Baseball Team's Pitcher, 9, Ousted for Being Too Good

[RaptorQuiz]

LINK: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,410162,00.html

Baseball Team's Pitcher, 9, Ousted for Being Too Good

A Connecticut youth baseball team with a phenomenal 9-year-old pitcher has been disqualified because its team is too good.

The team, Will Power Fitness, has an 8-0 record thanks in large part to pitcher Jericho Scott, the New Haven Register reports. His pitching is so fast and accurate, the Liga Juvenil De Baseball De New Haven asked the team's coach, Wilfred Vidro, to replace him so he wouldn't frighten other players.

Click here for photos.

“The spirit of the league was community, family, well-being, nurturing," Peter Noble, the league's attorney, told the Register. "It’s an extended family and it’s been disrupted.â€

On Saturday, Jericho and his team showed up to the ballfield despite the fact the league canceled the game because they feared an "unhealthy environment" due to parental bickering, Noble told the paper. Jericho's parents, Nicole and Leroy, planned to meet with an attorney on Monday.

The Scotts said the league — which is not affiliated with the Little League — wanted Jericho to play for a stronger team. The parents and the coach claim the reason is because that team is sponsored by a local barbershop where the league's president currently cuts hair, the paper reported.

If you keep these kids on the field you keep them off the streets,†Leroy Scott told the paper. “I’d rather have him [Jericho] in the midst of this controversy on the field than dealing drugs on a street corner.â€

:roll:

[SESbb30]

this is bullshit.

[rolie]

Yeah what sore losers for walking off the field. That act alone is not a good example to send to kids.

[Sean O]

Welcome to America as reverse-meritocracy.

[Yankee4Life]

I hope this gets resolved. This kid has done nothing wrong and just wants to play baseball.

[kjuggs]

Is he a 16 year old Cuban, being packaged as a 9 year old? If that's the case, then I agree completely! Ah, what the heck, I can't even keep a stright face saying that. Who was the MLB pitcher who they didn't know his true age? This was only a couple of years ago...

[catzrthecoolest]

i bet he'd be better than the entire braves pitching staff

[Sean O]

Is he a 16 year old Cuban, being packaged as a 9 year old? If that's the case, then I agree completely! Ah, what the heck, I can't even keep a stright face saying that. Who was the MLB pitcher who they didn't know his true age? This was only a couple of years ago...

You mean Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez, Miguel Tejada, Santiago Casilla and a half dozen other players?

[lesmoore]

The article in question also refers to him being not allowed to play because he turned down an invitation from the defending team in the league to pitch for them.

Associated press

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

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer 15 hours, 33 minutes ago

*

Buzz Up

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Print

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP)—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.

Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho’s team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho’s coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.

But Vidro says he didn’t quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league’s field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch.

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“He’s never hurt any one,†Vidro said. “He’s on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?â€

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.â€

Jericho’s coach and parents say the boy is being unfairly targeted because he turned down an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of one of the league’s administrators.

Jericho instead joined a team sponsored by Will Power Fitness. The team was 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when Jericho was banned from pitching.

“I think it’s discouraging when you’re telling a 9-year-old you’re too good at something,†said his mother, Nicole Scott. “The whole objective in life is to find something you’re good at and stick with it. I’d rather he spend all his time on the baseball field than idolizing someone standing on the street corner.â€

League attorney Peter Noble says the only factor in banning Jericho from the mound is his pitches are just too fast.

“He is a very skilled player, a very hard thrower,†Noble said. “There are a lot of beginners. This is not a high-powered league. This is a developmental league whose main purpose is to promote the sport.â€

Noble acknowledged that Jericho had not beaned any batters in the co-ed league of 8- to 10-year-olds, but say parents expressed safety concerns.

“Facing that kind of speed†is frightening for beginning players, Noble said.

League officials say they first told Vidro that the boy could not pitch after a game on Aug. 13. Jericho played second base the next game on Aug. 16. But when he took the mound Wednesday, the other team walked off and a forfeit was called.

League officials say Jericho’s mother became irate, threatening them and vowing to get the league shut down.

“I have never seen behavior of a parent like the behavior Jericho’s mother exhibited Wednesday night,†Noble said.

Scott denies threatening any one, but said she did call the police.

League officials suggested that Jericho play other positions, or pitch against older players or in a different league.

Local attorney John Williams was planning to meet with Jericho’s parents Monday to discuss legal options.

“You don’t have to be learned in the law to know in your heart that it’s wrong,†he said. “Now you have to be punished because you excel at something?â€

[MissDCole]

this is noy a good lesson 2 teach kids

[Yankee4Life]

this is noy a good lesson 2 teach kids

I agree. They should pick up good spelling and grammar habits like you have obviously done.

[MarkB]

I agree. They should pick up good spelling and grammar habits like you have obviously done.

Ouch. :lol:

[superciuc]

I agree. They should pick up good spelling and grammar habits like you have obviously done.

Ok, that was rude :)

[Yankee4Life]

Ok, that was rude

But truthful.

[superciuc]

But truthful.

You're right. We need 2 teach lesson to kids. :lol:

[Mykal94]

stop it guys, that is noy funny. :wink: :lmao:

[RaptorQuiz]

this is noy a good lesson 2 teach kids

I agree that this is not a good lesson to teach kids.

[superciuc]

I agree that this is not a good lesson to teach kids.

Kids can't teach 2 kids, oh wait, teacher don't teach lessons, oh wait...

...whatever.

[RaptorQuiz]

More info about the 9 (just turned 10) year-old kid:

LINK: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...ht&lid=tab7pos1

A league of his own doesn't work for Jericho Scott

By Mark Kreidler

Special to ESPN.com

Let's keep this simple, for two reasons: (1) It's inherently a simple story and (2) they've got lawyers running around New Haven, Conn., filing lawsuits about kids' sports, which can't be good news for us if we dive into the deep end too quickly.

So cut it to the bare essentials and solve it. Jericho Scott, the boy at the center of this week's baseball storm, is in the wrong league.

It really is that basic. Not as sexy as the hyperventilation that is occurring over the civil rights issues around the story, I know. But just that basic, all the same.

Scott is not Cy Young; he's a kid who throws a good fastball against mediocre competition and struggles against better players. The organizing body that doesn't want him pitching anymore is not the "Satanic Summer League"; it's a group of volunteer parents who clumsily tried to clean up a gaping inequity between Scott -- a midseason import to his team, by the way -- and most of the other kids in what is clearly a developmental, low-wattage, newbie-strewn kid baseball enterprise.

And the national rush to judgment on the relative merits of the "case" is being led by a body of columnists and commentators who don't necessarily set out to come to dunderheaded conclusions, but who (it must be said) likely haven't seen a youth baseball diamond in either years or decades, depending upon whether we're talking about the MSNBC or CNN demographic.

The kid is just in the wrong league. Trust me: It happens all the time.

I've spent the past year researching and writing about kids' sports, along with the standard 10 years of Little League and travel-ball coaching that many dads my age seem to accrue. My youngest son is still 10, as is Scott, who just hit that birthday on Wednesday, and my son has played on (and I have coached with) a national traveling team. I don't know everything about youth baseball, but I've seen plenty.

And Scott is just a kid who shouldn't be playing in the LJB, the Liga Juvenil de Baseball de New Haven. Forget the legal ramifications for a minute and deal with the player himself. Scott is good enough to pitch in a much better league -- and that league, the Dom Aitro Pony League for all-star teams, is already available to him.

In fact, Scott plays in it when he isn't suiting up for the Will Power Fitness team in the LJB.

But in that other league, Jericho doesn't dominate.

And that, I suspect, is the real genesis of this story.

"We'd just move him up," said one of my colleagues, a man who runs a youth baseball league in California.

That's dead-on accurate. The most common response to a dominant player in kids' sports is to move him or her up to the next level of competition -- an older age group, a higher classification of league, whatever remedy is available.

The reasons are both obvious and multifaceted.

First, age is an almost useless calculator of youth sports talent. The more significant factors, by far, are physical size and coordination, level of interest and overall competitiveness. The behemoths standing alongside the Lilliputians at the Little League World Series were actually on the same team, but some kids grow bigger and faster than others. After that, it's about intensity, know-how and love of the game.

In all the blathering on about deprivation of rights and the de-Americanization of youth sports (and consequent wussifying of the Guitar Hero-addled U.S. child), this basic tenet has escaped the grasp of too many adults who should know better. The most American thing that a youth sports league can do for a talented kid is to get him the absolute best competition available to him, no matter what the "age" bracket says.

Little League Baseball figured this out years ago, which is why, in its national charter, it allows for its majors division to be filled with players who range in age from barely 9 to nearly 13. That's a huge gap, and it brings with it some natural disparities in terms of pure strength, size and the like. But that latitude allows little league coaches and board members in communities all across the country to annually identify, say, the 10-year-old who has no business being in the minors anymore, and moving him "up" to majors to face the best competition in town.

In the case of Scott, he already has been given that opportunity. As a member of that advanced, Dom Aitro Pony League, Scott is a good player -- but not the best. He is the No. 4 pitcher on his staff, good enough to go against the top players in the area, but not guaranteed of a blowout victory every time he steps on the mound.

So what is this kid doing in the LJB, a league that is made up significantly of kids playing baseball for the first time? Why were he and another Pony League all-star added to the Will Power Fitness team in midseason?

Why, when the LJB organizers realized that Scott, as a pitcher, was a comical mismatch against the competition, were their offers to move him to a higher age group rejected by the boys' parents, who are now suing for relief and emotional distress?

In a news conference on Tuesday, the LJB's position was made clear: It offered to move Jericho Scott up, because he was crushing the competition at his current level.

Jericho's parents declined the offer, according to the league's attorney. Now, tell me again the part about the big bad league that is beating up on the kid who just wants to pitch.

I'm sure he does want to pitch. And he should be able to.

But at the right level.

So, it would appear that the original story was tilted a bit in Jericho Scott's favor... but this story sheds a slightly different light on the situation.

Oh, and side note: Is it just me, or is "Jericho Scott" possibly one of the coolest baseball names ever? :)

[MarlinsMS_35]

40 mph at 9 is good, but it's pretty sad that the league is intimidated by it. I threw 51 at 10, so I probably threw a little above 40 at 9, and I was just an above average pitcher.

[DeuceBlades]

I can understand the parents gripe about a level playing field, but the kid didnt do anything wrong. Kids like this, who are way above the normal, as far as talent, should be placed on elite teams, and travel around the country to play. That would eliminate the unfair advantage the parents whine about, plus give the better players a reward for being that good, in a way of traveling and still playing, but in an elite league, where they get all the benefits, scouting and all that.

To good my a$$!!!!

what is this country coming to when a kid is to good to play baseball? :roll:

What about the Yankees when they won 27 championships? other teams didnt fold and say, they were to good, I cant play with these guys. Lets fold up and go home. All of them continued to play and find ways to get past that Yankee mystique. One kid cant win you a title, it takes 9 players on the field, and a total team effort.

By the way, the kids that are to good right now, give me those guys to develop, because those guys are the future of American baseball in this country. Not the young nerdy kid in leftfield, who picks his nose in between pitches, whose mother complains that the other guys pitcher is over talented and throwing a whole whopping 40 mph.

[DeuceBlades]

How fast do the little league WS kids pitch?? 65-70 mph, right? I bet that team from Connecticut wouldnt stand a chance against team Hawaii or Mexico.

[RdSoxFan618]

Yeah what sore losers for walking off the field. That act alone is not a good example to send to kids.

I live in Connecticut, and this happened in New Haven. Trust me, if this had to happen in one place, it would be New Haven

How fast do the little league WS kids pitch?? 65-70 mph, right? I bet that team from Connecticut wouldnt stand a chance against team Hawaii or Mexico.

Shelton or this New Haven team?

Obviously the New Haven team wouldn't stand a chance...they are 9 years old.

But now seriously. Do any teams stand a chance against those teams? I'd go off on a limb and say there's not a single 12 year old kid in my town who could hit a 65-70 mph fastball, and that goes for many other towns as well.

[meteamo]

But wasn't this league not associated with Little League? And is there a little league team somewhere this kid is?

Last I heard, the family and team were getting ready to sue the organization. And I heard something about one of the members of the organization's management having a barber whose son is on another team and I guess the member wanted him off the team and to disband the team perhaps for the barber. And I'm sure if any of the other teams could have this kid on their team, they would in a heartbeat.

I agree that this kid is much better than the other kids and perhaps he should move up to a higher level if there is one ... kind of like a 3rd grader in school moving up to the 4th grade or a Junior Varsity player in High School moving to Varsity. But, they handled it the wrong way. They should have spoke to the boy after speaking to the parents about promoting his superior skills and that he should move up to better promote his abilities with kids more suitable to challenge him and make him better instead of competing against kids that had no chance against him. And I wouldn't have his team disband ... that's not fair to the other kids. However, because they screwed it up and were wrong in handling it, they got to pay.

[CircleChange11]

This is an example of why kids should be placed by ability, rather than age. (As an education administrator, I could make the same arguement about the classroom as well).

I experience the same situation with my 7yo son. The point of this is not to brag, but to provide an illustration of why ability based leagues make more sense than age-based leagues.

My son's birthday was 6 days too late (May 6 instead of the last day in April), so he played another year of "coach pitch" (using the T after 3 swings and misses). It's a great (co-ed) league, designed as an introduction to the game and to learn basic fundamentals. It works beautifully until you get kids that are well above the average ability and/or size .. and most important, experience. The biggest highlight of the league is the PA announcer who announces the kids names, and the warm atmosphere created by parents. Due to ages of my daughter and youngest son, I'll be coaching in this league for the next 8 years.

My son started hitting pitched balls by age 3, is 4'5 and weighs 84 pounds (7yo 4mo). He's a big kid with well above average ability, due to insane passion, genetics, and a wealth of experience tagging along with HS state teams, junior high state champs, (I coached, he was bat boy, and practiced with us), and attended camps for 9-10 yo's (he fits in well with this group).

He, like may other kids, simply outgrew the league his birthday mandated he play in. It happens. I didn't make a stink about it, even though it bothered me. It doesn't do him any good to be playing in such a league, and it really doesn't do they other kids any good, and it creates a mockery of baseball, when all the kids back up to the outfield for safety reasons. All it really does is make the coach (i.e, me) look really good, which is about the 1,102th most important thing in youth baseball (at least, IMO).

Anyhow, I just wanted to point out that there are cases of kids being "misplaced" due to various factors, and it isn;t always a case of adults being sour, jealous, etc.

I have two expressions that I often state regarding youth baseball (and other sports).

[1] He who hits puberty first ... wins (go watch a youth football game for validation).

[2] Nothing before puberty matters. It equals out in Varsity HS sports. A team that wins state as 8-9 yos, or even in junior high may not win their HS conference. It happens.

Sorry for the ramble. I really just wanted to voice my preference for open tryouts for various leagues, versus mandating what league a kid in based on the the date locatd on his birth certificate. The point of youth sports is to learn the game, learn teamwork, etc. There are just too many more important factors, other than age, that should go into the decision of where a kids plays.