Lessons Learned -- But At The Expense Of A Child?
Should a cancer survivor be given special treatment in life? What if he's 9-years old?
Let's tug on your heart strings a bit, and test your ethics.
Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated has written a column this week that is a must read (follow this link), and you absolutely need to read it. Forget sports; close your eyes and put your family in the very same position.
Here's a quick synopsis: it's a 9 & 10 year old PONY League championship game. Everyone gets to bat, there's a 4-runs per inning limit, and stealing isn't allowed until the pitch crosses the plate.
The Yankees lead the Red Sox by one run in the bottom of the last inning. With a runner at 3rd and two outs, the Red Sox best hitter comes to the plate. The teams worst hitter, a kid named Romney, waits on deck. Romney is a cancer survivor, can barely swing the bat, has to take human growth hormone, and has a shunt in his brain. In little league, he's what we called an "easy out."
This is the ethical dilemma: if you're the coach, do you intentionally walk the best hitter to pitch to the cancer survivor, basically guaranteeing your team a win?
The Yankees walked him and the crowd booed in disgust.
Up to the plate came a scrawny little boy with the game and the championship on his shoulders.
After two pitches, with tears in his eyes, Romney, of course, struck out. The Yankees celebrated, a 9-year old cried, and a town -- and now a nation -- have become divided.
There are several questions here, including why is a 9 & 10 year old league playing a championship game? Or why was the worst hitter batting behind the best hitter? Were there rules in place that required the batting order to be alphabetical? There are obviously points to this story we aren't aware of, so we'll have to take the information with a grain of salt.
But what if you were the coach?
Would you walk the kid to ultimately assure your team a win? Or would your compassion require you to not put Romney in that situation?
Both arguments make sense.
If he wants to be treated like a normal kid, baseball strategy suggests you not pitch to the best hitter when the game is on the line.
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It's a 9 & 10 year old league, which means it's about developing these kids to be good people, not winning at the expense of another child. Plus, who intentionally walks a 9-year old?
After losing a 10-year old cousin to cancer, it's a much more realistic scenario for me, especially since he didn't want to be treated any differently.
But that's what movies are made of. What if he drove in the winning run? Would he have been plastered all over SportsCenter and have a movie made about his life?
What are we teaching our children? Winning at all costs? Can you be a winner if you don't actually win the game? Or are coaches and parents trying to win by living through their children?
It's not about baseball, and forget sports! Baseball is simply the vehicle that brought us the story, but it goes far beyond that. Whatever happened to picking on someone your own size? That's the lesson to be learned.
But being a cancer survivor, should he be treated differently than everyone else? If so, for how long? Until high school? College?
Or are we letting our emotions get the best of us? If Romney wasn't a cancer survivor, but simply a scrawny little boy that couldn't play, would you feel the same way? More importantly, if you felt differently, should you?
Keith Olbermann offered this scenario on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio: with a runner at 3rd and two bases open, walk the best hitter -- but then turn around and intentionally walk the worst hitter, also. At that point, no one has to be put into an uncomfortable situation.
Or you could simply pitch to the best hitter. Goliath vs. Goliath.
Unfortunately, nobody won by taking the easy way out. Apparently the pitcher was so upset about striking out Romney that he didn't try out for the all-star team the next day.
Here's the bright spot: the next day, Romney told his father he wanted to work on his hitting so the next time, he'd be the one they intentionally walk.
The lesson of working harder to get better -- good job Romney. The Yankees manager should take lessons from you.
Labels: Baseball, Cancer, Philosophy
