[Firestormalpha]

9-year old boy banned from little league

Say it ain't so. I never thought I'd see anything as disgraceful on a Little League field as the all-too-frequent stories about fathers getting into fights with umpires or coaches or other parents at youth sporting events. But this one might top all those. The Youth Baseball League of New Haven, Conn., has banned a 9-year-old from pitching. His crime? Excessive velocity. Jericho Scott throws almost 40 mph, a speed deemed too dangerous for other 8- to 10-year-olds to step in against. Though Jericho had yet to hit a batter as his team opened the season 8-0, his coach was told the boy must play some other position or the team would be disbanded. When coach Wilfred Vidro defied the league directive and sent Jericho to the hill last week, the other team refused to play, packed its gear and left. Officials for the league say that Jericho's team has indeed been disbanded and that the players will be redistributed among other squads. I hope Ken Burns got some footage for his documentary, The Death of Baseball in America. According to those same league officials, Jericho's mother Nicole Scott went bananas after the other team forfeited rather than face her son. "I have never seen behavior of a parent like the behavior Jericho's mother exhibited Wednesday night," said league attorney Brian Noble. (Quick, who was your youth baseball league's attorney?) All I can say on behalf of Ms. Scott is hallelujah. I hope she went bonkers. I hope she went Lou Piniella on them and started tossing bases around. I hope she took a bat to the water cooler a la Carlos Perez. When a decision is this wrongheaded, the only appropriate reaction is overreaction.