Little League Coach's Decision Causing Controversy

[Monica]

Winning isn't supposed to be everything, especially in little league baseball. Some parents are mad, though, after a coach decided to walk an opposing team's power hitter in a win or lose situation, bringing to bat one of the team's weaker hitters. His decision is now getting national attention.

An old sports saying goes, if winning and losing isn't important, then why keep score? Well the score in a Bountiful little league championship game had a team down one run in the last inning with a man on third, two outs, and the power hitter up. The opposing coach decided to walk the power hitter, not wanting to face him.



The next batter was Romney Oaks, a cancer survivor who has a shunt in his brain to help him live. He has to take medicine every day and get an MRI every six months. Unfortunately, this story doesn't have a Hollywood ending -- Romney struck out and his team lost.

Many say the opposing coach intentionally walked the power hitter to face Romney, but the opposing coach says he had no idea who was up next, he just didn't want the power hitter to hit another homerun against his team, costing them the title.


Shaun Farr

Shaun Farr, Opposing Coach: "Do I let my 12 players down knowing that, as the coach, I have the obligation and the responsibility, if you will, to do the best I can to help my team win? You know, if it's not the championship game, and it's a regular season game, we don't do it."

The game and the decision has received a lot of attention, most of it nationally. It was on ESPN radio yesterday, MSNBC today and Sports Illustrated has it in this week's issue.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=415320

Do opposing coaches know each other's batting lineups? If not, it was probably a simple coincidence. If so, well, it's a sport, and it didn't exactly hurt the kid. It's just a game, but it does say what kind of charecter the coach has...

[Master Ghaleon]

I would of done the same thing, and yes they do know whos comming up. If a teams best player was up with anyone on the bases with 2 outs and a chance for them to win. Im gonna walk him and face whoever it is after him. In this case it was this guy that if I was the other coach, would of pinch hit for him for a chance. Im not gonna be stupid and pitch to the best player and let them win.

[Monica]

I would of done the same thing, and yes they do know whos comming up. If a teams best player was up with anyone on the bases with 2 outs and a chance for them to win. Im gonna walk him and face whoever it is after him. In this case it was this guy that if I was the other coach, would of pinch hit for him for a chance. Im not gonna be stupid and pitch to the best player and let them win.

Yeah, if I had been the kid I wouldn't care. (I'd of course have just been happy to be able to play baseball in the first place)

[Gerudo]

my opinion is this:
you walk a power hitter, to face who's next. if you know it's some little sob-story kid who can barely play, and thus will ensure you winning a championship, then i agree with the coach's decision, regardless of whether he knew or not the kid was up next.

you won/lost the game, take your team to get ice cream and try harder next year. it's not that hard, plus since it's LL, it's supposed to be fun, not attract the retards on ESPN and SI.

[Beldaran]

The fact that this is even remotely controversial to people proves that America has turned into a bunch of Lifetime Network watching vaginas.

Not only would I have walked the power hitter for the win, but I would have run over the cancer brat with my car and fucked his mom. Boo ya!:waggle:

[goKi]

What an excellent strategy. Everyone stirring up controversy about this subject is just accentuating the condition of the kid who struck out. Leave the poor, weak kid alone.

[MacWeirdo42]

Why do they keep score, anyway? Meh, I've never really cared for competitiveness in sports, and back when I was a kid, our group of friends hardly ever bothered to keep score in whatever games we played. Granted, this is "official" little league stuff, but whatever.

[koopa]

About a year ago I read an article in the Sunday Times about proposed changes to children's football (for US readers: soccer). This included the score being reset at half-time if one team was more than 10 goals ahead and the weaker team being allowed to field two extra players for the second half. Apparently it's to stop them from getting a bad feeling if they lose so badly.

I think the idea is stupid. It's a sport, and you must learn to lose. If the other team is much better, you might well lose 0:10, it's hardly fair if the "winning" team scores 10 goals in the first half, scores get wiped then they lose let's say 2:3 in the second.

My view: If you lose, you lose, and it's not the end of the world. Any legitimate means of winning are ok, that's competitive sports for you.

Back on topic: If the game was for the championship, I can't blame anyone either for wanting to win or for winning. (If you're playing soccer, you've got the ball and there are two defenders, the star player to the left and a weak one to the right, which way do you head? )


... he just didn't want the power hitter to hit another homerun against his team, costing them the title.
I have no way of knowing if that's true or not, but if it is what should the coach have done? He couldn't let his team lose a championship game if he had an alternative.

I'm not saying it was a "morally good" decision - but I don't see a good alternative either.

[War Lord]

Not only would I have walked the power hitter for the win, but I would have run over the cancer brat with my car and fucked his mom. Boo ya!:waggle:

Clearly this was the correct choice.
Nicely played.

[Dark Nation]

Quick way to put all of the "controversy" to rest: Would he have still walked the power hitter if the next person had not been a cancer patient? If the next player had still not been as strong as the power hitter, then yes, he would have. So, it has nothing to do with the fact that the person had cancer, but the fact that he was not a power hitter. And, to put an even more positive spin on things, I'll now repeat a favorite quote of mine, "Set your goals unreasonably high. If you fail, none shall fault you. If you succeed, all shall envy you." Simply put, if the next kid had been a good player and had still lost, people would have blamed him. But, if the cancer patient had actually hit a home run, then he would have been the hero.

[Drunken Tiger]

With the way American sports is going, I was half expecting this story to be about the coach slipping performance enhancing drugs to his team.

No offense if it offended anyone. But I'm quite dissapointed as an avid American sports fan.

Sorry to change the topic.

On topic: Who the hell cares, one of the many reasons you play sports is to win.

[Cloral]

The coach put it best: if he hadn't walked the power hitter, he would've been letting his team down. As a coach, you make the decisions that are going to help your team win. As long as they aren't unsporting (i.e. telling his pitcher to bean the batter), then the coach is simply doing his job.

[Archibaldo]

Winnning isn't everything, it's the only thing.


If you play the care bear way your whole childhood, you won't be able to handle losing later on when it really does matter. That's how sore losers are born.