By
Sean Joyce
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Lately, there has been a negative trend in stories relating to youth sports. But it seems that one story from this past week is bucking the norm.
Instead of a story centered on parents attacking each other or coaches taking pre-pubescent boys to strip clubs and getting them drunk, Robert Knight - a 12-year old from Harper Woods, Mich., - accomplished something that I could not fathom at any skill level in baseball.
Knight, a Little-Leaguer, pitched a perfect game.
Impressive as that is, he did it by striking out every player on the opposing team.
In a six-inning game, Knight had 18 strikeouts, including battling back from a 3-0 count to get the last batter swinging. To top off his pitching masterpiece, Knight also had 3 hits.
Wow.
A good game for me would have been to pray that I didn't make any errors in the field and use all 5-foot-nothing of me to hit the ball as far as I could. I think I could have been described as having warning track power - too bad the warning track was only 200 feet away.
And forget pitching - I couldn't locate a pitch to save my life, probably a good reason my baseball career didn't take off as I would have liked it to.
But that was fine with me. From a young age, something told me I wasn't going to dunk a basketball or hit the ball 500 feet. I was destined to sit at a computer and write about it instead. That was a lesson I learned with my experiences in youth sports.
Apparently, today's kids are learning different lessons altogether.
In the last year, there have been two terrible stories regarding the conduct displayed by adults in these youth contests. The old adage of "winning isn't everything" - especially when it comes to kids - seems to have vanished like Jason Gardner's chances of going pro.
Hockey has always been considered a violent sport. How many games have you seen where a guy gets knocked in the jaw and loses a few teeth? Or a Marty McSorley attempts to behead an opposing player because he lost a fight earlier in the game?
Luckily, much of youth hockey is non-contact. The kids are out there to learn how to play the game, not pound each other into submission. It's also an effort to appease parents who fear their children might be seriously injured at a young age, where few of the players are good skaters or skillful with a hockey stick.
Last year in Reading, Mass., one father took exception to the violence that was occurring on the ice during his son's game. His concern was completely understandable, especially when you consider it was a non-contact game.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, however, the father, 42-year-old Thomas Junta, decided his point could be better made by confronting the coach.
After the game, Junta attacked Michael Costa, 40, and beat him until he lost consciousness in front of his team. Costa was comatose for 4 days before he was pronounced dead, killed by a man who ironically claimed that the kids were being too physical. Junta now awaits a possible 20-year prison sentence.
Orlando Lago, a 36-year-old assistant coach for the Hollywood Police Athletic League - a youth baseball association in Florida - attacked and broke the jaw of an umpire in a game against a neighboring PAL team.
Lago disagreed with a call the umpire made at third base. Is that worth the $10 an hour the umpire made to work the game?
Once again irony reared its ugly head. The Police Athletic League describes itself as "A non-profit Police/Youth organization, with a mission to reduce juvenile delinquency and promote positive interaction between law enforcement and communities." If that weren't enough, the league's motto is "Filling Ball fieldsˇNot Prisons."
Kids of the Hollywood area have now hopefully learned that if they feel cheated about something in their community, they have the ability - if not the obligation - to attack police officers in an attempt to make their point. After all, that's how the cops handle it themselves, isn't it?
This problem has become a dilemma that is no longer restricted to sports. It appears to be the symptom of a social disease much more serious than a Little League game. Parents and coaches are role models for children - if they aren't assaulting each other in plain view of the kids, they're busy working over an umpire. Adult misbehavior at these events have become such a problem that in Juniper, Fla., parents are now required to attend a sportsmanship course prior to their child signing up for Little League.
I say it's time to forget about sportsmanship courses and arm the officials. Who's going to step to an umpire with an AK-47 strapped to their back?
This makes Robert Knight's perfect game all the more incredible. Not only did he strike out every batter he faced, but the game was also devoid of any physical altercations between parents, coaches or umpires.
The only possible reason for this has to be that Robert's parents couldn't attend their son's game that night. They had to take their other two children to their Little League games. I'm sure that had they been there, one of the opposing team's parents would have started jawing at them, leading to the eventual small-scale riot that we've come to expect.
Lots of people have said it's too bad that Robert's parents couldn't see the game. I think it's the only reason that the parents survived to take him home.
