Youth League Bars 9-Year Old Pitcher Because He's Too Good? Ridiculous.

As I suggested in my last post, sports for children needs serious re-thinking. That doesn't mean I believe kids shouldn't play sports. And if kids do play sports, the only way to do play sports is the right way - not a softer way, or a gentler way, or a way that makes everybody feel like a winner.

In New Haven, CT, a 9-year old boy - Jericho Scott -- has been barred from his youth league because he pitches too fast. When little Jericho refused to quit and took the mound last week, the opposing team forfeited. They just packed up and left the field. This is an entirely wrong lesson to teach kids.

Sports can teach valuable lessons for those willing to engage. In sports, the point isn't to be guaranteed a hit every time. The point is to step up to the plate - to try. In Rocky, the protagonist didn't think he could be beat Apollo Creed. He just wanted to prove he could go the distance. That's what makes Rocky Balboa a hero. How do we know who we are until we test ourselves against the seemingly impossible? How will anyone ever climb a higher mountain if they keep lowering the peak to make it easier? Would the Giants have upset the Patriots in the Super Bowl if they sat around before hand and lamented the difficulty of beating those who were to that point unbeatable? Would Buster Douglas have shocked the world and Mike Tyson if he refused to face the one who sent all others running?

Sports are all about stepping up to the plate. It's about confronting your dragons. If you win, great. But if you don't even step up, you'll neither win nor lose and you simply don't grow. Like to or not, competition is the essence of sports and it's a fact of life. Sports gives us a reality-like context to learn about ourselves in victory and defeat.

You know, one of these kids in New Haven might just get a hit off Jericho Scott. And then the other kids might see it's possible. And then ...

When we take the focus in sports off the result -- off winning and losing -- and place it back on the challenge, we'll be teaching kids something useful and enduring - something a lot more valuable than what's currently being taught in New Haven, which is "If you can't win don't play."

Comments

[flicka]

sorry, but its Scott's parents fault. He was orginally playing at a higher level, moved down to play with 9 yr olds. The parents did not want their child to play at a level where he had to work at being better. ESPN had much better coverage of the real story.

[Dave Hollander - Huffpost Blogger]

That has nothing to do with the other kids and parents not taking a turn at bat against him. If Scott's parents handle him poorly that's their problem. If the other parents won't let their kids bat against Scott because he's "too good" then, I think, those parents have a problem and they're setting they're kids up for bigger problems. More to the point, both parents looking for the wrong things in sports.

[dctackett]

that's terrible that the coach had the team quit... what kind of lesson is that?... if it looks too hard just go home? what are they there for anyway?

[BlackJAC]

I counter with ENTOURAGE: the show's backstory has Eric telling Vince in either middle or high school to "go try out for the school play" to taunt Vince's lackluster performance in gym class, yet Eric becomes Vince's employee once Vince makes it big as an actor raking in the millions and bedding the hot actresses all the kids who did well in school sports now fantasize about in the shower to anaesthetize themselves against their humdrum existences because the odds of becoming a pro athlete are slim to bupkiss.

All kids' sports have been overemphasized due to parents desperate for some form of glory in their own humdrum existences, and will be overemphasized even more so in this age of childhood obesity. After all, why bother keeping score if winning isn't important?

[dadw5boys]

Well what is the fun in a baseball game when only one team has to put kids in the outfeild ????

If they can't hit the kids will not even want to play.

So each time the play the team kids would just stay home or go swimming.

Would ruin the whole league because of kids just staying home.

[aftershock]

So instead, lets tell the one boy who worked his @$$ of to be as good as he already is that he can't play, because others want to have fun. Why can't he have fun too? Sorry, we want you to be as good as you can at anything kids, just don't be the best? What kind of example is that?

[BlackJAC]

The same example set by the people who decry elitism at all turns and brag about how the US led the overall medal count at the Olympics despite said medal count being made up primarily of third-place bronze medals.