Baseball Team's Pitcher, 9, Ousted for Being Too Good
Monday, August 25, 2008
A Connecticut youth baseball team with a phenomenal 9-year-old pitcher has been disqualified because its team is too good.
The team, Will Power Fitness, has an 8-0 record thanks in large part to pitcher Jericho Scott, the New Haven Register reports. His pitching is so fast and accurate, the Liga Juvenil De Baseball De New Haven asked the team's coach, Wilfred Vidro, to replace him so he wouldn't frighten other players.
“The spirit of the league was community, family, well-being, nurturing," Peter Noble, the league's attorney, told the Register. "It’s an extended family and it’s been disrupted.”
On Saturday, Jericho and his team showed up to the ballfield despite the fact the league canceled the game because they feared an "unhealthy environment" due to (whining, sniveling, pouty - j) parental bickering, Noble told the paper. Jericho's parents, Nicole and Leroy, planned to meet with an attorney on Monday.
The Scotts said the league — which is not affiliated with the Little League — wanted Jericho to play for a stronger team. The parents and the coach claim the reason is because that team is sponsored by a local barbershop where the league's president currently cuts hair, the paper reported.
“If you keep these kids on the field you keep them off the streets,” Leroy Scott told the paper. “I’d rather have him [Jericho] in the midst of this controversy on the field than dealing drugs on a street corner.”
Click here to read the full story at the New Haven Register.
