Perfect example of whats wrong with parents and little kid sports

[crownsy]

A 40 mile fastball won't kill anyone? Well in little league I took one between the eyes and it smeared my nose over my face as it was broken in two places and covered the entire front of my uniform in blood before they got the blood stopped. The operation to fix my nose wasn't pleasant nor the long recovery. Oh, by the way, the throw was from one of my friends during warmups. And I was older than 9 so I went back into the batter's box the next year.
 

then it wasent 40 MPH, since most 12 year old pitchers throw 60 MPH ( the "elite" kids in the LLWS throw 75-80).

also, by law in little league they now have to wear full cage helmets, so your scenario doesn't in fact exist.

[jgod213]

[dang] right you can't allow a destroyer in an instructional league. That is particularly true in football by the way. When my brother was 10 he could have lifted a grown man off the ground with ease. Against normal sized kids he would have broken bones and necks. He easily could have killed a tiny kid without even trying. He almost sent my mother to the hospital by simply giving her a hug and he cried because she couldn't let him hug her anymore until he understood his strength. There wouldn't have been a kid on the other team who wouldn't have run in fear from that huge monster.
You simply don't get it. Very young kids are different and they get easily get intimidated. They need encouragement, not destruction. A large amount of instruction for kids at that age is to give them the skills not to fail everytime. As they get better, they will get more competitive naturally. A kid needs to learn how to get out of the way of a pitch. He need how to learn how to not get destroyed by an oncoming pass rusher. You don't learn how to do that when you are afraid of losing your life.
If you are so macho, I suggest you try a really competitive league for yourself with professional players. See if you have the guts to get run over by a 320 lb player the SECOND time(it isn't fun by the way). Then think what it would have been like to be destroyed by a monster when you were 9. Would you have continued in sports.

you're comparing apples and oranges...

your example of your 10 year old brother with super human strength killing kids on the football field does not translate to a kid who is simply throwing hard and striking kids out, there is a quote in the article that notes how he is very accurate with his pitches.  The fear that these kids have of physical pain is in their heads, it is not something that is inevitable as is the case with football.  If you want to keep your kid off the field because the other team's 8 year old safety hits like john lynch than i can understand, but this is baseball, and these kids are facing a kid who throws strikes - they need to learn that getting over mental hurdles is just as important as any other aspect of the game.  And if one kid happens to get beaned in the shoulder, so be it - it happens.


And as to your other comment about being macho and getting run over...i played football, and i'm not affraid to make a tackle or get tackled myself, and trust me i got jacked up my fair share of times and got hurt on occassion, but you play on anyways.  It's through not being coddled by parents and coaches like these that i learned that lesson.

[cdif911]

A 40 mile fastball won't kill anyone? Well in little league I took one between the eyes and it smeared my nose over my face as it was broken in two places and covered the entire front of my uniform in blood before they got the blood stopped. The operation to fix my nose wasn't pleasant nor the long recovery. Oh, by the way, the throw was from one of my friends during warmups. And I was older than 9 so I went back into the batter's box the next year.
 

sounds scary, but you stepped right back in when you could - its part of the game isn't it.... I've been injured many times at different points growing up, but I never quit a sport because of it - my brother got kicked in the face in karate and quit though...loser =)

[crownsy]

[dang] right you can't allow a destroyer in an instructional league. That is particularly true in football by the way. When my brother was 10 he could have lifted a grown man off the ground with ease. Against normal sized kids he would have broken bones and necks. He easily could have killed a tiny kid without even trying. He almost sent my mother to the hospital by simply giving her a hug and he cried because she couldn't let him hug her anymore until he understood his strength. There wouldn't have been a kid on the other team who wouldn't have run in fear from that huge monster.
You simply don't get it. Very young kids are different and they get easily get intimidated. They need encouragement, not destruction. A large amount of instruction for kids at that age is to give them the skills not to fail everytime. As they get better, they will get more competitive naturally. A kid needs to learn how to get out of the way of a pitch. He need how to learn how to not get destroyed by an oncoming pass rusher. You don't learn how to do that when you are afraid of losing your life.
If you are so macho, I suggest you try a really competitive league for yourself with professional players. See if you have the guts to get run over by a 320 lb player the SECOND time(it isn't fun by the way). Then think what it would have been like to be destroyed by a monster when you were 9. Would you have continued in sports.

you're comparing apples and oranges...

your example of your 10 year old brother with super human strength killing kids on the football field does not translate to a kid who is simply throwing hard and striking kids out, there is a quote in the article that notes how he is very accurate with his pitches.  The fear that these kids have of physical pain is in their heads, it is not something that is inevitable as is the case with football.  If you want to keep your kid off the field because the other team's 8 year old safety hits like john lynch than i can understand, but this is baseball, and these kids are facing a kid who throws strikes - they need to learn that getting over mental hurdles is just as important as any other aspect of the game.  And if one kid happens to get beaned in the shoulder, so be it - it happens.


And as to your other comment about being macho and getting run over...i played football, and i'm not affraid to make a tackle or get tackled myself, and trust me i got jacked up my fair share of times and got hurt on occassion, but you play on anyways.  It's through not being coddled by parents and coaches like these that i learned that lesson.

same on the football. i was a linebacker, and rotuinly hit kids much bigger than me, including getting run over 4-5 times by a kid from D-R who went D1, so yea, been there, done that.

[wdleehi]

40 mph is how fast most adults "lob" a baseball. put on on of those cage helmets that the law requires they wear and bounce one off it, you wouldn't even feel it.

also, having your entire team walk off the field and making a kid feel like a praiah in front of his friends for ruining thier baseball game isn't a show?

intersting.

That is the fault of the pitchers coach and parents.  They were told he could not pitch.  They were told the other children would not face him.


They decided to make a show of it.  They put him out there when they knew what would happen.  


They are not doing this kid any favors.  They are teaching a very bad lesson.  



This is something that needed to be dealt with between the adults before the game.  Not with the kid during the game.  

[cdif911]

40 mph is how fast most adults "lob" a baseball. put on on of those cage helmets that the law requires they wear and bounce one off it, you wouldn't even feel it.

also, having your entire team walk off the field and making a kid feel like a praiah in front of his friends for ruining thier baseball game isn't a show?

intersting.

That is the fault of the pitchers coach and parents.  They were told he could not pitch.  They were told the other children would not face him.


They decided to make a show of it.  They put him out there when they knew what would happen.  


They are not doing this kid any favors.  They are teaching a very bad lesson.  



This is something that needed to be dealt with between the adults before the game.  Not with the kid during the game.  

and the lesson they are teaching him is... if you're too good at something, everyone else will quit... yeah that is a bad lesson to teach

[Fox40Kid]

again, explain to me how this is a "purley instructional league" when they have playoffs, a championship, and this kid was offered a spot on the best team but turned it down?

I think this is a great point.  Instructional leagues usually don't have a championship, play-offs.  Most don't even keep score.  Instructional leagues are about teaching the game and getting kid excited to play.

It sounds like a lot of that is being lost in this league.

[SportsCapNative]

How fast do most kids that age pitch?


As for the team that forfeited, was it because they didn't want to lose or was it that they were afraid the pitcher could hurt their children?  




There is more to this the this.  This is an instructional league.  There is no money.  

Well the boy was pitching in the mid 40's, so I'm guessing that a normal 9 yr old must be pitching well under 35mph.

The loosing team (from what I've heard) did not leave for safety issues because the child has never hit anyone. They left because they were loosing, and even worse, striking out. The coach that allowed or instructed these kids to just walk off the field like that is wrong. You don't teach kids to be sore losers, or quit.

Your this is an instructional league. But just as you learn how to play the game, you learn life lessons. Loosing is one of those lessons. Now I'm not addressing the whole issue, just the fact that the kids walked off the field like that. As far as the league banning the kid or making him move up, once again, this is an instructional league, if it's not about winning or loosing then why can't the kid learn the game with kids his own age?

All it says is the walked off when he took the mound.  Doesn't say if they were winning and losing.  




Again, are the parents afraid of this pitcher hurting their children?  I don't care how much control he has shown, we have seen the best MLB pitchers throw a wild pitch.  

Well, prior to reading this, I've heard it on Mike and Mike. From what I've heard (I may have heard this wrong mind you), whey walked off the field. If the kids were intimidated because of the speed and were afraid, then I completely understand that. If the parents are just scared of their children getting injured, even though I don't agree, I can understand that also.

Physically, the kid may be on a higher level than his peers, but mentally he's not. Still, I guess it wouldn't hurt him to move him up a level, even though he'll be playing with middle-school kids (age 11-12 I think). That's the only real solution I guess. Just don't ban the kid.

I think that will actually hurt him. because kids 4-5 years older than you will be so nice to him im sure. there's a huge diffrence, cognitivly, between 8 and 12.

 i mean, when i was a teenager, we certainly didn't pick on the younger kids mercilessly  . espically if he is only an average pitcher at the next level ( when i was 12 and 13 in babe ruth, i could throw 65-70 as a starting pitcher. I was one of the faster pitchers, but i still got hit. a 45-50 MPH fastball is going to get creamed. i'm sure that will make his life easy)

the only "real" solution is to let him pitch. if your goign to have playoffs and a championship, then don't whine to me about a kid being to good.

also, unless this league is not affilited with youth baseball, its not like he can pitch every day. its 80 pitches or one game a week pretty much everywhere now.  guess this could be a "rogue" league or somethign, but i doubt it.

Hey man, I completely agree with you crownsy. I never agreed with the fact of moving an 9 yr old up to play with 12 yr olds. Your sarcasm expressed my sentiments exactly  .

But the league is trying to ban the kid, they are not going to let him play with other 9 year olds. Even though a 40mph "fast" ball is not going to kill anyone (no matter how young they are). If the solution was simply to just let him pitch, then there wouldn't be much of a problem at all.

[cdif911]

this just in, 4th grader banned from math class because he was getting all the problems right. it scared the other kids, so their parents came together and said he should be forced into 5th grade - you heard it here first

[oldmanspeaks]

The point was when I got hit between the eyes, I wasn't 9. I have a ton of permanent sports injuries but again, I wasn't 9. And it is possible to have championships in intructional leagues if the coaches use common sense.
I coached offensive line in youth football(young kids-I coached differently with 12 year olds) and we had one of the best teams. However we would have won every single game if I had simply ignored the weaker players and played only my best. We had the best running back and my best line would have been unstoppable. However by carefully managing my line, we were still a top team and a few laters some of my weaker players got more developed and went to to be good player. (and more importantly some of the better players topped out). The reason you teach and play everyone is you don't know how it will turn out in the long run. And aften when a kid quits, he isn't the quitter. It is the coach that is the quitter because he gave up on the kid.  

[SportsCapNative]

this just in, 4th grader banned from math class because he was getting all the problems right. it scared the other kids, so their parents came together and said he should be forced into 5th grade - you heard it here first

LOL 

[BigThreePeat]

This world's gone soft.   I played in a basketball league in Florida for a few years when I was 9-12.  It was always by age.   Every year they had a "draft" where they would hold massive tryouts and the various league coaches would pick who they wanted.    Every year #1 was the same guy.  This 6'5 black kid named Warren Jackson.  He wasn't just huge, he also had serious skill.   I've tried googling him to see if the kid ever played College ball or anything, but never had any luck.  He'd be about 25 now and was from Florida.  Anyway...  any team he played for won.   There might have been a couple jealous coaches, but in general it just made us try harder when we played that team.   My dad was the coach of my team every year.     I remember telling the kid I was going to literally dribble through his legs... as in... run under his legs.   But the reality was, any time I ever tried to go for a layup that kid abused me with a vicious block.  I'm only like 5'7 now so I can't imagine how tiny I was when I was 11.  4 feet or something, I figure.  

Anyways... we never won the championship during the few years I played (we never had Warren on our team), but we did once beat him in a regular season game.  My dad just told us to shoot lots of three pointers.  Lol...  Probably the highlight of my "little league" basketball days.  

But these days... people want to level the playing field too much.

[wdleehi]

40 mph is how fast most adults "lob" a baseball. put on on of those cage helmets that the law requires they wear and bounce one off it, you wouldn't even feel it.

also, having your entire team walk off the field and making a kid feel like a praiah in front of his friends for ruining thier baseball game isn't a show?

intersting.

That is the fault of the pitchers coach and parents.  They were told he could not pitch.  They were told the other children would not face him.


They decided to make a show of it.  They put him out there when they knew what would happen.  


They are not doing this kid any favors.  They are teaching a very bad lesson.  



This is something that needed to be dealt with between the adults before the game.  Not with the kid during the game.  

and the lesson they are teaching him is... if you're too good at something, everyone else will quit... yeah that is a bad lesson to teach

They have taught him that he should not challenge himself (by not going to a higher league.  Better to be a superstar in the lowest level)

They have taught him to ignore authority when they sent him out there when they were told he could not.  (he could have just played another position till they worked this out)

They have taught him (and his teammates) to quit when someone makes a decision you don't like (disbanding the team)

They have taught him to carry on when things do not go his way.  (his mother carrying on to the point of calling the police?)



lets be honest, no one seems to be coming out well in this.  

[crownsy]

40 mph is how fast most adults "lob" a baseball. put on on of those cage helmets that the law requires they wear and bounce one off it, you wouldn't even feel it.

also, having your entire team walk off the field and making a kid feel like a praiah in front of his friends for ruining thier baseball game isn't a show?

intersting.

That is the fault of the pitchers coach and parents.  They were told he could not pitch.  They were told the other children would not face him.


They decided to make a show of it.  They put him out there when they knew what would happen.  


They are not doing this kid any favors.  They are teaching a very bad lesson.  



This is something that needed to be dealt with between the adults before the game.  Not with the kid during the game.  

why take the field then, as the opposing team?

because you wanted to make a show and walk off to show up the other teams coach and parents.

if you wanted to do it quietly and not make a scene, its not like you couldn't have gone up asked "you going to throw him? yes? ok, then we don't play. sorry man"

[wdleehi]

this just in, 4th grader banned from math class because he was getting all the problems right. it scared the other kids, so their parents came together and said he should be forced into 5th grade - you heard it here first

I took a higher math then other classmates? 



terrible example.