<p>This is ridiculous, and a little sad. Sports are often used to teach lessons, what kind of message does this send to kids? “Oh, he’s too good–either he shouldn’t be allowed to play that well, or we’ll just not play against him.” </p>
<p>As a guy who played baseball from ages 8-15 and loved it, this makes me sad.</p>
<p>If I had to guess, I’d say that it has less to do with “He’s too good to play against” and more to do with “he pitches too fast, someone could easily get hurt.” Children’s bodies are not as strong as adults’…</p>
<p>As a guy who played baseball and loved it, I can tell you that I have seen some serious stuff happen when kids that age get hit with balls that go that fast.</p>
<p>I think the poor kid should be able to play. It’s not fair to stop him from playing if he wants to. If they say he’s to good for that leage the could move him up to a higher age group.</p>
<p>As a girl who watches baseball and loves it, I can tell you he shouldn’t be prevented from playing.</p>
<p>No one is going to get hurt by a 40 mph fastball as long as they’re wearing a helmet. And as for the argument that it’s an instructional league, then why do they have playoffs? This is really unfair.</p>
<p>By the way, that kid has great mechanics for a 9 year old.</p>
<p>To get hit in the face you’d have to turn your head toward the pitcher as the pitch is coming, against all your reflexes telling you to do otherwise. With the groin, unless you have a reaallly open stance I don’t see how you could be hit there either. And even if you were, have you ever heard of a cup?</p>
Unless I played baseball as a kid completely wrong, normally you want to look at the ball to make it easier to hit. I mean you could try looking at the umpire, or the ground, or the dugout and just swinging but that might not work too hot.</p>
<p>Unless I play baseball completely wrong, you track the ball as it comes in and by the time the ball has made it to the plate you are looking at the ball, which is down and right in front of you. Your head naturally turns inward as your swing progresses, and to get hit in the face you would have to reverse this, despite the fact that a baseball coming at your head. I’m sorry, but this seems extremely unlikely.</p>
yeah, but when you see a ball coming right at your face, you would automatically try to dodge or turn your head.</p>
<p>anyway, sure a child’s body is not as strong as an adults, but 40 mph is nothing compared with 100mph fast balls. I mean even a slow pitch in the MLB is like 70-80mph.</p>
<p>I wonder what the kids in their community learned from all this?
It’s okay to be mediocre because excellence is frowned on? </p>
<p>I also noticed that he declined an invitation to join the league champions. Wonder if that was a factor. </p>
<p>And for the coach who forfeited the game, I guess he’s teaching the kids that when they’re up against someone better than them, they should just give up right away.</p>
<p>I think this is the saddest part of the story. I’d hate to know what it was like to be in his position when the other team just walked away after seeing him there. They’re not even worrying about the kid’s feelings anymore. He’s in, what, 3rd grade? His mother had every right to react the way she did.</p>
<p>about the whole getting hit in the face with the ball–these kids are 9. I doubt they’ve perfected batting and could easily be hovering over the plate or looking forward. I played softball for 12 years and batters deffinitly got hit in the face every now and then.</p>
<p>As a kid who had been playing baseball for 10 years i broke my nose while at bat my freshman year in highschool. Yes, i should have turned my head (and i did) but the main problem was that my coach insisted on having us practice late even as the sun was setting on our field that had no lights. I was not blinded or anything, but the lack of proper lighting caused me to think the fastball heading straight for my head was in fact a curveball that would break any second. Well… the only thing it broke was my nose. I tried turning my head toward the catcher at the last second, but the ball clipped front rim of my helmet and ricocheted right into my face.</p>
<p>Now do i think that the kid throwing 40mph should be allowed to pitch? Hell yes. Just strap face masks on those 9-year-old’s helmets and you’re good to go.</p>
<p>I feel so bad for that 9 year old! I’ve played softball for 10 years and i am still playing and I’ve gotten hit in the head with the ball before when it was coming in faster than 40 mph. you can’t even feel the ball at all hit you with the helmet on. although, it’s an ASA rule that our helmets need to have face masks. but i really don’t think it’s too much of a risk for the opposing team with that kid pitching.</p>
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