Overheard at yesterday's ball game

[pat]

Yesterday was J's first game in the "major leagues" -- the highest division in his age group in our local Little League. They are a lot stricter enforcing the rules at this level, one of them being that players are forbidden to wear any jewelry except religious items.

One boy had what looked like a braided cloth ring around his neck. It did not have a religious medal on it, so the umpire ordered it off. I don't know why the boy was wearing it, but it was clearly something that could not be simply slipped off -- it was smaller than his head. It could not be removed without destroying it. The child was adamant that he was not going to remove it.

After much argument -- with the coach supporting his player -- the umpire let it go. One parent behind me remarked they should simply cut the thing off and then said (and I am not making this up) "They have to teach the kids to obey the rules. It's a matter of professionalism."

I was so stunned at this comment that I was unable to speak. I realize -- or at least hope -- that the woman may not have thought about exactly what she said, but still....

Sheesh. Those Little League scandals that crop up now and then don't seem so unbelievable.

Comments

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I might agree with your point except that there was clearly more than met the eye here. The coach supported the player in this, which if it had been a simple matter of a rebellious child he would not have done. The umpire's position was that unless there was a cross or some other explicitly religious medallion on the material, it was jewelry. I could not hear the whole debate, but picked up that the item had some specific meaning for the child. It is quite possible that it was a memorial item of some sort, which to my mind makes it fall into the "religious" area. The fact that the child had been wearing it nonstop long enough for his head to grow big enough that the band would not fit over it indicates to me that it meant something.

But what got me most was the "professionalism" comment. These are ten, eleven and twelve year old boys. If you want to enforce the rules, do so, but to imagine for a minute that something more is at stake here than a simple children's game is to have in my mind a really screwed up perspective.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

The "you" in the above comment was a generic "you".