9-year-old Boy Told He's Too Good To Pitch

Discussion in 'Baseball Talk' started by TJ, Aug 28, 2008.

  1. smeags

    smeags militant geek

    it's all good my man, i played soccer until high school and i was very competitive. my older cusin ref'd a game and almost had to boot me.

    soccer to me is different and scores should be kept at an earlier age. just like football basketball and others but baseball is a slow sport and kids lose interest pretty quickly epescially if they know they are losing every game. you have to think about the health of the league over the individual & they need to learn to game. it's introduced at the t-ball level, if you've ever seen a t-ball game you know darn well there is not a lot of fundamentals being learned there.

    7-8 is the age group that starts really learning the game. you start having live pitching, balls and strikes are called. out are recorded. we tried to still have a tourney at the end but the parents were total dipcraps and cal ripken kind of told us to stop as they would rather we not have any at that age.

    again, by 9yrs old it's time to crank it up. too many parents think real sports should have levels like a video game where they can choose how hard the game will be for their kid instead of letting them develope at their own rate.
     
  2. chiefswin19games

    chiefswin19games Don't be defeated.

    Could this kid play in a league with the older kids? Maybe grant him a waiver because of his talent.
     
  3. smeags

    smeags militant geek

    why should he have to do that ? his friends are all in the league he's playing in.
     
  4. chiefswin19games

    chiefswin19games Don't be defeated.

    I'm not saying he would have to. I understand the importance of being with his peers. I'm just saying if he was interested I would think it would be an option.
     
  5. smeags

    smeags militant geek

    yeah but i think the mom has stated he doesnt want to go to another league or age group. my one question is how many innings are they pitching this kid ? we only allowed 2innings per game at his age level to help limit the ptich count and give others kids a chance to develope at ptiching while giving hitters a chance to not always face an ace like this because the hitters and feilders will never learn if they never get a ball put in play.
     
  6. Matt314hew

    Matt314hew Mr. Impossible

    I know in my league at that age, we had a 6 innings per week rule and usually had 2 games a week.. So that would mean, we had usually pitched 3 innings a game. We tried to develop 4 to 5 pitchers on our teams and make sure we had enough in case of extra innings.
     
  7. themush

    themush iDIOT sAVANT

    Pussification of America at this best. :icon_frown:
     
  8. smeags

    smeags militant geek

    there are too many leagues as it is. little league and cal ripken are enough but you have travel leagues, aau, legion, devlin. too many leagues and too many times kids play in more than one.
     
  9. ketbuckfan

    ketbuckfan Tressel owns Michigan

    I know when I played you were allowed to pitch 3 innings per game, granted that was 20+ years ago. I have no idea if they still limit innings but they should.
     
  10. smeags

    smeags militant geek

    they do and they now instituted pitch count limits. it's a good thing because you have too many good amrs lost by high school because they are burned out.
     
  11. ketbuckfan

    ketbuckfan Tressel owns Michigan

    That's good to hear that they still do limit pitch counts. That reasoning makes perfect sense, because you know you would have coaches and parents destroying these kids arms even though they may be only 11,12,13 years old.
     
  12. smeags

    smeags militant geek

    yep and hopefully aluminum bats are on their way out completely. especially the white bats.


    anywho, assuming they are not pitching this kid too much this is total crap that they are pulling here.
     
  13. TOP DAWG

    TOP DAWG Pro Bowler

    If he's that good,he should be pitching where he has competition. He's obviously way better than the league he's in. He should probably be pitching in the league above.
     
  14. Mr. D

    Mr. D WINNING!!

    same here, this is actually the first time I'm hearing about anyone not keeping score :|

    a Game is about WINNING it, of course having fun trying to do so

    how can you get better if your goal is just to have fun, and not trying to help the team win the game

    and as far as this 9 year old, when I first heard about this, I thought the coach was doing this because his pitches were hurting his own catcher's hands when he caught his pitches (I should know how that feels I was playing as Catcher during some practices trying to get into a different position than outfield and man some pitches can sting :lol: but it's part of the game

    but wtf a team forfeited the game and packed up and leave just because this kid was set up to pitch against them

    :icon_eek:
     
  15. smeags

    smeags militant geek


    at 8yrs old or younger you're still learning the game of baseball. the only people that give a crap about winning or losing at that level are the parents. this notion that the kids care about it and are hurt later in life because they didn't learn that lesson at 7 is total bullcrap.

    ZOMG little johnny didn't learn how to deal with losing at 7, now he's a dead beat dad and can never keep a job ! :moe:
     
  16. Mr. D

    Mr. D WINNING!!

    wrong no one should look down on them if they lose but they should have there kids Try to WIN

    it's a Goal that is worth trying for, Do your Best, have fun, and win

    if you lose no big deal you are still learning the game
     
  17. dolphindude13

    dolphindude13 Jack Of All Trades

    Very good point...The sad reality is that sometimes it's better for a kid to get an "eye opener" early on. I've coached my kids from T Ball up to High School and you'd be shocked at the parents that use baseball or any sport for that matter as a baby sitter. They bring you a kid that has never touched a baseball in his life when he's 12 and throw him into a bunch of kids that have played for 5 years and some who throw 60+ miles an hour. Naturally as a coach you're not allowed to keep the kid from playing unless you want to be sued so you put him somewhere where you hope he won't get hurt. I had one such kid get his two front teeth knocked out at the gumline. I felt sorry for him but blamed his parents for putting him in that situation. Rec leagues are a joke for the most part.
    This kid in particular should be moved up with a higher age group if possible.
     
  18. DawkinsINT

    DawkinsINT Tebow free since 9/5/2015.

    No doubt. I'll bet a lot of the kids would have liked to play that game no matter who the opponent was. This is pussification on those parents that decided their kids couldn't handle being dominated. It teaches you how to be a stronger player/person to fight through adverse situations.

    You aren't always going to win, but facing tough obstacles is what makes you stronger to increase your game.
     
  19. dolphindude13

    dolphindude13 Jack Of All Trades

    Illinois is trying to get them banned as a couple of other states have done. Granted, that's at the High School level though.....I don't think it'll happen anytime soon at the lower levels.
     
  20. Mr. D

    Mr. D WINNING!!

    tell that to your fellow Eagle fan Smeagle lol