sports? But then again, guess I'm pretty old fashioned.

 

[donna723]

The parents can have a way of ruining these things for the kids. The kids just want to play and have a good time ... and then the parents get in to it and spoil it. Divide up the teams as evenly as possible, teach the kids skills and sportsmanship, then let them play and have fun! Sheeesh!

I will never forget hearing our elementary school principal talk about umpiring a kids summer league baseball game between one of our teams and a team from a neighborhing county. I know many of the people who umpire these games and they all bend over backwards to be fair. He wasn't even a regular umpire, just sitting in for someone who didn't show up. The mother of one of the visiting players got so upset when he called her kid out, she completely lost it. She had no idea who he was, just that he had called her boy "out" at the plate. Had she been able to get at him, she would have attacked him physically, and he's a pretty big guy! She was screaming at him and cursing him and actually started to climb the high chain link fence behind the plate so she could jump on him! All this in front of these kids! They had to call the police who had to pull her off the fence and cart her off to jail and she is now forever banned from attending any more ball games! Way to go, lady! I feel sorry for her poor son! He was probably wishing the earth would open up and swallow him!

 

[Hound dog]

Haven't you guys heard?? It's not about winning and losing. It's about making the kids feel good at all costs. It's that self-esteem thing again. Every kid has to feel they are equal to every other kid in everything or else their self-esteem might get permanently damaged.

The old fashioned game of playing ball (or any other game) on an empty lot for fun and exercise is gone.

If your kid is better than my kid then your kid needs to move somewhere else so my kid can feel good about themselves.

If you're paying attention it's creeping in everywhere, and not just with kids anymore.

Travis played soccer for a year, disabilities and all. Dear ol' Mom was his coach. And during that year he learned that no matter how much he practiced and how good he got there would always be someone who was better. So did every other boy on that team. Which is why they learned to work together to compensate for weaknesses and take advantage of strengths. The whole point of the word TEAM.

And despite the fact that we began the season with a disabled boy who knew nothing about the game and had trouble seeing the ball, running the right direction, and not tripping over his own feet......not to mention 4 other boys who had never played, 2 hot shots who thought they were ready for the major leagues but didn't have a clue about how to function with team members.......(and one really was good, the other only thought he was good cuz his Mom kept telling him so)............ After a zillion practices these boys learned to work together. Everyone got equal time on the field. Everyone. They won the league championship when all of the odds were against them.

But it wasn't just the championship, those kids learned that life ain't fair, but that doesn't mean you give up, it means you try harder, and that it's okay to ask for help from someone when you need it. And there were a couple of parents that learned a few lessons that year too.

Self-esteem is important. But giving false praise and arranging the world around a kid to always make them feel successful even when they aren't does much more harm than good in the long run. Too many things in Life require hard work and grit.

If the boy in the article is as good as they say, then odds are he's worked his arse off to get that way with a bit of talent thrown in. Should he be punished for hard work and determination? Good grief. What have we stooped to? If other boys his age aren't as good for whatever reason, then guess what? Practice makes you better. You don't want this kid intimidating you, get in the back yard and practice, get in extra practice with your teammates and work together to learn how to win against him.

Sheesh.

 

[Abbey]

Lisa...well said.

I loved my son being able to play, but real life is...well, real life. I don't know what the answer is. I wanted my son to have the opportunity to play, but at some point you need to be competitive. THAT'S real life. Heck...I took down a couple of 16 year olds to be a bagger!!!

Abbey

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

It's a real shame for the boy and his team especially, and for the whole league. I blame the adults for failing to have the kid's (all of them) best interests at heart. The league champion team wanted him, he wanted to play on a different team, and then they ban him from pitching in mid-season because the team he's on is winning every time -- there are some adult egos at work here.

This could have been worked out. Jericho is obviously playing in a league below his skill level. He should be allowed to pitch in an older league. Apparently he was not banned from playing, only from pitching, but pitching is what he loves and does best and that's what he should be doing (only caveat being that the coaches need to be careful not to let him injure himself trying to throw too hard too much).

Whatever accommodation was reached should have been for next year, though, not this year. It is not fair to any of the players to change the rules mid-season. Every kid in that league was just taught that if you don't like the outcome, change the rules; what's to stop the kids from going the next step and taking the attitude, "if I don't like the rules, I can break them?"

 

[Marguerite]

This sounds political, to me. The article said that the League wanted Jericho to play for another team but he didn't want to, he wanted to play for HIS team. And it sounds like the sponsors for his team are competitors for the team the League wanted him for.

Crikey, can't have Jericho's team beating the most important team (with the big name sponsor). So let's nobble Jericho's team - by eliminating Jericho.

I agree - there has been no talk of "Let's give this talented kid a chance to really work his skills at his level, and put him in with an older, higher-standard team." No talk of, "Isn't his team lucky to have such a talented kid?" No talk of, "It's just a game, kids should be allowed to play ball."

His mother calling the police - don't know what about, but if there were ANY grounds for the police to be called (such as to make sure he wasn't harassed or mistreated) then if I were Jericho's mum, I'd have called the cops too, just to make sure my son was kept safe in a situation turning nasty.

In fact, I HAVE called cops for situations that other parents felt were no big deal. But I did so, because the problems WERE a big deal, in my opinion, and the cops agreed with me. When other parents seem comfortable with, "Kids get into fights; let them get it over and done with, out of their system and it will work itself out," I am not. My son does not understand the push and shove - not because I've overprotected him, but because with his autism, he simply isn't capable. Besides, their kids shove my boy, and we're supposed to accept that is normal behaviour. But if my son shoves their kid, then I get told my son is dangerous and needs to be removed.

I suspect the people making a big fuss bout this kid and about the mother (fuss as in 'it's a problem') are the ones with the double standard here.

This kid just wants to be allowed to pitch - he loves it, he's good at it. To not allow him sends a very bad message to all the other kids in the league.

Marg