Lawyers have been called in to resolve a fight brewing over a Little League call in New Haven, Connecticut. Nine-year-old pitcher Jericho Scott has been dropped from his team on Liga Juvenil De Baseball De New Haven (Youth Baseball League of New Haven). However, Scott was cut because he was too good, not too bad, to play. Scott’s throws so fast that officials complained that he was scaring the other kids and dominating games. To make matters worse, the league president has been accused of trying to remove Scott to help his own team, which is currently in second.
The League is represented by Peter Noble, who has decried the “disruption” caused by the community and “extended family” of the league.
Noble and others rushed into the field after Coach Wilfred Vidro refused an order by league officials to replace Scott, who is so good that he doesn’t give players any real chance to compete.
The parents are speaking with Attorney John Williams to take their son’s (and his team’s) objections to court. Noble insists that such litigation creates an “unhealthy environment.” Bite your tongue, Mr. Noble. I have said for years that every little league team should have a coach, assistant coach, and designated litigator.
Coach Vidro is accusing the league officials of intervening because of their interest in another team — that happens to be in second. Say it ain’t so Jericho. Vidro says that they are really just trying to help the team sponsored by Carlito’s barber shop which is owned by league president Reynaldo Reyes.
As the attorneys suit up, it will be interesting to see if they add a safety rationale for the removal of Scott. Little league baseball continues to be plagued by serious injuries, including injuries linked to the speed of ball off metal bats, here. Yet, the most likely defense is a simple muscle play: the league reserves the right to kick off players and coaches in its discretion and the courts have no cause or jurisdiction to intervene. Many judges would be leery of a “floodgate” problem in refereeing such decisions as the placement of individual players on a little league team. Moreover, the coach is accused of not rotating Scott (a common complaint on little league). As a little league parent, I can attest to the fact that this is a sore spot between coaches. In the McLean league, players (particularly pitchers) can only pitch for a couple of innings. Technically, all of the players are supposed to be rotated in AA. The rotation rule would seem to eliminate the problem here.
With the lawyers heading to court, it is becoming a legal version of the biblical fight over Jericho. Indeed, it brings to mind Joshua’s curse after the Siege of Jericho:
“And Joshua charged the people with an oath at that time, saying: ‘Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up . . . even Jericho; with the loss of his first-born shall he lay the foundation thereof, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it'”. (Joshua 6:26).
Ok, I admit I could not find a biblical reference for Carlito’s Barber Shop.
For the full story, click here.
That was a frankly good post.
Your exactly right on this blog
Ciekawy post, dodalem twoj blog do ulubionych, bede tu teraz wpadal czesciej, pozdrawiam
etc etc etc – niblet aka dundar aka martha aka martha h aka bartlebee aka zakimar aka cromag’non’man aka jim winchester
http://jonathanturley.org/2008/07/28/getting-right-with-god-church-shooter-allegedly-targeted-knoxville-church-due-to-its-liberal-views/
mespo727272 1, July 29, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Patty C:
Unless we see more, you’ve won with the “under” bet since he only went for 7 hysterical replies. I am guessing more is to come, but I am willing to concede defeat. I also think we should nominate Gyges for the Euphemism Award after our hero’s diatribe against him for something he didn’t say and in response to a question to someone other than our comical friend. “Wordy”, how’s that for avoiding the real thing? Bravo Gyges! I haven’t wanted this to be competitive, but in my sport we do know victory is at hand when we get into the head of the opponent. We’re there and it’s vast, desolate, and scary. Yikes!
jonathanturley 1, July 30, 2008 at 8:01 am
BARTLEBEE:
I have removed three of your comments which included foul language directed at another person. This site is committed to civil discourse. I do not want to bar or censor anyone on a site that has free speech focus, but we need to maintain a minimal standard of civility in discourse. Also, I would appreciate it if you would try to combine some of your comments rather than have four or five one-line comments following in one after another. The problem is that there is a limit on the number of comments which appear on the opening page. We welcome continued exchanges and dialogues. However, having four comments in an uninterrupted line prevents other comments from being visible for the other readers on the home page comments column.
JT
BARTLEBEE 1, July 30, 2008 at 2:07 pm
No problem JT.
Since you permit bloggers like mespo and patty to attack new bloggers, unprovoked, and litteraly badger them until they finally retort with some uncivility of their own, and then penalize the blogger who dares respond to the non stop stalking attacks of your two favorite friends, I will do you one better.
I’ll leave your blog and never post in it again.
You guys spend your days damning the right for cronyism, yet clearly it is a dual standard when it comes to your own.
Notice not one word to mespo or patty, about their non stop attacks on me.
Not one word about how they follow me from thread to thread, insult me, harrass me, demonize me, and generally try and interfere with my comments to other bloggers.
Just let them piss me off enough to wear I might use some questionable language, and then walla. Here comes the teacher to chastize me for responding to these two GOONS you keep on hand to drive out anyone who won’t goosestep to the blog beat.
This isn’t a vehicle for free expression, nor does the free speech you so loudly proclaim on Countdown exist here.
What you have here, is an “ECHO CHAMBER”, where bully liberals like messpo and patty c, are permitted to drive out new bloggers by badgering them until they either leave, or react in a way that draws your rebuke.
Well, you can “say” you don’t like to censor all you want, but you just censored me, and without so much as an inkling of alluding to the bloggers, who harrassed me until I finaly let loose with some bad language, obviously to try and discourage them from talking to me.
I don’t talk that way, it should have been obvious to you that my intent was to make it unpleasent for them to keep harrassing me.
But apparently that was neither visible to you, or you just didn’t care. Either way, I won’t hang out in an ECHO CHAMBER, where left WINGNUTS like Patty and your pal messpo, are permitted to badger bloggers, but responses from those bloggers are censored and stifled.
I really thought you believed the stuff you say on Countdown, and who knows, maybe you do.
You just don’t practice it yourself.
So I will bid you good morning sir, and leave you to your ECHO CHAMBER, so you guys can “talk” about free speech.
😀
Oh… and in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.
******************
When are you leaving-again? So we can mark our calendars in gleeful anticipation…
I think the play here is the ole’ Babe Ruth maneuver: if he’s that good, it should be easy to make a deal with the league to keep him on the team — but as a non-pitcher. Then later, after he outgrows that league (which he will shortly if he’s really the age he’s reported to be), and he moves on to a more mature league (complete with a slightly larger diamond for safety’s sake), he can take the mound again. The Babe quit pitching, and it just may well have been the best thing that ever happened to him.
Commotio cordis is the medical term used to describe the blunt force chest trauma which caused the sudden death in this case.
Don’t use terms you do not fully understand to minimize what ultimately happened to this boy, his family, and his fellow ball players in the course of what should have been a normal day in the lives of children at play.
If you want to score points, come up with better options for parents
by age group, proficiency level, and by insisting upon proper protective gear.
Charlie,
Actually the kid hasn’t hit anybody with a pitch all season, so the argument that he’s putting the batters he faces in danger falls a bit flat.
If youth sports aren’t meant to teach kids the value of perseverance after defeat, we’ll end up with a nation full of spoiled kids who sue when they get cut from a team. (See Guiliani’s little brat).
I played baseball in it’s all forms from the age of six into my early fifties. Never a good player, but certainly average. At age 12 I quit LL after five games. It simply wasn’t fun and it was controlled by and for the ego of adults. While I believe that there are no doubt many adults who serve a good managers, coaches and role models, too many of those intimately involved are living their own dreams vicariously.
Mr. May, LL baseball has become a viable commercial entity and you make your living from it. There is certainly nothing wrong with being a commercial entity and we are a capitalist country. However, don’t disabuse our intelligence by telling us it’s all about the kids and their safety. It’s all about the money and there is nothing idealistic about it.
Dear Sir:
Mike May, here, with a group known as Don’t Take My Bat Away, a baseball coalition whose members include baseball players, coaches, league administrators, parents, bat makers, and youth baseball associations such as Little League, Babe Ruth, and PONY. Don’t Take My Bat Away stands for ‘bat of choice’ in the wood vs. non-wood bat debate. Players should be free to use wood, composite, or metal. Baseball is a players game which should be enjoyed by the players.
I saw your recent story about the nine-year-old pitcher who is in the middle of a ‘rules dispute’ in his local youth baseball league — sad and totally unnecessary. In that story, you wrote that “Little league baseball continues to be plagued by serious injuries, including injuries linked to the speed of ball off metal bats.” THERE ARE NO MAJOR INJURY CONCERNS IN BASEBALL RELATED TO BATTED BALL INJURIES. The biggest source of injuries in baseball is due to collisions and thrown balls.
Bats used at the Little League level are governed by the BPF Standard which dictates that the rebound effect of the batted ball off non-wood bats cannot exceed the rebound effect of the batted ball off a wood bat. Bat makers MUST follow those standards. It’s also worth noting that there have been eight deaths in Little League sanctioned games, though none since 1973. Of those eight fatalities, six were off wood bats. There is a similar bat standard, known as Ball Exit Speed Ratio (BESR), which governs bats used at the high school and college level. In a nutshell, this standard mandates that the exit speed of the ball off a non-wood bat is no greater than the exit speed of a baseball off the finest wood ash bat. This standard has been in place since 2003.
A 2007 study on the ‘non-wood vs. wood’ issue by Illinois State University concluded that “there was no statistical significant evidence that non-wood bats result in an increased incidence in severity of injury.”
In 2002, before current bat standards were established, the CPSC stated that “available incident data are not sufficient to indicate that non-wood bats may pose an unreasonable risk of injury.”
Finally, it’s important to know baseball is being played as safely with non-wood bats as it is with wood bats. Any implication otherwise is simply misleading! Go to http://www.DTMBA.com for more details.
Mike May
mmay@sgma.com
http://www.DTMBA.com
561-317-6111
Dear Sir:
Mike May, here, with a group known as Don’t Take My Bat Away, a baseball coalition whose members include baseball players, coaches, league administrators, parents, bat makers, and youth baseball associations such as Little League, Babe Ruth, and PONY. Don’t Take My Bat Away stands for ‘bat of choice’ in the wood vs. non-wood bat debate. Players should be free to use wood, composite, or metal. Baseball is a players game which should be enjoyed by the players.
I saw your recent story about the nine-year-old pitcher who is in the middle of a ‘rules dispute’ in his local youth baseball league — sad and totally unnecessary. In that story, you wrote that “Little league baseball continues to be plagued by serious injuries, including injuries linked to the speed of ball off metal bats.” THERE ARE NO MAJOR INJURY CONCERNS IN BASEBALL RELATED TO BATTED BALL INJURIES.
New York area bat maker and I appreciate your interest in this issue, BUT there are some issues which need clarification.
Bats used at the Little League level are governed by the BPF Standard which dictates that the rebound effect of the batted ball off non-wood bats cannot exceed the rebound effect of the batted ball off a wood bat. Bat makers MUST follow those standards. It’s also worth noting that there have been eight deaths in Little League sanctioned games, though none since 1973. Of those eight fatalities, six were off wood bats. There is a similar bat standard, known as Ball Exit Speed Ratio (BESR), which governs bats used at the high school and college level. In a nutshell, the this standard mandates that the exit speed of the ball off a non-wood bat is no greater than the exit speed of a baseball off the finest wood ash bat. This standard has been in place since 2003.
A 2007 study on the ‘non-wood vs. wood’ issue by Illinois State University concluded that “there was no statistical significant evidence that non-wood bats result in an increased incidence in severity of injury.”
In 2002, before current bat standards were established, the CPSC stated that “available incident data are not sufficient to indicate that non-wood bats may pose an unreasonable risk of injury.”
As for young Stephen Domalewski, the entire baseball community has deep sympathy for him and his family, but Stephen suffered from commotio cordis, which can be triggered by many different outside factors such as a charging pet, being struck on the chest by a closed fist, falling from playground equipment, or children wrestling in the yard. In fact, commotio cordis is often triggered by a less intense blow to the chest which must take place during a precise milli-second in between heart beats.
Finally, it’s important to know baseball is being played as safely with non-wood bats as it is with wood bats. Any implication otherwise is simply misleading! Go to http://www.DTMBA.com for more details.
Mike May
mmay@sgma.com
http://www.DTMBA.com
561-317-6111
Anyone with common sense will recognize that little pre-teens certainly are endangered by the kind of ball poor oppressed little Jerico is throwing. I wonder how many years and hours his dad spent teaching him to toss with that kind of force… Tiger Woods’ dad started him off at four years of age.
In the first part of the 20th century it was not unusual for someone, usually an older relative, to take a four-year old and begin teaching him to play pool by standing him up on a wooden box and showing him how to shoot by hanging off the edge of the table, which is legal in pool, by the way. By the time the kid was Jerico’s age and size he could beat most adults easily. A player trained in this manner made lots of money for his “older relative” (dad) and was called a “ringer” by honest players.
Take a look at Jerico’s pitching stance… JERICO IS A RINGER IF THERE EVER WAS ONE.
Once the the liberal courts get in and the “stench from the bench” settles on the affair, you can be sure Jerico’s “older relative” will get lots and lots of the white people’s money.
IT’S CALLED A SUITCASE, BRO.
“Ok, I admit I could not find a biblical reference for Carlito’s Barber Shop.”
*************
Carlito’s Barber Shop? Sounds more like “Carlito’s Way.”
As a longtime observer and critic of Little League baseball, I can a attest to the utter cynicism of many of the adults who run it. From maniacal obsession on winning to ruthless deceit to ensure membership of the their kids on All-Star teams, the whole system is corrupt. It starts at the top with LL International pandering to its sponsors and putting ever older and larger kids on smaller fields in the 12-year old league to artificially produce home runs for TV consumption–safety be damned. The Courts should intervene since this fiefdom of the “Dads Living Through his Kids” could use a good airing out to remove the stench.