Schuylkill man charged in deadly fight

Schuylkill man charged in deadly fight : The Morning Call Online

Enraged at a neighbor who threatened to report his son for playing Little League in the wrong territory, a Schuylkill County man pushed and slugged the older man repeatedly until he collapsed, dying five days later of chest and abdominal injuries, police say.

Little League Rules and Ethics

Take the Little League Baseball Ethics Challenge!

I blogged this same incident a while ago, but I’m finally learning that some of the news story links I post eventually disappear. I found an interesting retelling of it on a site that discusses sports ethics. I’m posting the entire description below in case this link goes kaput as well!

It’s an interesting look at two coaches’ attempts to use league-specific rules in a way that was never intended. Click the link above for the whole ethical analysis.

The Situation: On August 11 in Bristol, Conn., a Little League team from Colchester, Vt., only had to retire its Portsmouth, N.H. opposition in the top of the sixth inning (Little League games are six innings rather than nine) to win the game 9-8 and move on to the New England regional championship game.

But there was a problem. The Vermont team had made its third out in its half of the fifth inning before player Adam Bentley got to the plate. The Little League has a strict rule that requires every player to bat at least once a game, and the penalty for violating it is forfeit. Vermont’s coach Denis Place realized, to his horror, that even though his team had the lead entering the last inning the only way it could avoid losing by forfeit was for Bentley to get an at bat. For that to happen, the New Hampshire team would have to tie the score or take the lead, requiring the teams to play the last half of the sixth inning.

Place held a meeting of his players at the pitcher’s mound and instructed them to let New Hampshire score a run. The plan: walk the first batter, and ensure that he made it home with the assistance of wild pitches and intentional errors so the game would be deadlocked at 9-9. Then, hopefully, win the game in the bottom of the sixth inning, with Adam Bentley getting his mandated turn at the plate.

Not so fast. The New Hampshire team’s coach, Mark McCauley figured out what was happening and ordered his players not to score. So after a walk and two wild pitches allowed a New Hampshire runner to reach third base, the player refused to advance to the plate despite another wild pitch and a fielding error. McCauley also told his players to strike out intentionally, preserving Vermont’s lead but guaranteeing a successful New Hampshire protest that, under the rules, would require that New Hampshire win by forfeit.

This obviously led to a ridiculous spectacle: one team trying to give up a run while the other team was trying to make outs and avoid scoring. The perplexed umpires understandably chose to end the debacle by ejecting Place and his pitcher from the game. Vermont won 9-8…and then New Hampshire was awarded the victory by forfeit, because Adam Bentley never got his turn at bat. The New Hampshire team advanced to the next round.

The Enquirer – No chatter, chatter!

The Enquirer – No chatter, chatter!

The Knothole Club of Greater Cincinnati has decided to eliminate “chatter.” Unless the chatter is “positive” and directed at your own team.

 

Sa-WING battuh! Oops – that’s a warning for me!

Little League changes focus to ‘positive coaching’

Little League changes focus to ‘positive coaching’ – Somerville Journal

An attendee at a workshop I gave recently asked me whether PCA or ASEP would be better for his youth sports organization. I responded that they would probably be great in tandem with one another since they each focus on different aspects of coaching. The organization in this article has done just that – incorporated both. It’s great to see an organization take its coach and culture development so seriously. I’d be interested to hear the organization’s take on whether the initiative was successful after a couple seasons.

Fredericksburg.com – Rallying around a coach

Fredericksburg.com – Rallying around a coach

Great perspective on the powerful role of a youth coach.

Suing for playing time

Decision delayed in baseball lawsuit

You just knew this would come eventually – a lawsuit over playing time….

At least Petero attacked the OTHER team!

Police: Coach told player to harm disabled teammate, 8 – CBS SportsLine.com

A T-ball coach allegedly paid one of his players $25 to hurt an 8-year-old mentally disabled teammate so he wouldn’t have to put the boy in the game, police said Friday.

In T-BALL? Wonder how this year’s team banquet is going to be….

In fairness, this coach was acquitted of one of the two charges, but really….

More LLWS Commentary

Sports Central | Sports Articles and Columns | Sports Q&A | Sports Q&A: Little League: It’s Foul!

In case you’re not a fan of rated R youth sports, you may have missed the Staten Island, NY player implore his team to score one more #$%&*@ run in the sixth inning of a dad-gummed close 1-0 game. His coach responded with a quick slap to the player — the player’s parents quickly responded with a lawsuit. Actually, the parents haven’t sued, yet. But you know they will, citing the ridiculous “humiliation on national television” reasoning.

Good News from the LLWS

Final act of sportsmanship by kids is most valuable play of all

After all the not-so-wonderful stories posted about the LLWS here and elsewhere, it’s great to see this!

More From the Summer of Romney

DelcoTimes – SanFilippo: It’s never too early to learn about life

Deseret News – Robinson: Are Coaches Villians or Victims?

Seems Anthony SanFilippo of the Delco Times and Doug Robinson of the Deseret Morning News (links above) share my reluctance simply to vilify the coach that walked a batter to get to Romney.

Maybe the Romney story and the constant stream of similar tales are a sign of an unfortunate backlash. It’s important that our assessment of the role of coaching and sports in our culture does not devolve into a sweeping mistrust of coaches.

For the record, I am a coach and have been for a long time. My wife is a coach. Many of my closest friends are coaches. In short, I know a lot of coaches. So it’s fair to say that I have a strong “pro-coach” (not necessarily “pro coach”) bias.

The vast majority of coaches I know and have known, both professional and amateur, have tremendous affection and respect for their athletes. The vast majority are also highly competitive and very vocal people. Most of us work very hard on behalf of our kids, and many of us make mistakes in judgement from time to time. (It is at this point that I’d like to apologize publicly to any official who’s worked my games and feels he or she deserves an apology.)

Coaching in this age of scrutiny, litigation, and creeping athletic professionalism is tricky. In many ways, it’s even more difficult coaching the youngest athletes since the disparity in skill levels is huge and adults’ philosophies on the role of youth competitiveness are so varied.

Many of us entered coaching or continue coaching because of the positive influence of a coach in our lives. Rest assured, there are a lot of fantastic coaches out there – even a couple who will make a mistake from time to time.