Big Trouble In Little League

Remember the days when the biggest controversy to affect Little League baseball was when 14-year olds pretended to be 12? Well those days are over, as Little League has gotten downright despicable.

Ump's language ban incites protest

METHUEN, Mass. (AP) -- Coaches on a Little League team filed a protest with the league after an umpire ordered the players to stop speaking Spanish during a state tournament game this week.

Coaches said the order demoralized the Methuen players and cost the team the game.

"This never should have happened," coach Chris Mosher told the Eagle-Tribune newspaper. "These are 14-year-old kids who should not have to deal with any of this, especially in Little League baseball."

Boy says coach told him to hit teammate

UNIONTOWN, Pa., July 29 (UPI) -- An 8-year-old Pennsylvania boy testified a baseball coach told him to throw a ball at the head of an autistic teammate to get him out of a game.

Keith Reese said at a hearing in Uniontown, Pa., that Mark Downs, his T-ball coach told him to throw a ball at the head of 9-year-old Harry Bowers Jr., and when that ball missed, hit the ground, and then hit his teammate's groin, the coach offered him $25 to throw another ball at the boy's head "harder," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Friday.

Youth sentenced to detention center in baseball bat killing

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A 13-year-old boy convicted of beating his friend to death with a baseball bat was sentenced Thursday to a youth detention facility until he is 25 years old, although he could be paroled before then...

Witnesses said the 13-year-old's team had just lost its first game of the season, and he was getting in line at a snack bar when he and Rourke got into some sort of scuffle. Some witnesses said there was a dispute between the teens over their place in line; others said Rourke teased the suspect over the loss.

Maybe this is just a marketing stunt by the producers of the new Bad News Bears flick?