What would you do?

Real simple to me: If you play to win, you walk the guy and win.

If you play for "fun" and your kids know about this kids problems, I would call time out and gather every one on the mound and let them vote on what I do.

Kids don't want to lose...Even kids that don't have the kinds of problems this kid has.

This appeared in another forum. My response:

At that age, I never had my pitchers walk anyone because I was afraid they might give up a hit. I wanted my pitchers to know that I had the confidence that they could get any batter in the league out. And you know what, sometimes they did.

We are talking young ages of youth ball. I would never condone putting a kid on just because he had a reputation as a good hitter. How do you expect your pitchers to develop if they don't pitch against good hitters in tough situations?

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There is playing to win and there is winning at at all cost. I did my best not to let winning be at the sacrifice of player development. Real simple to me...

"I'm going to work on my batting," he told his dad. "Then maybe someday I'll be the one they walk."

It seems for all of the parental squalling, Romney has the right idea.

At the 9-10 level, I don't know that you intentionally walk a kid, but I definitely wouldn't want my pitcher giving him something fat to hit either.

The thing that amazes me is if Romney had gotten a hit and his team won the game, we would be talking about how great it was that the kid got a chance to be "the man" that day. The intentional walk would be a non-issue.

I would not be able to sleep at night if I did that in a 9-10 year old game. As far as travel ball and high school where I coach now, I would walk the kid in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't walk anybody to get to anybody at that age. As Texan said, let the pitcher get the outs or let the chips fall where they may.

In small towns across America, Little League is the great summer past time, putting a bunch of pressure on both the coaches and the kids.

And they say Select Baseball is tough. How many Select Baseball teams have press coverage weekly, with their box scores and their stats published every week. I know a bunch of 9,10,11 and 12 year old LL teams that do all over the midwest.

I would have no problem at all walking the slugger and K ing the cancer kid.

When you're on the baseball field winning is extremly important.


-First off it was good baseball strategy. It would be dumb to lay 3 slow fastballs down the middle to the best hitter on the other team, if you could walk the guy and K the next one.

-Second why didn't they pitch hit for the kid?

-I feel bad for the kid but if he was so hopelessly bad why was he playing in that league, which was apperantaly very competive.

-Finally I think this is the parents fault--they were expecting him to fail. If he whold have gotten a hit he would have been the hero. If there was just a bad hitter comming up no one would have said anything about it, its just because the kid had cancer.

If they didnt walk the slugger Thats almost like them saying "Oh you have a cancer survivor on your team. We feel bad for you and we want to forfit"

The coach is in a lose-lose situation however. If he pitches to their slugger, their team probably loses, and he is called an idiot. If he walks him to get to the cancer-survivor kid, then he is called an *******.

"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing"

-Vince Lombardi

i was just wondering who would feel bad for the pitcher if he lost the game ?

A good coach would have invested time in teaching his pitchers how to pitch to the sluggers, so that they don't get that game winning hit. If you can learn at that age that "winning is the only thing", you can certainly learn how to not give a slugger something to drill. An agressive slugger chasing a few high pitches can end an inning as quickly as a child with a few handicaps.

I'm going to get killed on this but I have put alot of thought into. My son played LL District Ball from 10 and up. When he was 12 he went to the Little League World Series and our team won the national championship. I also ran the Little League for 5 years and I am a teacher so I thought I had seen everything.

Any child, no matter whether they are ill or healthy want to be normal. We have a great sport in baseball and many times it has been the activity for players to be part of a team. Look at the Challenger program and the smiles on those players faces.

When the parents of the young man signed him up for baseball I am sure they did not sign up with the expectations that he receive special treatment. They signed up their son, who is a cancer survivor, to play America's game. Parents of the players sat in the stands and smiled as this young man suceeded in making the District team. He played District Ball and his team advanced.

Was the opposing coach right in walking the power hitter with a runner on third. We as a group would be out raged if he did not make what is considered a solid baseball move. We only question that move because the player that came to the plate was a cancer survivor. Many small players have faced this same dilema and we are not outraged by their predicament. Had the coach not made the move and treated the opposing player based on his past medical history had that coach done everything to win the game. How does he face his team if he does not play to win. We send our players out to the field to play baseball and have a good time. Coaches play to win, that is our expeectations of them as parents.