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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I would have pitched to the slugger as
well.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>After all, the entire concept behind youth
(especially 10- and 11-year olds) baseball is enjoyment and learning. If
they make new friends along the way, the better.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Teaching kids that life is all about
winning corrupts the children and potentially dims what would otherwise be a
bright future for a community.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Save the concepts, such as “Losing
is not an option” and “Winning isn’t everything. It is
the only thing,” for Babe Ruth League and high school. The
formative years are just that, formative. It is more important to see
that person next to you as a neighbor, not a competitor in the game of “One
Upmanship”.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Growing up is a one-time deal. The “games”
will always be there.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Tom Hansen<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>Moscow</span></font></st1:City><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>, <st1:State
w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></span></font></st1:place><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>"Life should NOT be a journey to the
grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved
body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the
other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a
ride!'"</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
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face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> Deacon James
[mailto:deaconblues42@gmail.com] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Friday, August 11, 2006
12:53 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> Chris Storhok<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Cc:</span></b> Tom Hansen; <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">Joan Opyr</st1:PersonName>; Moscow Vision 2020<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [Vision2020] You Make
the Call</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Chris,<br>
<br>
What's the point of having a championship game, then? Why not just slap all the
kids on the back at the end of the season and buy them a pile of ice cream
cones? That way, no one's a loser, the coach doesn't have to be perceived as a
jerk, and, hey, ice cream cones all around. It's a win-win-win situation, don't
you think? <br>
<br>
Deacon<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=gmailquote><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>On 8/11/06, <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Chris
Storhok</span></b> <<a href="mailto:cstorhok@co.fairbanks.ak.us">cstorhok@co.fairbanks.ak.us</a>>
wrote:</span></font></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Tom,<br>
This is an easy one A) Pitch to the slugger. Period...<br>
<br>
One of the great joys about being a youth sports coach is working with<br>
the kids and watching them mature before your eyes. These coaches
are<br>
playing with kids and there is nothing worse than watching coaches <br>
manipulate the kids or the rules for a simple win. These are 9 and
10<br>
year olds for goodness sake, not high school age kids trying for college<br>
scholarships. A vast majority of the kids out there will drop out of
<br>
organized baseball (and other sports) within the next few years of their<br>
lives. PONY league was established nationwide with the goal of
putting<br>
fun back into the game. This kind of crap happens in Little League
all <br>
the time and is why Little League is losing players ever year. We
first<br>
started playing PONY League the year we moved to <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Fairbanks</st1:place></st1:City>. That was<br>
also the first year of PONY League here because parents were sick and <br>
tired of Little League and the competitive pressures on each and every<br>
team. The PONY League organization does have a competitive league
for<br>
kids that draw out the better talent and leave the recreation teams<br>
pretty equal. Here in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Fairbanks</st1:place></st1:City>,
the PONY League has brought back to<br>
the game hundreds of players who had left the game. Last year the<br>
Senior League (13-14 year olds) had only 4 teams, this year they were up<br>
to 11 teams. Granted most of these players were not good, but they
had <br>
a good time and learned a lot about baseball and life. I can clearly<br>
see that the Yankees coaches in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Utah</st1:place></st1:State>
have forgotten the spirit of<br>
recreation PONY League, if he wanted to coach that way he should be in<br>
Little League or a competitive team with the PONY organization. What
a <br>
jerk, I know I would have been giving him a hard time as well. (At<br>
least the poor kid who struck out to end the game sounds like he will be<br>
back, good for him)<br>
<br>
Chris<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-----Original Message----- <br>
From: <a href="mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com">vision2020-bounces@moscow.com</a><br>
[mailto:<a href="mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com">vision2020-bounces@moscow.com</a>]
On Behalf Of Tom Hansen<br>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 10:55 AM <br>
To: <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Joan Opyr</st1:PersonName>; <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">'<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City>
Vision 2020'</st1:PersonName><br>
Subject: [Vision2020] You Make the Call<br>
<br>
>From this week's "Life of Reilly" column by Rick Reilly of the
Sports<br>
Illustrated -<br>
<br>
Once you have completed reading the article, please respond to the <br>
one-question survey I have posted at the end.<br>
<br>
---------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
You make the call<br>
Is it good baseball strategy or a weak attempt to win?<br>
By Rick Reilly<br>
<br>
This actually happened. Your job is to decide whether it should have.<br>
<br>
In a nine- and 10-year-old PONY league championship game in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Bountiful</st1:place></st1:City>,<br>
<st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Utah</st1:place></st1:State>,<br>
the Yankees lead the Red Sox by one run. The Sox are up in the bottom of <br>
the<br>
last inning, two outs, a runner on third. At the plate is the Sox' best<br>
hitter, a kid named <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jordan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
On deck is the Sox' worst hitter, a kid<br>
named<br>
Romney. He's a scrawny cancer survivor who has to take human growth <br>
hormone<br>
and has a shunt in his brain.<br>
<br>
So, you're the coach: Do you intentionally walk the star hitter so you<br>
can<br>
face the kid who can barely swing?<br>
<br>
Wait! Before you answer.... This is a league where everybody gets to <br>
bat,<br>
there's a four-runs-per-inning max, and no stealing until the ball<br>
crosses<br>
the plate. On the other hand, the stands are packed and it is the title<br>
game.<br>
<br>
So ... do you pitch to the star or do you lay it all on the kid who's <br>
been<br>
through hell already?<br>
<br>
Yanks coach Bob Farley decided to walk the star.<br>
<br>
Parents booed. The umpire, Mike Wright, thought to himself, Low-ball<br>
move.<br>
In the stands, Romney's eight-year-old sister cried. "They're picking on <br>
Romney!" she said. Romney struck out. The Yanks celebrated. The Sox<br>
moaned.<br>
The two coaching staffs nearly brawled.<br>
<br>
And Romney? He sobbed himself to sleep that night.<br>
<br>
"It made me sick," says Romney's dad, Marlo Oaks. "It's going
after the <br>
weakest chick in the flock."<br>
<br>
Farley and his assistant coach, Shaun Farr, who recommended the walk,<br>
say<br>
they didn't know Romney was a cancer survivor. "And even if I had,"<br>
insists<br>
Farr, "I'd have done the same thing. It's just good baseball
strategy." <br>
<br>
Romney's mom, Elaine, thinks Farr knew. "Romney's cancer was in the<br>
paper<br>
when he met with President Bush," she says. That was thanks to the<br>
Make-A-Wish people. "And [Farr] coached Romney in basketball. I tell all <br>
his<br>
coaches about his condition."<br>
<br>
She has to. Because of his radiation treatments, Romney's body may not<br>
produce enough of a stress-responding hormone if he is seriously<br>
injured, so<br>
he has to quickly get a cortisone shot or it could be life-threatening. <br>
That's why he wears a helmet even in centerfield. Farr didn't notice?<br>
<br>
The sports editor for the local Davis Clipper, Ben De Voe, ripped the<br>
Yankees' decision. "Hopefully these coaches enjoy the trophy on their <br>
mantle," De Voe wrote, "right next to their dunce caps."<br>
<br>
Well, that turned <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bountiful</st1:place></st1:City>
into Rancorful. The town was split -- with<br>
some<br>
people calling for De Voe's firing and describing Farr and Farley as <br>
"great<br>
men," while others called the coaches "pathetic human beings."
They<br>
"should<br>
be tarred and feathered," one man wrote to De Voe. Blogs and letters<br>
pages<br>
howled. A state house candidate called it "shameful." <br>
<br>
What the Yankees' coaches did was within the rules. But is it right to<br>
put<br>
winning over compassion? For that matter, does a kid who yearns to be<br>
treated like everybody else want compassion?<br>
<br>
"What about the boy who is dyslexic -- should he get special
treatment?" <br>
Blaine and Kris Smith wrote to the Clipper. "The boy who wears glasses<br>
--<br>
should he never be struck out? ... NO! They should all play by the rules<br>
of<br>
the game."<br>
<br>
The Yankees' coaches insisted that the Sox coach would've done the same <br>
thing. "Not only wouldn't I have," says Sox coach Keith Gulbransen,
"I<br>
didn't. When their best hitter came up, I pitched to him. I especially<br>
wouldn't have done it to Romney."<br>
<br>
Farr thinks the Sox coach is a hypocrite. He points out that all coaches <br>
put<br>
their worst fielder in right field and try to steal on the weakest<br>
catchers.<br>
"Isn't that strategy?" he asks. "Isn't that trying to win? Do we
let the<br>
kid<br>
feel like he's a winner by having the whole league play easy on him? <br>
This<br>
isn't the Special Olympics. He's not retarded."<br>
<br>
Me? I think what the Yanks did stinks. Strategy is fine against major<br>
leaguers, but not against a little kid with a tube in his head. Just<br>
good <br>
baseball strategy? This isn't the pros. This is: Everybody bats,<br>
one-hour<br>
games. That means it's about fun. Period.<br>
<br>
What the Yankees' coaches did was make it about them, not the kids. It<br>
became their medal to pin on their pecs and show off at their barbecues. <br>
And<br>
if a fragile kid got stomped on the way, well, that's baseball. We see<br>
it<br>
all over the country -- the over-caffeinated coach who watches too much<br>
SportsCenter and needs to win far more than the kids, who will forget <br>
about<br>
it two Dove bars later.<br>
<br>
By the way, the next morning, Romney woke up and decided to do something<br>
about what happened to him.<br>
<br>
"I'm going to work on my batting," he told his dad. "Then maybe
someday <br>
I'll<br>
be the one they walk."<br>
<br>
---------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Simple Survey:<br>
<br>
Would you -<br>
<br>
A) Pitch to the slugger (Jordan)<br>
<br>
B) Walk the slugger<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
<br>
Tom Hansen<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></st1:place><br>
<br>
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of<br>
arriving<br>
safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in<br>
sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the other, body thoroughly <br>
used<br>
up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a ride!'"<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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