Humans are unbelievable... - by Jon

Headline: Coach allegedly paid player to hit boy.

When I first scanned this headline, I made a guess as to what the news story might be about. I figured some overzealous hockey-dad type must have given one of his players a little extra incentive to injure an opposing player, and take him out of the game. Pretty low, but possible, right? I mean, couldn't you just see some asshole coach yelling at his team's enforcer, "Put a check on number nine! I want him out of the game, now!"

So I clicked on the link. Turns out we're not talking about hockey, that bastion of sports violence, but T-ball, that bastion of adorably uncoordinated pre-schoolers. According to an accusation, some hyper-competitive coach didn't want to give playing time to an 8-year old boy on his team who was mentally disabled, so he paid one of the boy's teammates $25 to hit the boy with a baseball in the head. League rules apparently dictated that each player was to play for at least three innings, and Coach didn't want to lose.

Sometimes I despair the species. I think that it's very important for children to participate in sports; they're a great way to learn discipline, teamwork, leadership, not to mention that kids need to have fun. But at what point does it make sense to rig a T-Ball roster by assaulting a child? A mentally disabled child, at that? I mean, this is a sport where the ball is propped up on a freaking pole for children too young to master hitting a moving spheroid, so that they can enjoy a sport. This coach, if guilty, really needs to be kept away from children.

Man, I wish I could file this under "so sad, it's funny."