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

[NDboy15]

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

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 any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.

...

The controversy bothers Jericho, who says he misses pitching.

“I feel sad,” he said. “I feel like it’s all my fault nobody could play.”

What the hell has become of this country?

[SoCalDomer]

it was very apparent this year when my 3 year old son took his first instructional class that kids of all ages mature differently. there were kids older than him who had less attention span and less physical ability. there were kids his own age who ran much faster and threw much better.

i don't know whether the coach, the league and his parents handled this right, but at 9 years old you no doubt have kids who may not even be able to get out of the way 40 MPH pitch if it were thrown at them.

i don't care if the reporter says the kid wasn't wild; if he's 9 years old he doesn't have control yet. control is one of the hard things to learn.

you could have kids out there that it's their first time playing baseball. not only is the risk of getting hit in the face significant, it also becomes a matter of helping the kids learn to play better. how many of these kids can hit a 40 MPH pitch? according to the news piece this was an instructional league, not a competitive league.

why the coach pressed the issue after the league asked him to just play a position doesn't make sense to me.

but i suspect that his is another situation where if we had more facts, we could probably understand this better. news reports are so short and so incomplete (often times facts are left out intentionally).

also, when i played little league there was always the option of moving a kid who was really advanced up a level or moving kids down a level. surely they could work something like that out here.

[NDboy15]

That is true, safety and I see what you mean.


Yeah, Why make such a big deal and just move him up to the 11-12 year old age. The competition would be better for him in the long run and all the chaos of quiting and forfeiting could be stopped for that league.

[brownkj002]

This is bush league. The kid should be able to pitch . We need as a society to stop coddling the youth so much. God forbid a little league kid strike out and hurt his/her confidence.

[davidtro99]

as was mentioned by socal, it may be difficult for a 8-10 year old to get out of the way of a 40 mph pitch. i have been coaching little league for 9 years, and have 2 state titles in the 9-10 yr old division. the idea was floated to move the player up to the next level (will probably happen next summer for him) it is equally challenging to get out of the way from a ball smoked by a 12 year old up the middle when the pitcher is standing 45 feet away. i was struck twice this year by 2 different 12 year olds in the right leg from a ball that was hit up the middle and there is no time to get the lower body out of the way.

to tell a kid he is too good to play is asinine. (spelling?) a job of any coach is to develop players to be the best they can be. and there is something to be said for mound time in an actual game.

am i being told this is the oldy 9 year old in the history of youth baseball that has ever thrown 40 mph. might as well sign him to a contract in the bigs now. apparently that is where he is headed.

also for $5 you can buy a face guard at any local sports shop. if the parent want to protect their players, spen the $5. little league will be making these mandatory on helmets in the very near futre anyway, just like the double first basebag.

let the kid pitch!

[davidtro99]

oh yeah! and the coach that forfieted should be repremanded. there are ways to play a game under protest, he robbed his players of an opportunity to rightfull beat one of the better team in their league. anybody can be beat on any given day. esspesially at that level. teach the kids to bunt. make the defense work. play the game coach.

[Sureal]

You don't give kids F's, everyone gets a trophy, there are no losers and everyone wins...

We haven't seen the apex of wussification of our young people.

It's going to get worse people...