Adults, get out, it’s for the kids
By MIKE MATHISONA fastball down the middle of the plate has surged more adult tampering into youth sports.
Apparently, 9-year-old Jericho Scott is too good and the Liga Juvenil de Baseball of New Haven, Conn., has banned him from pitching.
It was so bad that when Scott took the mound, for what appears to be the last time, the other team, led by its coach, forfeited.
Walked off the field.
An adult made a team of kids quit.
Nice message there.
It's as bad a message of the adults leading the little league organization making a 9-year-old quit pitching.
Nice message there, too.
The league, apparently, has disbanded the team - nothing more than "I'm taking my ball and going home."
I'm sorry, this is not T-ball or slow pitch softball. It's Little League baseball which means kids throw overhand and some throw the ball faster than others.
Grow up adults.
Carlos Lugo, a coach for another team, summed it up best in a press conference held Tuesday.
"We don't have someone like Jericho to pitch," Lugo said. "I played when I was little, and I wanted to win."
Apparently, he wants to also win now.
Peter Noble, the league's lawyer, said Wilfred Vidro, the coach of the team Scott played on, was ousted from his position because he refused to resign.
But, it appears there is nothing to resign from because Scott and his teammates have been reassigned to other teams. Scott and many of his teammates have refused to go.
A coach and parent, Roberto Melendez, said, "we didn't want a kid to get hit by a ball. Imagine a kid like mine, at 7, getting hit by a 60 mph ball. He was out of control."
His parents say Scott's pitches haven't been clocked. League officials agree Scott has never hit a batter.
This whole mess is because of adults, not kids.
Scott also plays for an all-star team in the Dom Aitro League in New Haven. He is not one of the top three pitchers on the team.
The team Scott was on in the LJB was 4-0 before he, and another all-star, put on a uniform.
So, if this is a developmental league, how do league officials allow the undefeated team to get fatter on talent? And, if it's truly a developmental league, why keep score, standings or crown a champion?
The league has a pitch-count so the same kids don't pitch every game.
Scott pitched five innings on Aug. 9, three more the next day and five more on Aug. 13. That's 13 innings in five days. How is that not above the pitch-count, unless the kid is striking out every kid on three pitches?
After that last outing on Aug. 13, the league was ready to disband Will Power Fitness, unless it gave assurances that Scott wouldn't pitch any longer.
On Aug. 20, a coach threatened to pull his team off the field if Jericho pitched in a game on Aug. 20.
Scott's parents are also part of the problem.
Mother Nicole Scott has threatened lawsuits here and there. Her 15 minutes of fame are up and she need to go in the corner with all the other adults.
There is no way Jericho Scott is the only kid in this league who throws the ball hard
From everything I have read, the LJB league is doing a lot of good things for the youth in the neighborhood. The three-year-old league is getting kids to be a part of something good .
Then, this happens and all the good is gone rather quickly.
The league faces a lot of blame in this.
They allowed Scott to play for a team that was already undefeated, instead of for a team that either had yet to win a game or was struggling to win games.
But, if that was the case, would Scott's parents have allowed him to play for one of those teams instead of for a team at the top of the league standings.
"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."
If the main purpose is to promote the sport and teach kids how to play, then winning and losing shouldn't matter. More 18-13 games will be played and there's nothing wrong with that.
I am coaching in the Upward flag football league this year and score will not be kept.
It is our jobs as coaches to promote the sport of football, teach the kids about God and make sure they play hard and have fun.
It shouldn't be about winning and losing for 9-year-olds.
It should be about playing and learning.
This situation so wrong on so many levels it's disgusting.
It's just another show of adults on both sides of the fence being complete idiots.
(Mathison, a Weirton resident, is the sports editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times and can be contacted at mmathison@heraldstaronline.com)
