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

news.yahoo.com — 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 anymore Aug 25, 2008 View in Crawl 4

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smotpoker Aug 26, 2008

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@Oracle95It is unlikely you can do your true best against a much superior opponent, that is why different divisions exist. That is why they have different weight divisions in boxing and the like. Besides, how can this pitcher really learn to do his best if he is playing against inferior opponents?@elveisMany 11 year olds are@WartzBy relaying an anecdote, expressing an opinion that anecdote lead me to believe or following the advice of my coach? For the record, stagefright and pressure were also factors, I believe, since I still did OK at practice. I did not cry when I got hit in the head with the ball nor did I run to mommy when the coach said it (unlike most little spoiled brats do right and left these days)... she did know about what he said until years later. I consistently froze at bat for around 10 games before I quit at the coaches request; would you have made it that long?Regardless, your perspective is very flawed. I have suffered great hardship through my life not for popularity, egotism or material gain but for pure self-respect and/or principle - and I have yet to give up at anything that was important unless it required that I give up something I consider more important@JKALThat is true to a point but when it is pretty much a given that you will lose peers and rolemodels start blaming you whether you tried or not, it is just too easy to for younger kids to become disheartened with whatever they're doing or resent those peers/role models.I think that typically for the competitive streak to influence you to try much harder there has to be something important at stake or some sort of personal grudge between competitors. That "something" should not be love/respect from parents and teammates.

ahollywoodtale Aug 27, 2008

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There has been mention of safety. You won't die or get nothing more then a ugly bruise by getting hit with a fast pitch. Plus, you have a helmet for a reason. Safety is always a concern in sports. It's not like there lining this kids up so this kid as beam them with the baseball. Also it says in the article that he's never hit a kid. > "He is a very skilled player, a very hard thrower" meaning he doesn't seem to have poor aim.I agree JustinCase18, they should have moved up a little and not broke up the team and banned him from playing. I know they do that in some other states. They don't make a kid feel like everything is his fault for being good. > "I feel sad," he said. "I feel like it's all my fault nobody could play". It's just heartless.

sndream Aug 27, 2008

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Nice to see some affirmative action at work. You can't have this kid holding the less gifted down.

frank913 Aug 29, 2008

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This scares me how much people can be controled by what the media wants you to know. If you read the whole story on ESPN.com you may have a different opinion. What none of these other articles tell you is - 1. There are 2 leagues in this town . A league that is competitive (which this kid also plays in ) and this league that is set up for kids that just started learning the sport. 2 - This kid gets hit in the better league and does not dominate. 3 - The league did not start out saying he couldn't pitch they first asked him to move up a division and play with kids older than him but at the same level of talent. Which is also the same policy in LL. I wonder what other opinions the media can control ?

sportsfan06 Sep 1, 2008