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.
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.
I did some research on this story and it appears there’s more to this story than was reported.
According to various comments on the story in the local newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch (see http://www.dispatch.com/reports-story.php?story=116574&ctl_fmt=rev), it appears that this is a “travel team” which chose to play in another area’s rec league. The comments suggest that this team has been together for several years and practice over 2 hours a day on 4 days a week for maybe 6 months of the year. Not my idea of a “rec league” team!
Should they have been in the league? NO! NO! NO! Either the league organizers and the Stars’ coach should have known this wasn’t the league for this team.
Should they be kicked out for being too good? No.
Should they be removed for the safety of the other teams? Perhaps.
Apparently, the “journalist” responsible for this article was looking for a “big” story. Either he doesn’t know much about youth baseball and the often ridiculous behavior on the part of coaches and parents, or he chose to ignore it. Shame on him!