There’s more to the story than just a boy who pitches too fast. There’s also an overly competitive coach, an offer to move to a different league, and an angry mom who allegedly threatened physical violence.
That was the message from officials of a Fair Haven kids’ baseball league at a press conference in Criscuolo Park on Tuesday evening. They were responding to charges that have hit the national press and made them look like ogres picking on a little kid — and have made them the targets of a possible lawsuit filed by civil rights lawyer John Williams.
The reason? The league moved to prevent fastball ace Jericho Scott, who turns 10 today, from pitching. His fast ball was just too fast, said the league, and it was frightening the other players.
After the Register broke the story, it went viral on the internet after being picked up by the Associated Press and ESPN (Jericho even has a Wikipedia entry.) Guess who the villain was.
League officials from the three-year-old Liga Juvenil de Baseball de New Haven insisted at Tuesday night’s press conference that they’re not villains.
League advisor and attorney Peter Noble (pictured at top of story) stood in front of a ranks of uniformed baseball players and their parents as he addressed a bank of television cameras. He said that while he has tremendous respect for John Williams’ years of service, “it would be a shame if he were remembered as the lawyer that sued this community and family.”
The League Argues the Call
The league’s side of the story is that after each of the three games that Jericho pitched for the Will Power Fitness team, parents and opposing coaches complained that his throws were too fast and were frightening the batters. The league decided that Jericho could not pitch anymore but offered to let him play other positions. They reportedly also offered to move Jericho up to the older players’ league,but his mother declined.
Then, “on August 20th, things escalated to an ugly point,” said Noble. “It was a very hostile environment, very unhealthy for players.”
What happened, according to the league, was that the Will Power Fitness coach Wilfred Vidro defied orders and started Jericho on the mound. League officials called the game, declaring that Will Power Fitness had defaulted. Will Power Fitness players and parents reportedly started chanting “losers.” The other team’s members were escorted to Carlito’s Barber Shop, “to insure their safety.”
“There was an incredible amount of taunting and threats,” said Noble.
Jericho’s mom, Nicole Scott, reportedly threatened the league with lawsuits and league officials with bodily harm. According to the league, Scott said, “This will be the last year. Once the lawyer is done they’re gonna eat shit and there ain’t gonna be a league next year.”
After the Aug. 20 incident, Vidro resigned, the Will Power Fitness team was disbanded, and its players were reassigned to other teams. Vidro and his assistant coaches were expelled from the league, as was Nicole Scott, but not Jericho.
Noble contended that the league was well within its rights to order Jericho not to pitch. He said repeatedly that the Liga Juvenil is an independent league, with no overseeing body, and it can make whatever rules it wishes. “The league decides how we’re going to develop the player,” he said.
After the press conference, league play continued with a matchup of Universal Hair Studio versus Radio Amor.
The Lawyer Cries Foul
Reached by phone after the press conference, Attorney John Williams was skeptical of the league’s claims that Nicole Scott had been verbally abusive.
“I find that hard to believe,” he said. “That’s not consistent with anything I’ve seen.”
Williams also said that he had never heard that the league had offered to move Jericho up to play with older kids.
He said that he is going to argue that the league’s decision to prevent Jericho from pitching was a simple breach of contract. “They had an agreement with these kids, and they backed out of the deal,” he said.
“Fair play means to do the best they can,” he continued. “He [Jericho] did exactly that and got punished.”
Williams mentioned the possibility that Jericho had been prevented from pitching because he had not joined the Carlito’s Barber Shop team, which had been the previous year’s champions. He said that the coaching staff of the former champions had an outside business relationship with the league organizers.
Asked about the media attention that the situation has received, Williams said that it has been “Unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Williams said that he had been fielding calls from talk shows all day: Dr Phil, Ellen Degeneres, Letterman. He said that Jericho was in New York on Tuesday night, catching a Yankees game and getting ready to appear on CBS’s morning show on Wednesday, where the speed of his pitches was to be checked by radar gun. Williams said that the radar gun should settle the question of just how fast and dangerous his pitching is.
My son was a great pitcher in PONY league. There was never any question about whether he should pitch in his age or not. He threw strikes, and could throw a lot harder than this young man at 10 years old. My son also hit 15 to 20 home runs a year. Would that also be an unfair advantage? Would a great hitter in your league be asked to not hit anymore? You people are stupid. Too bad the issue is clouded by the alleged behavior of the parents and team. My son is attending college today on a baseball scholarship. This is just another example of how excellence is punished in the country because of those that are unwilling to try to improve themselves so they can compete. I for one always wanted to play against the better pitchers. The only way to improve is to play against the better competition. If you always play down, then you will never improve.