I don’t know if I’ve ever linked to Rick Reilly, mainly because his SI.com stuff is usually inaccessible to non-survivors. But SI.com has made Reilly’s most-recent offering available to the masses, and… it’s a good one.
In fact, it’s not so much a column as it is a question of ethics. I’ll let Reilly pose it to you:
This actually happened. Your job is to decide whether it should have.
In a nine- and 10-year-old PONY league championship game in Bountiful, Utah, the Yankees lead the Red Sox by one run. The Sox are up in the bottom of the last inning, two outs, a runner on third. At the plate is the Sox’ best hitter, a kid named Jordan. On deck is the Sox’ worst hitter, a kid named Romney. He’s a scrawny cancer survivor who has to take human growth hormone and has a shunt in his brain.
So, you’re the coach: Do you intentionally walk the star hitter so you can face the kid who can barely swing?
Wait! Before you answer…. This is a league where everybody gets to bat, there’s a four-runs-per-inning max, and no stealing until the ball crosses the plate. On the other hand, the stands are packed and it is the title game.
So … do you pitch to the star or do you lay it all on the kid who’s been through hell already?
When I think about it in terms of what is the right moral answer, to be honest with you, it doesn’t come to me quickly. But when I think about it in terms of what I’d have done if I was coaching the Yankees, I very quickly and easily determine that there’s no way I’d have walked the good hitter to get to the bad one. I just wouldn’t, it wouldn’t be a difficult decision, and here’s why:
This isn’t a league that’s about honest competition. Everyone bats, you can’t score more than 4-per-inning, and you can’t steal. That, to me, is a clear indication that this is a league that is not about honest competition, it is not about playing to win the game, it’s about playing to protect feelings.
And whether or not you think that leagues like that should even exist is an entirely seperate issue; the fact of the matter is that this league exists, that’s what it’s for, and that’s what they’re doing there. That is the goal and spirit of the league, and the coach should have abided by it. Now, whether or not a league with that sort of a goal should have a championship game at all is another issue; one worth exploring for the league organizers next year.
And if you’re the coach of the Yankees, the team that did the walking, how the hell could you celebrate that victory and sleep at night? It’s one thing for the Yankees players to celebrate it, they’re nine. All they know is that they won; the moral dilemmas fall to the adults.
If the coach had to make a quick decision, he got some bad advice, panicked and made the wrong call, fine. We’re all human, it happens. But if he’s actually proud of this victory, and he’s happily celebrating the fact that he coached a group of 9-year-olds to a championship in a non-competitive league by picking on the physically weakest kid on the other team… well, then that guy’s got some problems.
But, just to switch gears for a minute…
If those non-competitive rules weren’t in place, I think this would be an entirely different question. Let’s say the kids are a little older, and the only protection for a bad team or player is a 10-run mercy rule. It’s a competitive league, and the goal is to crown the best team. If that was the case, then I might come down on the other side of the fence here.
With those assumptions, the kid probably never would have been in that position anyway. He might have been subbed out before then, the coach might not have had to play him at all, and he almost certainly wouldn’t be hitting right behind the best player on the team. This would have been a lot less likely to happen.
But if it still had, then I think it would be okay to walk the good hitter to get to the bad one. I’m a big believer in “You Play To Win The Game” (© Herman Edwards). There is value in honest competition. If the kids are working hard to be the best in the league, then the coach owes it to them to do his part to get them the championship they’ve been working for. Now, that is not the situation these Red Sox and Yankees found themselves in, but under different circumstances, it could have been.
And you also don’t want to send the message to the kids on the Yankees that people with disabilities (and I’m not what, if any, specific disabilities this particular kid had, other than just a general physical lack of strength) are to be patronzied, or that they need hand-outs. Altering a time-honored baseball strategy to protect someone’s feelings would not fall under the category of human compassion or helping your fellow man. In a league that’s about protecting feelings, you protect feelings. In a league that’s about competition, you compete, and you make the decisions you have to make to win the game, as best you can, within the rules.
At any rate, I’d be willing to bet that the kid is going to handle this better than any of the adults involved. According to Riley, the kid cried himself to sleep that night, and then the next day, was out in the yard practicing so that one day, he could be the kid who got walked.
And if he never gets to that point, if he’s never a great hitter, he’ll be able to handle that, too. He’s handled a hell of a lot worse. Physically, he may be weak. Emotionally, he’s probably one tough little bastard. He’s probably had to be. At certain points in our lives, we’ve all had to face the realization that we weren’t great at something we wanted to be great at.
That probably shouldn’t happen in a little league game for 9-year-olds where everybody bats. But that day will eventually come. As kids, we all had to realize at some point or another that we weren’t going to be professional athletes, so will he, and I guarantee you that he’ll be well aware of his limitations at the time. It’s not like any of it will come as a surprise to him. He’ll just go through it, like everyone has.
To Rick Reilly, thumbs high for a provocative column. To any coach of the Yankees that feels really good about themselves, you should probably quit coaching nine-year-olds. To the adults who were near-brawling on the field after the game, learn how to control yourselves and set a better example. And to the kid who struck out, best of luck, little man, and I’ve got a hunch that you’re going to be just fine.
Andrew
Actually, the reason the kid was weak is that he has cancer, which really makes the coach who walked the slugger to get to him really look like an asshole.
August 10, 2006 at 6:25 am
Carl
Way to break it down MJD… and without flinging 37 variations of the ‘F’ bomb at the Yankess coach, too! great post – impressive work man!
August 10, 2006 at 7:47 am
King Dan
Outstanding work. You’ve really been on your game the last few weeks.
August 10, 2006 at 8:57 am
Spaceno34
Thanks for posting this. I only caught part on the radio yesterday.
The coach was in a tough spot. While this maybe a non-competition league, we all know that the parents are not.
So the coach walks the good kid, he takes heat. The coach pitches to the good kid, his own parents blast him (I played little league and parents where like that).
Really it’s no-win for him. Personally, I would have told my pitcher to strike the good kid out and have faith in my team but that’s me.
August 10, 2006 at 11:19 am
David St. Hubbins
This is a clear-cut example of when to use the unintentional-intentional walk. Look like you’re trying, but throw four straight pitches low and away. Then again, that might be a bit much to ask of your 10-year-old pitcher…
August 10, 2006 at 11:42 am
Marc Nelson Jr.
If you’re not trying to win, then it’s not a sport. Turn the kids loose on the playground for an hour instead of pretending in engage in a competitive activity.
Actually, I think Romney’s coaches and parents are the ones who deserve criticism. If this kid can barely hold a bat, why didn’t the coaches bat him in the first inning and get it out of the way? Why did they make him bat at the end of the game with all the pressure on him? Because they didn’t want to waste the AB, and they were hoping to be up by a couple runs when Romney had to bat in the late innings.
And why are his parents even letting him on the field if “Romney’s body may not produce enough of a stress-responding hormone if he is seriously injured, so he has to quickly get a cortisone shot or it could be life-threatening. That’s why he wears a helmet even in centerfield.” These sound like the kind of parents who use their child’s disability as a weapon.
August 10, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Fan's Attic
if i were on the yankees team as a kid, i would be pissed if we lost because my coach decided to pitch to the best hitter rather than to a lesser hitter. granted, i have been a hypercompetitive person in sports/games since i was 4 or 5 years old and hate losing almost more than anything.
i may sound like a jerk and some may say you wouldn’t act that way when you were 10. but, i am here to say that i would and did act that way when i was 10. losing is/was not acceptable to me and that is one of my many character flaws.
August 10, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Teaser Mare
I second Fan’s Attic – I know that as a little kid, I would be royally pissed if the manager was not coaching to win. That being said, most truly competitive kids would not be playing in real baseball team, and would not need to deal with a situation like that.
My big problem lies with the parent’s reaction to the whole matter. Granted that the Yankees manager is a total douchebag, I think the parents probably made it worse by whining about the whole matter. It just reinforces that whole “victim’s mentality”. If I were the kid’s parent, I would have turned it into a positive and said to the kid, “You should feel good that they are not treating you just like any other ballplayer, instead of looking down on you. Next time up, you will get a hit and show ‘em, son.”
Kudos to the kid – he bounced back and showed a ton of spirit.
August 10, 2006 at 12:44 pm
pattymc
Marc Nelson -
These kids are 10. You’re right that sports involve winning and losing, but there’s a quote about how you play the game or something that seems relevent here. Little League is about the kids, not the coaches. It’s about building a love for the game, not the W. I think it’s pretty dumb to let a 9 year old’s little league game be decided by the “genious” of the adult coaches. Let the kids play, don’t get overly complicated with strategy, and move on.
I think what it means by everyone getting to bat is that the whole roster is in the lineup, whether they take the field or not, so your whole first inning concept is moot. But to say that the parents are to blame is questionable – you have no idea why the kid is playing in this league – what would you do if your child that had cancer said all he wanted to do was play little league? You’d put him in a league like this.
August 10, 2006 at 12:53 pm
New York Sports Page
I’d still say pitch to the good kid, even in a competitive league. If the good kid knocks in that guy on third then, well, he beat you. It’s hard to worry about the kids or the parents being too bitter about the fact that they were actually forced to pitch to the best guy.
Is it precisely fair? No, definitely not. But anyone who’s crying about fairness while there’s a nine-year-old cancer survivor nearby could probably benefit from the first-hand experience of the larger undeserved tragedies in the world.
August 10, 2006 at 1:25 pm
tony
If it really bothered the coach that much that pitching to the good hitter might cost him the game, why not have your pitcher throw at him? The kid walks with out the obvious nature of the intentional pass, you blame the HBP on a wild 10-year-old pitching, and you still get to pitch to the cancer survivor for the third out.
Better yet, there’s the chance that a HBP could result in some sort of permanent trauma to the good hitter, so in next year’s championship game, you get TWO kids you can work to in the lineup.
“Hey Yankees, you can take your apology and your trophy, and stick it up your ass!”
August 10, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Mr Furious
Great breakdown, MJD. I agree completely.
August 10, 2006 at 1:51 pm
LD
If the Yankees coach was really that concerned about the good hitter, but was also at least a little concerned about looking like a dick, he could’ve walked both the good hitter and Romney.
Man on third, two outs. Walk them both and there’s a force at every base. Yes, you’d be putting the winning run in scoring position, but the good hitter could’ve been able to get into scoring position on his own anyway (no 10 year old catcher is going to throw down to second and risk errors or a double steal with the tying run on third). You avoid the big bat, avoid the hatred of the fans, and your team might have an easier out opportunity in the infield.
August 10, 2006 at 1:54 pm
HuangKong
how the hell does LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL THE CARD GAME play like “a real baseball game!” like the box says? I guarantee it does not.
August 10, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Wells
Just wanted to chime and say props on the excellent post and thoughts.
August 10, 2006 at 3:18 pm
rob
I’ve always thought the intentional walk was a pussy’s way out. Baseball – I assume – is about a pitcher versus a hitter. It’s pure pussy for a pitcher to try and avoid a pounding by walking the guy. Hitters have no power to pick and choose who throws their way.
As mjd says, the “weak” kid should be fine. Good luck to him. He has new drive and goals. As for the “winners,” they learned to win by taking the pussy route. Pussies-in-training. Nice job there coach, you pussy.
August 10, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Marc Nelson Jr.
pattymc:
If it’s not about winning and losing, then why do they keep score? In fact, the anti-competitive rules only applied during the regular season:
They told their pitcher to intentionally walk a hitter. An absolute anomaly in a low-key recreational league in which regular-season games were governed by competitive limitations, such as a maximum of four runs allowed in an inning. Those limits had been suspended for the championship game.
We can try everything to keep these kids from knowing that some people are better at things than others, but they know what’s going on. Why else was Romney upset about striking out? He should been happy just to be playing baseball, right?
August 10, 2006 at 4:04 pm
The Big Picture
this is a scenario that gets brought up at a morality conference.
August 10, 2006 at 6:10 pm
mjdReader
Hate to sound Clintonesque, but I can see MJDs point and Marc Nelson Jr’s point (#6). Reasonable people can disagree. Unreasonable people can post the coaches phone number to instigate public harrassment.
August 10, 2006 at 6:41 pm
insomniac
To be fair, Tony didn’t actually post the address and phone number of the coach. He only posted a link to it, which is completely different. The coach should be free of harassment from this group, as it’s been established that the only time people click links around here is to order Asian porn.
August 10, 2006 at 7:08 pm
tony
Yeah, my bad if anyone took that wrong. Even if the guy’s an ass (in my opinion, he is, regardless of where you fall on the “baseball strategy” argument, simply for his Special Olympics reference and denying that he knew about the kid’s condition), it would take an awfully small person to actually use that information to make an anonymous call.
However, if you want to call him up and see if you can borrow one of his wives for a spell, that’s another issue. I mean, it IS Utah, after all.
August 10, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Rhondda Nunes
I agree with Rob. I hate the intentional walk & whussy-ass pitchers that don’t have the balls to pitch to good hitters. If it were up to me, I’d ban ALL intentional walking EVERYWHERE; even if the pitcher’s pitching to Barry Bonds.It makes pitchers look like whussies that are afraid of good hitters….yeah, that’s real competitive…NOT!
August 11, 2006 at 1:19 am
RyanBeingManny
the question, mjd, is; What would you tell your son to do? We know the intentional walk is a usefull tool in baseball. A pitcher can even use the intentional in a sort of ballsy way. The problem is you play the game to win. You have to use it. Be humble. Give the pass. It is a lesson. The thing is…there is NO WAY this is a real situation. Reiley is a bum.
August 11, 2006 at 1:59 am
Kevin Beane
This bears repeating yet again. These are NINE and TEN year olds. How about, we don’t intentionally walk kids that age regardless of the circumstances?
Nine and Ten. Marc you seem kinda heartless. I’m on board with your “play to win, life’s not fair so stop with these pansy rules” and all, but, how young before it’s okay to give a little kid with frickin’ cancer a break? Would it be okay to play the situation differently in kickball league for toddlers, or is it still “play to win or don’t keep score” there too?
August 11, 2006 at 3:00 am
Authentic Signed Sports
The object of playing sports is to win. Those kids did not go on the field with the intention of losing. Only 1 team can win a game. With that said the coach did the right thing. He coached to win the game as he was supposed to do. If he did anything differently it wouldn’t have been fair to his players. Someone had to lose.
August 11, 2006 at 7:33 am
Keith
Keep in mind…
This has nothing at all to do with Little League. It was Pony League, NOT Little League.
August 11, 2006 at 10:20 am
tony
I’m still trying to figure out how it’s Pony League, Keith. I always thought that was 13 & 14-year-olds, and that 9-10 would even be below what’s classified as “Little League”.
August 11, 2006 at 11:33 am
JoeyJoeJoeJuniorShabadoo
I don’t see what this kid being a cancer survivor has to do with anything. If he’s in the game, then he gets treated like a normal kid. If his parents want him to be treated like a sick kid, then he doesn’t play baseball with normal kids. You can’t have it both ways.
From reading the article, though, it seems like he shouldn’t have been on the field in the first place. Someone else mentioned this already, but the kid would’ve been in serious, life-threatening shit if he’d have gotten injured. It’s irresponsible of the parents to expose him to that sort of stuff. I get that they want to make him feel like a normal kid, and that’s all well and good, but if your son’s obviously very abnormal, then don’t force the issue.
August 11, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Keith
Here’ is a story I wrote on the whole Little League/Other League thing.
http://www.keepmecurrent.com/Sports/story.cfm?storyID=21377
Little League is a baseball sanctioning body, think MLB. They have such a hold on the brand that is youth baseball, people associate all youth baseball with the name. However, there is also Cal Ripken and Pony Leauges.
All the leagues offer for age groups ranging from 5-18. Little Leagues “major league” the one you have all heard of, plays to the World Series in Williamsport (starting today on ESPN at 7 p.m. if you haven’t heard). Cal Ripken baseball offers a league with the same age group, but they play to a World Series in Maryland.
Cal Ripken used to be Bambino Baseball. It is a part of Babe Ruth, Inc., another league you may have heard of.
August 11, 2006 at 12:57 pm
ScottR.
My first reaction to this story was that the Coach who intentionally walked the good kid to pitch to the sick kid was an a-hole. And he may well be. But part of me also thinks that if the sick kid is going to go out there, it isn’t right to treat him with kid gloves- after all, he is out there, supposedly, because he wants to be treated as an equal.
It seems like some people want it both ways. They want the sick kid to enjoy competition, but want others to cut him some slack because he’s sick. In a way, the Coach may have done that kid some good by treating him like any other kid who can’t hit.
Having said all that, I can say for certain that I would not have intentionally walked the one kid to pitch to the sick kid.
August 11, 2006 at 4:53 pm
rory
Most news stories I’ve read don’t mention that the non-competitive rules were suspended in the championship and I really think that does a disservice. This is a great topic of sports debate, and as your opinion hinges on the competitiveness of this game so does many other peoples.
There’s also the additional controversy of whether or not the coach on deck knew the kid had cancer. Moreover, why would there even be a championship game in a non-competive league?
I wouldn’t have walked the kid because I’m a pansy but I’m not upset that this coach did.
August 11, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Mark
I think MJD broke it down perfectly. If this was the pros, it’d be different. It isn’t though, and I say pitch to the slugger.
I know that it’s important to teach kids that life’s not always fair and sometimes you end up being like a bug on a windshield going 70 mph. However, when the kid has cancer, um, I think it’s safe to assume that he already gets that point. No need to make it worse (and seeing how upset he was, it certainly was made worse).
And on the issue of competitiveness: I agree with those who say “You think you deserve the title? Strike the slugger out and earn it.” That is competitive enough.
August 12, 2006 at 10:23 am
ollie
Thats good stuff there. That coach was an idiot to walk him b/c its a stupid pony league game.. its not like its the WS.
check out olliessportstalk.blogspot.com for more sports news.
August 12, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Coach Paul
It is irrelevant as to the condition of the boy on deck. At the Little League level it’s all out war and walking the big bat is baseball. Cancer survivor is not a good excuse (bless his soul). To the coach that made the intentional walk decision – kudos. To the father of the son on deck….GROW UP…it’s only going to get tougher if he plays more baseball. It’s all fun and games until you reach Bantam Level!
August 12, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Marc
As much of a dickrag as the Yanks manager was, what was the other teams manager thinking with that lineup? Who backs up their best hitter with their worst?
August 12, 2006 at 5:06 pm
lozo
as i said in my rambling on this, if it’s non-competitive as it claims to be, why is there a “championship” game then?
August 12, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Keems
This is Bob Farley’s wife. Let me clear up a couple of things. The only reason my husband coaches baseball is because he had a great coach as a kid and wants to pass it on. He has a rep as a positive coach who concentrates on fun AND skill. This championship game was very competitive on both sides and for both the boys and their families. There have been a lot of untruths reported and I won’t go into them. The bottom line is the call had nothing to do with the next hitter. Jordan had already hit a homer and a triple in that game and Bob felt an obligation to his team to coach them to a win. That’s his job as coach. Walking the hitter was the only issue, it had nothing to do with whomever was on deck. This is a non-story that has been stirred up by the losing coach and Romney’s parents. Bob and Shaun are good men and have families and I look forward to this going away. And P.S. it’s pretty low to publish a link to someone’s personal info. Shaun’s sweet wife is beside herself.
August 13, 2006 at 10:32 pm
the mighty mjd
You’re right about the personal info that was posted… I deleted those comments, and I probably should’ve done so sooner. I’m sorry about that.
I appreciate your post.
August 13, 2006 at 10:54 pm
jutter
I think this is all entirely hypocritical. What if the kid with cancer would have drove in the winning run? Everybody would have praised the coach for walking the good player to give the cancer survivor a chance to win the game and this would have turned into the next J-Mac story.
There were 2 outs in the game anyways. If you get the good hitter out then the cancer survivor never gets to bat then someone would critsize the coach because he didnt walk the good hitter and give the cancer survivor a chance to hit.
The man was in a no win situation and I think he did the right thing. He won the game for his kids and the little kid got to do what every kid his age dreams of and win the game. I dont think you could have gave that kid anything better. I mean just imagine how disappointed he would have been if the game would have ended with him in the on deck circle.
August 14, 2006 at 2:12 pm
BobH
Pattmc (#9) writes: “I think it’s pretty dumb to let a 9 year old’s little league game be decided by the “genious” of the adult coaches.”
It’s deliciously ironic when some starts talking about someone else’s “genious.”
August 14, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Will
Situations like this are where the coach is screwed. As the coach, if you walk the hitter, you put your team in a better spot to win. If you pitch to the hitter, you are jeopardizing your teams chances to win.
If i was the kid, I would rather be treated like any one else would have. I would have been given the once in a lifetime opportunity to win a world series game. I think it’s the parents fault for wanting their child to fit in, yet when he tries to, they make a scene of it. If I’m the coach, I do the same thing.
August 17, 2006 at 1:20 am
Paul
If we as human beings let Children be children, and not extentions of ourselves, everything will be fine. When the coach made the decision to walk the good hitter to get to the poor hitter, he took the game away from his players and kept it for the adults. Wining a stupid game, no matter what kind of game it is, is not “at all cost”! The coach should have let the kids play the game themselves. Coaches should guide their players, and teach them fairness instead of wining at all cost. Sure, wining is fun but at who’s expense? I’ve been on both sides of this issue when I was in Little League and I’ve come to the conclussion that we should guide the kids on the fundamentals and rules of the game but we should allow them to play the games. When we allow them to make decisions(good or bad) on the field at least they were able to make the decision. I would much prefer that my children be taught to make a decision on their own rather than having a coach decide how they will play.
August 23, 2006 at 12:28 pm