It's Little League for Goodness Sake!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050715/ap_on_re_us/young_player_hurt

A 27 year-old little league coach paid an 8 year-old $25 to hit a disabled 8 year-old member of the same team in the head with a baseball, so the coach would not be required to play the disabled child in 3 innings of the game!

It's little league. The kids are supposed to be LEARNING how to catch and throw and hit and turn a play. They're not supposed to be learning how to hire a hit man, give a beating that looks like an accident, or throw a game.

This coach's behavior is reprehensible. He should be charged with two counts of child abuse and discrimination towards people with disabilities. If stupidity and insensitivity were crimes we'd have a few more charges on our hands.

The people of that community should be outraged that this man has had any type of influence over their children.

This coach could learn alot from those high school coaches out there that let kids with disabilities participate with the team. They give them a uniform and encourage them to improve their skills. And they even let them get into a game for when the conditions are favorable that the student won't be injured. They teach the team to embrace all types of people. And both the team and the special needs student are the better for it. We need more coaches like that and less jerks like this guy.