Long live mediocrity

This AP story ran in a several hundred papers today. Pitcher banned…he’s too good 9-year-old boy told he's too good to pitch 

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player -- too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.

This is one more example of narrow minded efforts to marginalize those who excel. We sometimes forget most of us in America are descended from those who left their home countries because of the lack of opportunity. Yet whether it is doing away with valedictorians or playing scoreless soccer, we are reverting to what we tried to escape. In ten years I hope we see Jericho pitching for the Yankees.