Tuesday, August 26th 2008, 9:48 pm
A nine-year-old player has been banned from his youth baseball league in Connecticut for being too good. He throws a 40 mile-per-hour fastball, so Jericho Scott is now barred from pitching. The News On 6's Chris Wright reports some Tulsa-area coaches and players think it is unfortunate a kid is being punished for excelling at a sport.
Nine-year-old Jericho Scott of New Haven, Connecticut, has a fastball that reaches 40 miles an hour. To put that in perspective, experts say at his age, that is the equivalent of a 90-mile-an-hour Major League fastball. Needless to say, the other children were a little frightened of Scott's heat, and the kid was banned from his youth league.
Steve Yoder runs Perfect Practice. It's a program designed to help kids excel at baseball, softball, and other sports. The children are put through drills to hone their skills. They also work on improving their speed with videotaped strength and agility sessions.
Perfect Practice says it would love the opportunity to nurture a kid with Scott's talent, not discourage him from reaching his full potential.
"Around here you're fighting for, a lot of teams are fighting for those types of kids, so it's crazy. I've never heard of that before in my life," said Steve Yoder with Perfect Practice.
But, some of his pupils can empathize with the young batters forced to face that fastball.
Perfect Practice wants to maximize talent by emphasizing hard work, and says it's unfortunate that a child is not being rewarded for doing just that.
"That kid certainly has put in his hard work, and it's a shame he's being punished for that," said Steve Yoder.
After he was banned from pitching, the nine year old did take the mound last week. The other team actually forfeited the game, packed up their gear, and left.
August 26th, 2008
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