There is so wrong with this story reported in today’s LAT that it may set some sort of  “sicko” record.

A T-ball coach in Pittsburgh allegedly paid one of his players $25 to hurt an 8-year-old mentally disabled teammate so he wouldn’t have to put the boy in the game, police said Friday.

Mark R. Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, Pa., is accused of offering one of his players the money to hit the boy in the head with a baseball, police said. Witnesses told police Downs didn’t want the boy to play in the game because of his disability.

The boy was hit in the head and in the groin with a baseball just before a game, and did not play, police said.

We at Independent Sources don’t like to make broad generalizations but we believe that paying a nine year old kid to attack a disabled youth is crossing the line in youth sports.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 16th, 2005 at 3:30 pm by Insider and is filed under Weekend Edition / Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.