[aaronck]

Why walk the kid, hit him with a heater, and insure he can't compete against your team next year either.

Well, it was, after all a championship game. If winning is not the emphasis, why on earth is there a title to be won? That's insane.

This is just the same-old hypersensitivity running abound. Organize a league, create a schedule, hold a championship game, then try to make a monster out of a coach who tries, within the rules of the game, to lead his team in pursuit of the goal that all participants recognize as the objective of the competition.

I think that is sickening.

[Chris Tanz]

Why walk the kid, hit him with a heater, and insure he can't compete against your team next year either.

Plus, less wear and tear on your Ace if he's only gotta throw one little bit o' chin music. And that's smart pitching staff management.

ct

[The Horrible Esthete]

Kudos to the championship coach. Well played, you arch-strategist. Casey Stengel would be proud.

Horrible Esthete, your arguments about this being part of the game and within the rules would make more of an impression on me if it this story was about one 9-year old kid who out played another 9-year old kid to win the championship

It is about that. It's about a one nine-year-old pitcher striking out a nine-year-old batter to win a Pony league chapionship. That's all that has happened here. So fricking what?

This kid did sign up to play baseball, right? He signed up for an opportunity to go to bat for his baseball team in a baseball game. And that's exactly what happened. All the other details are superfluous.

Go ahead and puke in a corner if you don't care that much.

[aaronck]

I'm just glad I finally know who cheered in the theater when the Cobra Kai Sensei said "sweep the leg, No mercy" in the classic Karate Kid movie.

I also think in hindsite they should've been a little more physical with Jason McElwain, the Autistic 3 point shooting highschooler from NY, no way he makes those shots with any hard contact :thumb:

[Chris Tanz]

The Karate Kid was about one kid's wish to break another kid's leg to win a karate championship. That's all that happened there.

And Daniel-san caught a fly with chopsticks. And I think there was a love story with Elizabeth Shue. And maybe Mr. Miyagi taught us some valuable lessons about the difference between winning, competing, and waxing cars.

If this story in SI was about a nine-year-old kid striking out another nine-year-old kid, I obviously wouldn't have been interested in commenting on it.

But ... It's not the unnamed nine-year-old pitcher that makes me want to ralph my guts out -- like I said maybe that's what the story *should* be about, but the SI story is clearly not about that -- it's about Bob Farley and Shaun Farr, who are probably older than 9 and who probably do not put bread on their families' tables by winning PONY league championships, deciding to walk the big guy and take their chances with the weaker kid.

Nobody's blaming the pitcher for K'ing him. Nobody's blaming the hitter for striking out. It's the actions of the coach that we're concerned with. Like it or not, that's what the SI story is about. That's what the poll is asking you to decide. And, if you've decided that you're gonna walk the slugger, well, Amen -- you'll probably win more PONY league championships than I will.

Anyway, I wasn't going to even bother replying, but the reference to Cobra Kai was too good to pass over.

ct

[Shane Kroeker]

How about pitching around the slugger? This way you don't give the guy anything good to hit, try to catch the corners and run the count to 3-2, so if you miss and walk him it doesn't seem to the crowd like it was intentional. If the slugger does make contact, it will most likely be a slow roller to first base for the easy out championship. That's what I would've instructed...

[Spycouple]

How about pitching around the slugger? This way you don't give the guy anything good to hit, try to catch the corners and run the count to 3-2, so if you miss and walk him it doesn't seem to the crowd like it was intentional. If the slugger does make contact, it will most likely be a slow roller to first base for the easy out championship. That's what I would've instructed...

That's what I'm wondering.

Did anyone bother to ask the pitcher what he wanted to do?, i.e. go toe-to-toe with the team's best hitter, knowing that he'd have a base open and didn't have to give him anything good to hit?

He is, after all, one of the actual players on the field. And if the argument is that, well, you've signed up for baseball and ya gotta play through tough situations or whatever, then the pitcher should have some say on who he wanted to pitch to.

Sure the hitter might go Ortiz on him and win the game with a clutch hit, but that's part of the game too right? Or is it too much to ask of the pitcher to have that decision to make in such a tough situation?

To which I'd say that the kid who survived the cancer has already faced a far far tougher situation at 9-years of age than most would ever know.

Screw the intentional walks and let the kids play, not the managers.

-jf

[Gangrel]

I just wonder if we would be having this discussion if the batter didn't have cancer, but was just a crappy hitter and still struck out. Would that make it ok then? Should they keep notes on every player and make sure they pitch to the good ones to protect the self-esteem of the ones who aren't so good?

I think this is all a bit fuss about nothing.