Thursday, September 14, 2006

Do We Take Youth Sports Too Seriously?

In the spirit of Keith Olberman's nightly "Worst Person in the World" award, I bring you Mark R. Downs, Jr.:

UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- A baseball coach accused of offering an 8-year-old money to bean an autistic teammate so he couldn't play was convicted Thursday of two lesser charges against him, and evaded more serious charges.

A jury convicted 29-year-old Mark R. Downs Jr. of corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit simple assault, Fayette County authorities said.

Authorities said Downs offered to pay one of his T-ball players, Keith Reese, $25 to hit Harry Bowers, a 9-year-old autistic teammate with a ball while warming up before a June 2005 playoff game.

Earlier in the trial, Reese testified about Downs' offer, saying he purposely threw a ball that hit Bowers in the groin, then threw another ball that hit him in the ear on Downs' instructions. Bowers also testified about being hit by the balls Reese threw during pregame warmups.

Witnesses previously testified that Downs wanted to bench Bowers so that he could win a youth baseball playoff game.
Aside from bringing to mind Geoff's great post last week on little league ethics, this story reminds me of Shawn Phillips, the Pennsylvania policeman who in 1999 gave a 10-year-old pitcher $2 to hit a 10-year-old batter with a fastball in a little league game. Phillips made the payment behind a local school's bike tracks, and then watched his hit man (or I guess I should say "hit boy") drill the other boy in the knee. Phillips would later be convicted of corruption of a minor and solicitation to commit simple assault and he would serve time behind bars.

Now, I haven't played T-ball or little league in almost 20 years, and I haven't coached them, but have they become overly competitive or too intense, or are these stories more like isolated incidents?

And what, if anything, might the current "Youth Baseball Culture" say about our country in general?

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