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June 17, 2005
Pansies
What is this crap?
Hit the showers, boys
Youth baseball team ousted from league for being ‘too good’
Friday, June 17, 2005
Kirk D . Richards
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
JAMES D . DeCAMP | DISPATCH PHOTOS
No one misbehaved. No one broke any rules.
But after only a few games, the Columbus Stars have been kicked out of a recreational youth baseball league in Canal Winchester.
The players, ages 11 and 12, were deemed too good.
On May 9, the Stars beat the Red Sox, 18-0. Two weeks later, the Stars also beat World Harvest, 13-0. But the biggest blowout occurred on May 27, when the Stars defeated Sugar Grove II, 24-0.
Sugar Grove I lost to the Stars the next day, 10-2.
"After hearing and seeing the scores from that group, I called up the league office and said, ‘No way are we going to play them,’ " said Terry Morris, who coaches one of three teams from Bloom-Carroll schools in Fairfield County. "I wasn’t going to subject my players to that."
Other teams started complaining. And canceling. The Stars were pulled from the league schedule. The team appealed to the league’s commissioner, Joe Bernowski, to no avail.
Okay, this team is way better than the other teams. But to quit? To say, we're not going to play you? It seems a bit wussy to me.
But then the opposition coaches bust out this gem:
Kris Hutchins, coach of the Yankees in the Canal Winchester league, said the parents of his players unanimously decided not to engage such a fearsome squad. It was an issue not only of competitiveness but also of safety, Hutchins said. "We didn’t want one of our kids to get hit in the face with a ball, not being able to defend himself."
Dahh!!!
I've been on some crappy sports teams in my time. I've been on some good ones, too. More often than not, though, they're crappy. But I never gave up. If I was one of these parents, I'd be ashamed of myself. I'd tell my kid to go out there and do your best. By most accounts, you can't kick out the best in something in real life simply because it makes the others feel bad.
Posted by oz115 at June 17, 2005 08:20 AM
Comments
Pansies is too easy on them. I suggest another word that starts with 'p'.
Using the logic of these f-tards, our Cubbies would have disbanded decades ago.
Posted by: John at June 17, 2005 12:21 PM
Don't believe everything you read in the paper. The true story is quite different than was printed in the paper, but wouldn't have been as good a story for the paper. In Youth sports, there are "travel" or "select" leagues, where teams are chosen and the same team typically plays together year after year. Then there are recreation leagues that communities form to give the kids something to do. The talent level is vastly different, so travel teams play in their own league and rec. teams play in their own league. The Columbus Stars were a travel team that had been kicked out of the travel league the season before, and lied to the Canal Winchester recreation league about being a rec. team so they had a place to play. They were kicked out because they should not have been in the league in the first place. I could go on, but hopefully this little insight will help you understand that this team was not the victim as the story would lead you to believe.
Posted by: John at June 24, 2005 09:08 PM