Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player–too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.
Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho’s team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho’s coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.
But Vidro says he didn’t quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league’s field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch.
“He’s never hurt any one,” Vidro said. “He’s on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?”
The controversy bothers Jericho, who says he misses pitching.
“I feel sad,” he said. “I feel like it’s all my fault nobody could play.”
Jericho’s coach and parents say the boy is being unfairly targeted because he turned down an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of one of the league’s administrators.
Jericho instead joined a team sponsored by Will Power Fitness. The team was 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when Jericho was banned from pitching.
“I think it’s discouraging when you’re telling a 9-year-old you’re too good at something,” said his mother, Nicole Scott. “The whole objective in life is to find something you’re good at and stick with it. I’d rather he spend all his time on the baseball field than idolizing someone standing on the street corner.”
Discussion Starters
1.) Jericho is an extremely talented youth. Is it possible to be “too good” or have an “unfair advantage” due to innate skills and/or hard work?
2.) Jericho misses pitching and felt like it was “all (his) fault” that nobody could play. If you could, what would you tell Jericho? His coach?
3.) Do you think the adults in this matter are behaving like children? What would you say to the defending league champion and its sponsor?
4.) Have you even been treated unfairly or unjustly because you were better — or worse — than average in a particular area? How did you handle it?
