OGTEleven

This thread is the first time I've ever heard that word. Then again, I don't go around making up new words as a general practice so it seems Allen had probably heard it before.

Where are you located right now? You must have a very strong wireless connection.

Rhode Island and Delaware were kind of tough to squeeze in there. I received a couple of Bzzzzzzts when I missed.

Next year, you'll drag her.

The first time I saw Petty was many years ago. I went with pretty much the same attitude you did: "They're ok". I walked out the same way you did. In awe. I went and bought all of their records the next day. I think their music (with a brief techn clunker being an exception) has gotten better and better over time. I haven't been to a concert in a while but they are one I'd see.

I want to do a new McLaughlin poll but wanted to change it up a bit. The toughest part of doing these polls is coming up with the questions/answers. I always use 5 questions. Right now, I have one good one ready to go. I need your help for the other 4. PM me your questions and answers. I will use the best 4 questions I receive. I reserve the right to change your answer if the one you provide is WRONG!!!!!!!! Questions can be serious like a tough trivia question, opinion based like "who is the best whatever" obnoxious, or goofy.

I could see that but some of the reports have stated they were separating the betteries from the phones and keeping them in separate bins when they were caught.

So I see there have been multiple arrests of people buying 1000s of cell phones. I understand that cell phones can be used as detonantors; but 1000s of them? That's a lot of bombs and a lot of dialing? It doesn't seem logical. What's the deal?

Is that an example of an extreme example?

Happy birthday. Eryn, go splurge on a new set of dentures.

"Inane threads".

Reilly may or may not be exaggerating the kids inability to swing a bat. We had a Downs kid on the team I coached last year. The kids were young and it was tee ball but he needed a parent with him to bat. It's not exactly the same but you do see different things like that. When I played, there was a kid with a prosthetic arm and a hook. He batted, but needless to say was not the league's top hitter. I've seen kids in wheelchairs, etc. It does happen. Is it right? To me it's ok to have kids play, but when the league gets to the age/level where there are tryouts, the kid would have to legitimately make the team to play. I wouldn't doubt Reilly embelleshing other parts of the story too. I'm not a big fan of his to begin with, but I based my replies here on taking his report at face value.

All rancor aside, I'll clarify my position here: If intentional walks were used routinely as part of this league, and thus the cancer kid was treated equally, I have no problem with the coach. If the intentional walk was never used but the coach used it as a loophole because he saw the cancer kid on deck and the slugger at the plate, I think he is a scum bag. My guess is that the latter is true. Maybe I have overestimated my personal knowledge in the matter. Maybe Reilly played it up as unusual (the umpire was shocked to see an intentional walk and even the 8 year old sister uncovered the plot) for the sake of the story and I got suckered in.

Way to refute your own argument....this is just like PPP. The pinch hitter and intentional walk can and do balance each other at all levels of baseball. The presence of one and absence of the other creates an imbalance. Rules are intended to promote balance, not inhibit it. There are many things screwed up about having a championship game in a league like this. Most of them have nothing to do with either coach. The first coach just took advantage of one of them. The most glaring to me is the four run per inning rule. It's there so the parents can get the kids to bed before 4 AM, but to me, can kill the "legitimacy" of a "championship". What if one team scores 4 runs and has the bases loaded in three of the innings before the first out is recorded and no runs in the other three innings. The other team scores 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 and gets put out in all six? They win 13-12 but only got 18 outs to do it, and the other team got 9 outs and 12 runs. Which team is better at baseball? Either play by real rules or don't call it a championship. (Yes, I understand that there are reasons for both intentional walks and pinch hitters, but offsetting each other is part of the game.)

I never said I knew everything, but I do think seeing as many games as I have indicates that intentional walks are at least unusual. To know for sure, we'd need the scorebooks from their league, which we don't have. If I came off as knowing everything about the frequency of intentional walks then it was too much. Similarly, you can't claim to know that they were frequent in the league and say things like "he probably would have walked him to get to the fourth best hitter". What if Jordan was hitting .579 and the fourth best hitter was hitting .512? Would you walk the winning run then? Have you seen intentional walks with kids that age or was your question just hypothetical? So far nobody in this thread has said they've seen this. (Not that it is important, but I played in pony league and I caught. We never walked anyone then either. Our town is now Cal Ripken so it is a bit of a different format today. If you're saying mormons have more of a propensity toward intentional walks then you may be right. I have never even been to Utah.)

I've coached and watched about 150 games played at that age level and never seen an intentional walk, but what do I know?

Some of my best experiences were also in losing efforts. My favorite: We were clearly the second best team in the league. We had three losses against the undefeated top team and one against the rest of the league combined. Their team was stacked and they had not been in a close game all year. We were playing them for the last time. I don't think we'd gotten within 6-7 runs of them in the first 3 tries. We played them tight all night and managed to get a very tense game into extra innings. We failed to score in the top of the inning. I was the catcher. Our pitcher was tired. The first guy walked, next guy got a hit and third guy walked. Up stepped their best hitter. I still remember the pitch coming in....the sound of the bat....the kid jumping out of the tree overlooking centerfield because he didn't want the ball to hit him. We played great. We lost. We learned. I get it. Another as a spectator: My friend Jim overthrew the cutoff man like you. BTW, did you also overthrow the catcher, the 12 foot backstop and the concession stand like Jim? The ONLY thing I don't agree with about this story is that the coach made a highly unusual move to treat the cancer kid DIFFERENTLY than everyone else. After that, he lies about his knowledge of the kid's plight. That is low. I don't think it will hurt the kid's in the long run, but neither would manning up against the tough hitter and winning or losing.

People I have known or confirmed: Anita Dickman Candice B. Sweet (HS teacher) Harold Richard Weiner (HS Teacher) and my personal favorite...... Ophelia Ras (last name pronounced Rass)

Seriously? How many nine year old baseball games have you seen? How many intentional walks in those games? I've seen about 150 with zero intentional walks. If the kid came up in sequence without an exception being made to get to him, I'd agree 100%.

So he was planning on being down one run in the bottom of the last inning with the tying run at third and two outs and his slugger due up? That guy is a genius. The other coach happened upon a situation, took advantage of it, and revealed his true (lack of) character. Then, after the game, he cemented the image by denying any knowledge of the kid's condition. You know, the kid that had survived cancer, visiited with the President of the United Staes, had to wear a helmet in the field and have his medication at the ready. Yeah, that kid. The other coach had no idea that there was something wrong with him. Baseball is baseball. He played within the rules. IMO, his priorities are beyond screwed. Hopefully that is the real lesson that the kids will learn. With that (and my other posts) said, I think Reilly is also guilty here. IMO, the coach deserves to take a lot of crap from the people in town. To have this thing publicized so every nut in the world can give him grief isn't exactly fair either. He's not Hitler, he's just a bullyish cowardly moron with no class. There are plenty of those to go around and most of them are not exposed nationally.

Pinch hitting is against the rules of the league. That is where the real flaw lies. Of course, they probably didn't think of it because they had probably never seen a 9 year old intentionally walked. Having seen my share of 9 year old baseball games and nary one intentional walk, I feel qualified to state the the intentional walk was not just an exception, but an extraordinary one. You're right about kids learning lessons through victory and defeat. I have no argument with that. The lesson here (for the winning team) of victory by any means necessary no matter how small the prize, is not a good one. Hopefully they'll see that when they are older and realize that their coach was a cowardly loser. It is more than likely that he has already given them thousands of other examples.

The root blame probably belongs with the design of the league. One team can use the strategy of the intentional walk and the other team has no way to combat it (by using a pinch hitter or whatever). Of course, they never thought of that because they had likely never seen somebody INTENTIONALLY WALK A NINE YEAR OLD. In a way this is a loophole. The first coach probably made a mistake in his batting order. The opposing coach decided to take advantage of the loophole. I think what the coach did, while legal, is incredibly bush league. I've coached a lot of baseball and cannot recall seeing a 9/10 year old walked intentionally in any situation. The kid was being treated differently in a negative sense because of the highly unusual intentional walk. They went out of their way to take advantage of him. I'm sure the kid has learned to handle adversity through his cancer. I'm sure he'll be fine. The coach showed a remarkable inability to handle the adversity of the opposing star being at bat at a key time. He ran from the adversity into the awaiting arms of a cancer victim. How brave. This coach probably always has and probably always will run from adversity. I especially liked his claiming ignorance of the kid's condition afterward. That was another brave move.

In the history of sports down to the 9/10 year old level, no team has ever made the finals with a bad player?

It says 9&10. I missed that too. It does say it is a level where all kids bat.

It must be. You can just burn it to DVD and sell it on the internet. I coached for many years in little league. I do not remember a single instance in which someone walked a better to get to another batter in a nine year old league. Maybe it happened. I think I'd really have to strain my memory to think of when someone was walked to get to the cancer victim. Sometimes dignity and class are more important than the task at hand. This is true in 9 YO baseball and in real life. As for the age cutoff....how about this.....when the other coach has an option of pinch hitting for the cancer victim. In this case, there was no option. He had to put the kid out there. Strategy works really well when the other team has no choice, huh?