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Sports See other Sports Articles Title: Hit the showers, boys: Youth baseball team ousted from league for being 'too good' Hit the showers, boys Friday, June 17, 2005 No one misbehaved. No one broke any rules. But after only a few games, the Columbus Stars have been kicked out of a recreational youth baseball league in Canal Winchester. The players, ages 11 and 12, were deemed too good. On May 9, the Stars beat the Red Sox, 18-0. Two weeks later, the Stars also beat World Harvest, 13-0. But the biggest blowout occurred on May 27, when the Stars defeated Sugar Grove II, 24-0. Sugar Grove I lost to the Stars the next day, 10-2. "After hearing and seeing the scores from that group, I called up the league office and said, 'No way are we going to play them,' " said Terry Morris, who coaches one of three teams from Bloom-Carroll schools in Fairfield County. "I wasn't going to subject my players to that." Other teams started complaining. And canceling. The Stars were pulled from the league schedule. The team appealed to the league's commissioner, Joe Bernowski, to no avail. Stars coach Jerry Glick said the ouster is unjustified. He thinks his team should have been credited with wins for the forfeits. "I've been in amateur sports for 35 years," said Glick, 55. "This isn't something I've had to deal with before." Michael Mirones, board chairman for the Canal Winchester Joint Recreation District, returned the Stars' $150 entry fee. He said it would be wrong for other teams to bolt from the decade-old recreational league when, in his view, the Stars should play in a travel league against better teams. "They were just beating the rec kids up," Mirones said. "It's no fun for the kids that are losing." Darla and J.R. Perry, parents of R.J., a Stars player who is 11, said the team feels wronged because it is too late to join another league. "Our boys went into this with a good attitude," Mrs. Perry said. "It's turned into a disaster." Since April, the boys have been honing their skills on a field outside the Zion Lutheran Church on Obetz Road. They practice 2.5 hours a day, four days a week. Some have been playing together for four or five years, though not the entire team. "I don't think it's fair," said Michael Allston, 12, a catcher and pitcher for the Stars. "We always played our best, and we were just winning games." Teammate Matthew "Boomer" Hufferd, 12, who plays second base, said he thinks overprotective adults are to blame. "If they learn at their age that they can forfeit on things they don't want to do, it's quitting," Hufferd said. The Stars haven't played a league game since June 6, when they beat the Cardinals, 17-6. "One team told us they didn't want their boys' self-esteem battered," said Trina Cochran, mother of Mario, a Stars player who is 11. During the team's brief stay in the Canal Winchester league, opponents complained that the players were too big for their ages. R.J. Perry is 155 pounds. Michael Allston is 5 feet 8. Mrs. Perry resorted to carrying copies of each boy's birth certificate to games to avoid a disqualification. In addition, some accused the coach of plucking talented players from across Columbus to form an all-star team. The team then supplied addresses to the league showing that all but one of the 14 players live in the 43207 ZIP code. Kris Hutchins, coach of the Yankees in the Canal Winchester league, said the parents of his players unanimously decided not to engage such a fearsome squad. It was an issue not only of competitiveness but also of safety, Hutchins said. "We didn't want one of our kids to get hit in the face with a ball, not being able to defend himself." The Stars would not have had a game this week, but their parents arranged a scrimmage on the West Side against Georgian Heights, which plays in another league. The teams had met earlier in the year during a preseason Teays Valley tournament. The Stars had won, 9-8. Georgian Heights Coach Ken Carius said his team, which has a 24-1 record, was eager to avenge its only loss. Players from both sides swatted liners and deep balls on Wednesday night, and defenders fielded grounders and made catches on the run. Fans leapt for joy when one of theirs got a base hit or scored. In the end, the Stars won, 7-3.
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