Link.
Extremely lame on the league’s part, IMO. I can understand that the kid has a level of talent unfit for the other kids his age, but you’d think they’d find a more positive solution than “oh, well you can’t pitch, then.” Aren’t there any older kids’ leagues he can move up to?
And this…
I’m pretty curious to know whether his 40 MPH pitch was discovered before or after his invitation to join the defending championship team.
I saw an interview the other day. The parents don’t want him to move to a different league, or to a division with older kids, or play a different position. They said they wanted him to play on a team with his friends and to be able to pitch. They didn’t mention anything about the defending championship team in that interview. If he’s really a good pitcher (speed isn’t everything, so he might not be), then he probably needs to play in a more advanced league.
I read an article about the kid, and it said he didn’t throw wild pitches and had never hit a batter. If he’s safe, why should he be forced to play with older kids just because he’s good? He’s a 9 year old. He wants to play with his friends. Let him. let kids be kids. If they are too spoiled to think their precious snowflakes might have their widdle feelings hurt because they lost to a better team, then they don’t know what sports is about.
Besides if they move him up and stress his body more to keep up with the bigger kids, it could have a detrimental effect on his health.
StG
From what my husband has told me about Little League, they aren’t the most scrupulous game in town (he’s coached in Babe Ruth League for a couple of decades now - they left Little League because of the corruption). As for banning him from playing because he’s too good, that sounds like a crappy thing to do to a talented kid. There are always kids who dominate play at their level, and according to Jim, kids who dominate at Little League very rarely successful at baseball later on - let the kid have his childhood supremacy.
Isn’t that part of sports? There will always be someone better than you, learn to deal. Same goes for just about any activity.
The parents should be telling their kids that whoever gets a hit off the superpitcher will be the envy of all the league.
I might be a bit more supportive if the kid was wild and hitting batters a lot (though to be honest 40mph - while great for a 9 year old- isn’t going to injure anyone unless they get it in the face), but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
A major league pitcher throwing around 100 mph is considered exceptional but still can be hit. The pitch takes .42 seconds to reach the plate. Scaled to little league distance of 46 feet, that would mean this kid should be throwing about 76 mph. A 40 mph pitch is only equal to 53 mph. Even shortening this to 30 feet would only be equal to 80 mph, still not overwhelming to a decent hitter. I don’t see how this kid could be so dominant. Back to the situation, this is just another case of no one can be better, “we must all be winners” :rolleyes:
Doesn’t sound like you’re accounting for the difference in motor skills that nine-year-olds have. Still, I read about this yesterday and I thought it was crap.
I wonder how fast a typical 9 year old pitcher throws.
Last year, I had one 11 and one 12 year old throw 55-58mph. Two years ago, I had a 10 year old clocked at a consistent 45-50mph. We did have a few parents on opposing teams question his age (he’s pretty tall kid), but they didn’t get worked up and walked out…and he was in the minors with 8,9 and 10 year olds. Also, in rookies (7&8 year olds), we used a pitching machine SET to 32mph, and on occasion (at practice) we bumped it up to 40mph to make it challenging, but still possible to hit.
I don’t think the kid is that exceptional…Good (with a captial G), but not to the point where he’s gotten this much negative attention. This boy should stay in his division and the league and individual teams should be paying for a pitching machine and get the rest of the kids caught up.
All my information is second-hand (filtered through a Little League mailing list I subscribe to), but (a) the league involved was not Little League, it was some other form of youth baseball; (b) 40 mph is nowhere near overpowering; and © as more of the story unfolds, it turns out to be completely related to internal league politics, and nothing to do with the kid. I’ll see if I can find cites for (a) and ©. (b) is from my personal experience.
When I was in Little League I played against a kid who could pitch40 MPH. It was damn fast, but he was hittable. It was more about his control than anything. He had great control and you knew deep down that he wasn’t gonna plunk you, but he was still throwing a good 10 MPH faster than anyone else in the league.
i can see their point. If the kid is an overpoweringly good pitcher, then this youth baseball team league has failed in its primary purpose… letting kids have fun. The opposing team isn’t going to have fun trying to hit the unhittable, and the team this kid plays on isn’t going to have much fun if he strikes everyone out.
He belongs in a more advanced league, or he shouldnt be pitching.
This column and this one have a little more information. Even though 40 mph is not outrageously fast for a 10 year old, it might well be too fast for a league composed of mostly first time players.
I’m not sure this is about the kid wanting to dominate the league at all (although he might not mind). I have a feeling it’s about the coach wanting to dominate the league, and his parents wanting their kid to be a star.
It may be that the people running the league have no idea of how to run an “everybody plays” league. Normally, in a “everybody plays” league, coaches don’t bring in their own team. What will happen is there are partial teams composed of the kids who played last year and didn’t move up. Players new to the league or division are evaluated, and there is a draft to fill the vacancies. Kids who join up late basically get assigned to teams that are a player short relative to other teams (because it never works out perfectly). There would never be any question of a coach adding two kids from a more competitive league in mid-season. They probably need to have rules instead of discussion after the fact. But that doesn’t mean they have to sit back and let the coach cause the whole league to disband . Because that’s what will happen. There’s no fun in playing if you believe there’s no hope of winning. And there’s no competition if you are so dominant that there is almost no chance of losing.
Heard the story the other day on NPR and felt very bad for the youngster. It seems as though when the adults get involved, the fun and character-building of a sport go right in the shitter.
Obviously they don’t mention he’s on steroids, because they can’t being he’s a minor. 
So a kid is no longer allowed to be the legitimate best of anything? he’s the best in that particular league? So what? Maybe batting against him will bring up the batting level of the other players. And if it doesn’t, maybe it’ll teach them how to lose with grace. Let’s say that Michael Phelps’ (to use a name much in the news recently) competition decided he was just too good. “I’m sorry, he can’t swim in the Olympics - the other swimmers wouldn’t have a chance.” That’s just not the way sports works. And if that league is divided in age groups, there’s no reason why a gifted youngster shouldn’t join them.
StG
My son played machine pitch this year. The machine they used pitches 40-45 miles an hour. Those kids were having no problems catching up to it - the scores were regularly 20+ runs for the winning team over six innings.