What would you do?

Question

In a Pony League Baseball for kids 9 - 10, where league rules indicates everyone gets to bat, no more than 4 steals a game, etc.
It is the final game, for the championship, bottom of the 9th 2 outs the score is 1 - 0 in your favor, your team is pitching and at bat is the other team best hitter, and they have one kid in third. On deck is a kid a cancer survivor with multiple physical problems that can barely swing. What do you do you walk the best hitter so you can pitch to the disabled kid and get the easy out or do you pitch to the best hitter and risk the game.
This question is based in a Rick O'Reilly article in Sports Illustrated, and it actually happened (The coach of the team pitching walked the best hitter and got an easy out from the disabled kid).
So do you go for compassion or winning?

Answer 1

I am a little bit familiar with the story. The kid they walked hit a homer and a triple already in the game......you walk him. Sounds like the kid (cancer survivor) was a decent ball player. Why would he be batting after the best hitter and not buried at the bottom of the lineup. This was a championship game they were playing. You don't throw the game and break the hearts of a whole team just to spare the feelings of another. It is baseball for Christ's sake. Either play the way it should be played or don't play at all. Nobody did anything wrong.

Answer 2

It happened in Utah; a very gut-wrenching story if you ask me. This is tough on so many levels. But the bottom line is that it's just a championship. The kids will get a trophy to put on their shelves at home, but they won't have to grow up much older to remember how they won it, and in the end it's really not that big a deal to have a trophy that nobody will remember in two years anyway.

Now, if the same thing had happened in the 11-12 year-old leagues with a trip to the Little League World Series on the line, then that's even tougher. But consider this - for every good hitter on the team you're beating, there are going to be 10 or 12 on the team you'd be facing in the next round. Gotta deal with them some time. If their best hitter beats you, he beats you, and you didn't deserve to win on that particular day. If he doesn't, then you won it fair and square and you can advance to Williamsport a true champion.

I just don't like the message that this sends; apparently it's ok to be the best when you pick on the weaker kids. Of course, from a baseball standpoint, I don't know why that kid was on deck in such a crucial situation, either. That's like the Red Sox letting the Yankees intentionally walk David Ortiz with the bat boy on deck. But again, that's not the point.

Answer 3

I read that article twice. If I were the coach, I'd tell the pitcher to pitch around the good hitter. Since this is little league, that means through the ball out of the strike zone, but pretend that you are trying to throw strikes.

Answer 4

while it may be important to win, still have the respect for the players. There 9 and 10 years old! Dont take away the strong hitters chance to hit, and then set up the cancer survivor to strike out. Thats just not right. Little leauge is supposed to be fun, and setting someone up to strike out and lose the series is NOT fun!

Answer 5

You never set a cancer survivor up for failure...under any circumstances. Not only did this coach make a significant error in moral judgement, but he also sent a terrible message to all of the other kids on the field that day.

Answer 6

When playing a game, the main purpose is to win in any way you can by following the rules. The coach followed the rules and prevailed. No problem from my vantage point.

Chow

Answer 7

i dont care i would lose the game to make the kid feel better man i would pitch right down broadway and let the cancer survivor feel good

Answer 8

The way the league rules are drawn up (to limit competition), I think compassion was the solution.

Answer 9

you definately pitch to the cripple!!!!