9 Year Old Told He's Too Good to Pitch

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

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
Associated Press Writer

Posted: Today at 5:19 p.m.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — 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.

"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?"

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."

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."

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."

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 frighteneing 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?"

 

Typical modern day stand. Let's make everyone just alike so that no one wins. Hope this kid never makes any money, else he be labeled as being rich.

 

Disgusting. Must be democrats running that league.

The idea of moving him up sounds like a good play for the kid, but sounds like a lot of bridges have been burned.

 

move him up

that's what they did with Josh Hamilton over in West Raleigh.
A pitcher that throws hard, especially one without great control, can quickly "weed out" the soccer players from the baseball players.
It's no wonder why travel ball has exploded in the past decade...

 

To good to pitch

I think it's hhard to believe that a baseball league would even take a kid that young out from pitching.Let's look at this situation here 9 years old, and you are already trying to take something away from a kid that coluld maybe later on at an older age make it big somewhere.It's kinda like i said before leave the parents out and let the kids be.I'm guessing what is going on here is that people up there have no sense to what it is like to even let the kids be and let them play.Even at 40mph what distance are we talking about.If the kid is that good I wish i had the kid in our league down here.Atleast he would get to play.

Coach Michael

 

That's funny....

I remember all the years they wouldn't let me play, but for some reason I don't think it was because I threw too hard.

 

This story made me smile: Ty played with a kid who at 9 was legit mid-50's mph (Brian Gray). Problem was our 2 catchers couldn't handle him. So the coach asked Ty (who was 8) to give it a try.

Well...he could catch the ball, but Ty was still such a squirt that the impact would knock him over. So the Plate Ump literally put his knee in Ty's back to keep him upright. The good ole days...

 

Aah, but the things us grownups do sometimes too when our kids are that young...

This story made me smile too, because with UK7Dook3 just describing how an umpire helped out a young catcher, we had a similar umpire in our local youth league. I don't remember which one of my sons was playing (at around 9yo),,, but this one umpire was a very good sport, had a good sense of humor and everybody liked him because he was so good with the kids. But on one particular day, it was hot, everyone was tired, the game was long, the game went on and on, and this umpire kept telling me every inning just how much he was having to help my catcher about every little thing, and heck I thought our catcher had actually been doing pretty good. Anyway I always appreciated his comments, but on this particular day he just kinda started getting on my nerves, so towards the end of the game, I deliberately put a kid behind the plate who had been wanting to catch, but I knew the kid couldn't catch a lick, in fact probably the safest place on the field for this kid was behind the plate because that position enabled him to wear some protective equipment. Anyway, after about 2 batters, this umpire (after getting hit by every other pitch), just calmly called time, walked over to me, and he said he just wanted me to know that "I was a SOB". I told him since he had helped the other kid so much, I had simply sent him another one to help...

He and I have teased each other about that ever since...

 

Question

Not taking anything away from the kid, but is 40MPH really that rare at 9 years old? I don't have a built-in speed gun in my head, but have seen quite a few in 10U that I thought were throwing about that. Heck, they've got 11-12 year olds throwing 65MPH+ on the LL World Series.

To UK7Dook3's point, I would think 50's would be rare at 9....but not 40.
Am I out in left field on this one? (wouldn't be the first time....)

 

Story mentioned that he turned down an invitation to play with one of the other better teams in the league,,,, theres probably a lot more to this story than we'll ever know.

Unfortunate case of grownup politics more than anything else...