This is such a tough question, strategy dictates you walk the Berkman player to pitch to the Everett one, however we are talking about kids here. I don't know if there is a right answer, I would have given serious consideration to walking the batter and pitching to the cancer survivor. If you are the Yankees coach, aren't you cheating your team by not doing everything possible to win the game? Or, is it more valuable to teach your kids that winning is not as important as good sportsmanship. Ok, I have talked myself into the right answer....you pitch to the best hitter, and let the cards fall where they may, and if he gets a hit you explain to your team that it is more important to be a good human being than a good baseball player. DD
Romney shouldnt be in that situation to begin with. It doesnt matter if he is a cansor survivor or not, he has to be treated equally when he plays sports. They didnt pick on Romney because he has a cansor.. They picked on him because the previous batter is a super star.
Next time please quote the ENTIRE ARTICLE if possible (or are we forbidden, Clutch?) It's funny how everyone's so pissed, and Riley quotes Romney taking this as a learning experience at the end: What's HONOR if you don't play BASEBALL by following the rules? Again, a rule should have been in there to prevent this from happening. If you can play, you should be able to play and bat and throw just like everyone else.
At this level, good sportsmanship should always win out IMO. You shouldn't even have to think about it.
I agree, but when I played, it was common practice for some of the best hitters to be walked intentionally in situations like that. I remember IBBs all the time. Isn't it somewhat insulting to the kid that everyone is up in arms about this? Hey, my parents think it sucked that they wanted to pitch to me, I must really suck! I like his attitude, though.
10 year old baseball rules and pro are not the same. Don't confuse the two. I'm in favor of a championship game. I'm in favor of 3 outs and keeping score. I'm in favor of treating the cancer kid like any other player. But intentionally walking 10 years old is stupid. "Let them play!"
I heard he did swing as hard as he could once and made contact. But he is so weak the ball came off the bat like it was bunted and it rolled foul. That is enough to bring a grown man to tears.
The solution: You pitch to the stud but give him nothing to hit. If he strikes out on crappy pitches, great. If he walks, oh well, at least you pitched to him. PROBLEM SOLVED. I heard on the radio that the coach was booed all around town, like in the supermarket and in restaurants. That's just sad.
I used to suck in little league back in MEXICO. I admit it. I couldn't hit for sh*t. I don't know if there was EVER a strategy to walk the batter in front of me or anything, but once I got a game-winning hit. Put a F*ck*ng rule in there to prevent this "intentional" walking crap. Buck, do I have a warped idea of what youth sports are?
I would agree with that. They can win on a wild pitch or a pitch that covered too much of the plate or he just reaches for it to make contact. There is nothing wrong with trying to paint the corners on a good batter or just keeping them low and away. If he walks on 4 balls, fine. You'd probably want to do that no matter who is up after him. But intentionally walking at that age should not be allowed. And doing that just to get to a kid with that past? - Bad call on the coaches part. But it sounds like karma is already paying him back.
Tough choice that's for sure but if i was the cancer patient's parents, I'd be happy that he gets to bat for an opportunity to win the game, even though the chances are slim. I'd want my kid to be in a situation to decide the outcome of a game. And if he doesn't succeed you go through the comforting that is needed to console him but you can't encourage them to shy away from those sort of things.
If you think they have *anything* to do with winning, then yes. "Have fun, do your best, be a good sport." That's it.
Well, a 10 year old pitcher might not have that much control, or Jordan might make contact and get a bloop single over the infield...better to just bean Jordan and not risk it. (kidding!) I thought that was a pretty skewed article by Reilly, though...he sobbed himself to sleep that night? Please...it's obvious that striking out in a little league game isn't the worst thing that kid has or will ever go through. He'll get over it. In fact, the only reason this warped article was written was because this kid is a cancer survivor. If he were just some scrawny kid that couldn't hit, this probably wouldn't have made the local paper. I'm pretty sure they intentionally walk kids all the time in little league. I'd love to say that using a 10 year old cancer survivor to write some feel good piece of propaganda BS is the worst thing Reilly has written, but I'd probably be wrong.
I disagree. Winning and losing is apart of the game. At 10 years old, they should be playing to win. They are learing to play as a team. They are learning that they have a responsibility and that everyone has to do their part to be successful. At 5, 6, 7, and maybe 8 they are there to have fun. When they start getting to 9 and up. It should be to win. Competition is a very good thing for kids. Learning to be a good winner and a good loser are very valuable lessons. You can be a good sport and play to win. Also if I'm the coach, I have my pitcher pitch to the best batter. I want them to win it against the best. I also wouldn't give him anything to hit. I'd have him pitch the corners and have everything down in the zone.
Of course the kids want to win, as they should (hence the "do your best" comment). The focus of the coaches and the parents should be different, that's what I was addressing. Totally agree with your comments about competition & teamwork (i.e. "being a good sport"), but "being successful" does not equate to winning. What if you play your best, as an individual and as a team, and still lose? I think we're saying much the same things.
"That was chicken****." ======= Okay, it was a pretty poor move, but I think it's even sadder that some are making references to bad karma coming the coach's way or he's got a beat down coming. That's just as pathetic. If you think the guy's an idiot, fine, say the coach is a moron. But don't go overboard. It's just a ****ing game. And for everyone worrying about the kid's feelings and that he may be scarred for life...I don't dispute that he may have some serious issues from this incident, but that's because of everyone (family, his coaches, friends) making this into a bigger deal than it is. For all we know the kid was disappointed just on the fact that he struck out. And now it's everyone else around giving him the idea that he should feel bad. I'm sorry the kid had cancer and I can relate to some of the stuff he's had to go through, but this incident, to me, is so inconsequential in his life compared to everything else. Everyone is making it a bigger deal than it is, but that's just how things like this are perceived in life. The solution is not have anyone (a sick kid, an overly competitive coach, a forgetful assistant coach with a poor understanding of compassion, etc.) in such a position by eliminating the hypocritical championship game of a "non-competitive sporting event."
While it wasn't exactly a PC move, the coach didn't break the rules. Seems like a stupid league to begin with though, 4 run rule per inning? Youth sports is a proven ingredient to causing normal, rational parents to act in an inrrational manner. For myself when I playing in the 10 - 12 year group in Little League, I was the catcher. This one kid I didn't like couldn't hit a curve. I the pitcher throw nothing but curve balls to him. He struck out four times in that game and was crying by the end of it. Wimp. I also had the pitcher bean a guy for standing to close to the plate. The rest of his AB's during the game he was standing so far back he couldn't even reach the ball. I admit it, I have an evil competitive streak. I had winning hits in Little League and I once struck out to end a game that would have given us 1st place. Life went on though because it was just a game and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
The thing is why would Romney want to be treated differently. If he is shown too much compassion, it would just reinforce his role as a victim. I have worked with some disabled people in the past, and the main thing they always tell me is they don't want to be seen as different. If you begin to to treat them in a special more delicate manner they lose some of their dignity. Go watch the documentary Murderball to understand what I'm saying here.
Ozzie Guillen would have demanded that the pitcher hit the stud in the face and then strike the cancer boy out on 3 straight pitches. Ozzie later at the press conference: "Cancer? F*** that. I've got a bad case of hemorrhoids, and I don't see nobody comforting me."
