Locked Out Ollie Applesauce - Perez shows up to locked PSL, Mets may have to open books, Clemens still A-hole

should have read image.

It says he can throw “around” 80, which in an article written in the way this one was would lead me to believe he probably sits at 70 and can occasionally unleash one at 73-75 when he doesn’t worry about control. I’m not sure what to think of the situation, but II’m quite sure we’re not getting a very unbiased scouting report on the player here.

If the kid had genuinely good stuff, there would be a place for him on the team. Not taking sides on whether he was wronged or whether the coach is being maligned unfairly, but that aspect of the whole thing rings true for me.

If the kid has really good stuff and I’m the coach, I put him on the team and then raise all hell the first time an opposing coach employs a “bunt all the time” strategy.

something to understand about disability rights is that it isn’t just about “equality,” it’s also about accommodation. If you use a wheelchair, say, “equality” gets you hardly anywhere: you have to advocate society to install elevators and ramps and other things that able bodied people don’t need, and you don’t feel bad about the outlay in cash and labor this requires. You’re a bit different, and you accept that, and you fight to be accommodated.

In a school context (that’s what this is), kids with learning disabilities are rightly afforded more resources and time in a competitive academic context. If this particular athlete fights to be accommodated in a sports context, I can fully understand. “Slippery slope” arguments often do nothing except obscure the particular case at hand. He isn’t a blind batter asking to hit off a tee: he’s a pitcher who can do almost every one of the important things required of him. He just asks that an opposing team not engage in highly unusual behavior to exploit his disability.

But all of this assumes that he is indeed an awesome pitcher, which we don’t know for sure. I’m sure he doesn’t want to make the team out of “sympathy,” but there is nothing weak about wanting a reasonable amount of accommodation.

there’s an awful lot of righteous, indignant and I’d say over-personalized reactions over the politics surrounding a local high school team which, you could argue, in any sane society should be more about sportsmanship than fielding the world’s greatest Orlando-area high school squad. So the kid’s supporters want to raise a fuss, I find it difficult to get outraged. The coach knew what he was getting into, or doesn’t subscribe to ESPN the magazine. Did we all get cut from high school teams or something?

but unless this coach is insane, the kid would be on his team if he was one of the best players on the team. this seems to me like controversy for the sake of controversy.

i’ve read alternative interpretation. that Selig will do anything to protect his Wilpie pals. what to believe?
That would be positive unless it is sold to JayZ.