Baseball/Sanitized

[3waycross]

Well they have finally done it. They have sanitized baseball. here is a Little League story that will make you sick. Just one more example of why we as a country are going down the tubes. We have to take the LOSING out of everything.

The sad part of doing that is we forget to teach kids how to become winners. Read it and weep.

http://msn.foxsports.com:80/other/story ... -adversity

 

[Horticattleman]

They're probably supporting it in Denver right now!

 

[Alice]

Van (the conservative) and I (the populist) have been following this...and on this we both agree. This is asinine! I've read that the child's mother hired an attorney...good for her! It's time to kick ass and take names on this bunch of BS.

Alice

 

[Wewild]

I wish I hadn't read this. It is very sad.

How could this happen?

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

I watched the Little League world final and some of those kids were pitching balls at 69 mph. Are these kids any differant? Or are the parents all wimps? Let them be kids for gosh sake.

 

[3waycross]

I have a very good friend originally from Texas who played Little League against Nolan Ryan.
He tells me that one of the things he is most proud of is that he stood in and didn't bail out, on his fastball at age 12. According to my buddy, Ryan when warming up was lucky to hit the backstop he was so wild.

If we had this kind of parent in those days Nolan Ryan would not have been allowed to pitch. Sad but true.

Football here in Colo is going the same way. 10 years ago we had 22 starters and 33 subs, playing football, none of the starters went both ways. This is in a school of 421 kids at the time. They ended up playing for the State Championship, against a school of 1100 kids, got their buts whipped but we had one heck of a program. My nephew is playing this year and he tells me there a total of 22 kids out for football. How's that for sad. of course the soccer team is loaded and all most of them want is the uniform. Ten years ago the only reason to have a soccer team was to grow a place kicker every couple years.

 

[VanC]

From the article:

"Seriously, are we actively trying to create the squeezably soft Cottonelle Generation? Because no kid whose old man wouldn't let him face a 40-mile-an-hour fastball is going to grow up to knock out the gun batteries atop Pointe du Hoc."

This pretty much says it all for me. We, as a nation, are growing weaker all the time because of crap like this. Does anybody think a twelve year old in the Middle East, who's being trained to strap a bomb to his chest and blow himself up, would be afraid to face a 40mph fastball? Will there be anybody left to stop our enemies when the time comes? God help us.

 

[john250]

The late, great, Kurt Vonnegut of Indy wrote a short story--I cannot remember the name of the story--where the best athletes, the best dancers, etc. had to carry extra weight so everyone would be equal. Result, I could throw as hard as Nolan Ryan (in my dreams). All you guys could be Herschel Walker.
It ain't going to happen, and it shouldn't happen.
I want an equal chance, no more, no less.
I just listened to Al Gore. Born on third base--thinks he hit a triple.
We have gone sadly wrong. :cry2:

 

[ga. prime]

All this time I thought Kurt Vonnegut was from Chicago.

 

[bandit80]

"Seriously, are we actively trying to create the squeezably soft Cottonelle Generation? Because no kid whose old man wouldn't let him face a 40-mile-an-hour fastball is going to grow up to knock out the gun batteries atop Pointe du Hoc."

Good find 3 way. This is beyond rediculous. The quote above taken from the article is really scary, and kind of puts things into perspective. Just something to think about.

 

[GMN]

This reminds me of what happened to the neighbor boy, but in little league football. He is big for his age, not fat just big, and he wanted to play quarterback and was going to until they weighed him, and they siad he weighed too much to be a quarterback for his age of 7. His parents were ticked, and I think isn't this all just for fun anyways? Teach them how to play not really how to play good just yet?

GMN

 

[3waycross]

This reminds me of what happened to the neighbor boy, but in little league football. He is big for his age, not fat just big, and he wanted to play quarterback and was going to until they weighed him, and they siad he weighed too much to be a quarterback for his age of 7. His parents were ticked, and I think isn't this all just for fun anyways? Teach them how to play not really how to play good just yet?

GMN

They did that to my middle son. He weighed 78 lbs at the age of 7, he was not allowed to play running back, until Junior high.

 

[ChrisB]

I think there is a lot of information being left out of this story in order to sensationalize it. Since this is the "New Haven Baseball League" it is more than likely an in-house league which are usually more development and fun oriented and not the competative traveling league. With the kids being as young as 8 years old this is probably the first year a lot of these kids have even seen live pitching. The team was 8-0 and apparently this kid had pitched enough to draw attention; was the coach having the same kid pitch every game? If that is the case, why was the coach continually putting out a pitcher that was "unhittable"? How is that fun for the rest of the kids and how do they develop? If the kid was so dominating was he given the opportunity to move up to a higher age bracket or be put on a more competative team? Maybe he was and the parents refused because they wanted their son to dominate.

Either way I think it was poor sportsmanship to not play the game. But the coach was told not to pitch the kid and he did anyway so he is ultimately responsible. Maybe the league was going way overboard; but everything I hear about this story is being given by one side with nothing coming from the league board of directors which makes me think if we knew the whole story it wouldn't be as outrageous.

 

[pwilli3]

I think there is a lot of information being left out of this story in order to sensationalize it. Since this is the "New Haven Baseball League" it is more than likely an in-house league which are usually more development and fun oriented and not the competative traveling league. With the kids being as young as 8 years old this is probably the first year a lot of these kids have even seen live pitching. The team was 8-0 and apparently this kid had pitched enough to draw attention; was the coach having the same kid pitch every game? If that is the case, why was the coach continually putting out a pitcher that was "unhittable"? How is that fun for the rest of the kids and how do they develop? If the kid was so dominating was he given the opportunity to move up to a higher age bracket or be put on a more competative team? Maybe he was and the parents refused because they wanted their son to dominate.

Either way I think it was poor sportsmanship to not play the game. But the coach was told not to pitch the kid and he did anyway so he is ultimately responsible. Maybe the league was going way overboard; but everything I hear about this story is being given by one side with nothing coming from the league board of directors which makes me think if we knew the whole story it wouldn't be as outrageous.

What you have been told is that he is the correct age to play in the age bracket he is playing. The coach was told not to play him because it was thought he had an "un-fair" competitive advantage. No matter how you look at it, the only advantages he may have had were good genes relative to the activity and proper teaching. You want to raise a wimp, pull him out of any situation that requires him to live up to more than he ever thought possible. You want to raise a man, let him face his adversaries and relish his victories or heal his wounds.

I have a giant of a child myself. He stands 50" tall and weighs just north of 60 lbs. He is all lean muscle. He is two weeks away from his sixth birthday. He is also a gentle giant. He plays sports and is afraid of hurting the other kids because they are all smaller than him at the same age. He plays, and we allow him to play, because he loves the games no matter what particular challenges are presented.

There will always be somebody bigger, stronger, faster, smarter in your peer group. The challenge is finding your own strengths and challenging your own weaknesses. Quitting in the face of adversity is ALWAYS the wrong lesson to be taught. France is a prime example of what can happen. Not so long ago they were the world leaders in so many ways, including power of military. Now they are a fledgling state afraid to tick off the wrong person even if it means their own peril. This is the road the Great USA is heading down if we are not allowing our children to CHALLENGE themselves and the fears they have. Strength of character is not built on having perfection delivered to you at your every whim. Strength of character is built only by taking the challenges given and saying I am strong enough to face that.

This boy may be strong and able enough to move up to a higher leaque, above his peer group in size and age, but that would only cripple the talent God gave him and his earthly guardians have cultivated, as he would then be the small and lesser talented one. Why punish this boy for being very good at what he has chosen to do?