Fairness: A Misconcieved American Parasite

Jericho Scott: Greatness is too good (AP)

Fairness. A comfortable and friendly concept that evokes images of equality, peace and communal happiness. If only we would accept and embrace "fairness" the world would be a better place.

Of course the concept, in terms of human nature, is absolute nonsense. There is nothing fair about the human experience, from the micro-societies of elementary school playgrounds to the macroscopic network of the planet's many nations. And yet there are some that cling to the concept and insist on deluding our youth with such false, Utopian ideals. Shameless husks who, in thoughtless fashion, believe their own painfully immature ideology can circumvent reality and somehow yank nature into a behavior more in line with their own fantasy.

One side effect of this near mental illness is to ostracize excellence, the pinnacle of accomplishment and enforce mediocrity as an more acceptable pursuit. Consider the case of nine year old Jericho Scott:

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.

Officials for the three-year-old league, which has eight teams and about 100 players, said they will disband Jericho's team, redistributing its players among other squads, and offered to refund $50 sign-up fees to anyone who asks for it. They say Jericho's coach, Wilfred Vidro, has resigned.

But Vidro says he didn't quit and the team refuses to disband. Players and parents held a protest at the league's field on Saturday urging the league to let Jericho pitch.

"He's never hurt any one," Vidro said. "He's on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?"

The two major messages this patently ridiculous response on behalf of the New Haven Youth Baseball commission sends to all the players on all the other teams:

1) Excellence=Bad. If you're too good at something you'll not, contrary to every fiber of the past American experience, be rewarded but penalized and cast out.

2) That the lowest rung of accomplishment is not only acceptable but preferable to climbing a top the ladder. The attainment of "best" is not a goal to fervently pursue but a bane to avoid.

The message this sends to Jericho Scott is:

You were the best and so we treated you the worst, punishing you for your abilities. How dare you be great and make all your peers seem so little. You'd have been better served being a piss poor pitcher. At least then you'd still be able to play baseball.

Pathetic.