The Baseball Zealot

The Columbus Stars, a team in a rec youth league in the Columbus, Ohio area, was kicked out of the league. They weren’t caught cheating. No one was using illegal substances. Every kid was within the proper age limit. They were just too good. After winning games by scores of 18-0, 13-0 and 24-0, opposing teams began complaining.

“After hearing and seeing the scores from that group, I called up the league office and said, ‘No way are we going to play them,’ ” said Terry Morris, who coaches one of three teams from Bloom-Carroll schools in Fairfield County. “I wasn’t going to subject my players to that.”

It seems the Stars’ players were a little disappointed. I particularly liked the quotes from the kids themselves.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” said Michael Allston, 12, a catcher and pitcher for the Stars. “We always played our best, and we were just winning games.” Teammate Matthew “Boomer” Hufferd, 12, who plays second base, said he thinks overprotective adults are to blame. “If they learn at their age that they can forfeit on things they don’t want to do, it’s quitting,” Hufferd said.

The Stars haven’t played a league game since June 6 though a scrimmage has been arranged with a team in another league.

Columbus Dispatch Story

Update:  Commentor rhinten brings a different perspective to this story.  According to rhinten, it’s quite likely this team is a “travel” team and therefore playing at a much higher caliber than your normal youth rec league.  Read the comments section for more detail.  Thanks to rhinten for bringing this up.

Is it me or is the All-Star balloting ship seem to be righting itself somewhat?

Specifically, LA shortstop Cesar Izturis is now leading in the NL. He is a legitimate candidate. He’s hitting .304. And he’s not on the DL.

Ken Griffey Jr is no longer in the top 3 in NL outfielders, thank goodness. I have to give Junior credit where credit is due. He’s stayed healthy up until this point unlike previous years. But that’s not enough.

Mike Piazza, Carlos Beltran, and Tino Martinez are leading their respective positions for one reason… they play in New York. The case can be made for Piazza that his position is a weak one in the NL this year but surely there’s a better one. Barrett?? Hernandez??

Don’t count out Mark Teixeira out for catching Tino in the polls. He’s been gaining on him (rightly so, in my opinion) in the last few weeks.

Finally, the race for NL firstbaseman will be a closer race than previously thought. Both Albert Pujols and Derrek Lee are legit candidates but anyone who looks at the stats has to admit Lee is having a superior year. Lee is fighting lack of name recognition and a strong fan base in St Louis. The good news for Lee is that he is doing everything he can to rectify that first problem and more and more people are learning who Derrek Lee is and what he can do.

Don’t forget to vote!

After seeing Wild Bill Holden last week, I decided to order This Old Cub, the video that inspired him to do his walk. Well, it came today.

Now, I’ve read various reviews on the web about the video. Some of them boiled down to “Well, if you’re a Cub fan, you’ll probably like it” so I was prepared to see a mediocre video at best.

I was happily surprised.

The film shows basically two sides of Santo’s life. His career with the Cubs complete with footage, summary of his career and yes, a snapshot of the 1969 season which is still not easy to watch, I must say.

The film also covers Santo’s current life as a broadcaster for the Cubs and how he deals with the fate that lifelong diabetes has handed him. Both of these aspects were interspersed together pretty well without losing continuity.

There were interviews with many people in Santo’s life including former teammates and current colleagues.

Well worth the 24.99 plus s+h. It helps that I’m a Cub fan but I think that any fan of baseball history would enjoy it. Even my wife, who enjoys baseball but by no means is a fanatic, watched the whole thing and gave it a thumbs up.

If you’re interested, you can buy it here.

Followup: Forgot to mention that 5 bucks of your purchase goes to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.