Thursday, February 07, 2013
Enrique Soto Sentenced To Ten Years In Prison
(www.baseballamerica.com)
posted on February 07, 2013 at 03:41 PM by Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad) to amateur, athletics, general, international, latin america, oakland
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3 comment(s)
Enrique Soto, one of baseball’s most prominent trainers in the Dominican Republic for the last two decades, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of charges of sexually assaulting two boys that were part of his academy 10 years ago, according to a report that first aired Monday night in the Dominican Republic on Noticias Sin.
Better late than never.
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1 2 >Also, If you go to the story from their front page it appends a little thing to the story so it can be read. Try this link.
EDIT:
Maybe Strasburg's injury is related to the fact that he's actually in his mid-70s.
As a native of Albuquerque, I would assume you are kidding about a town of over 500,000. As someone who lives in the Northeast now, I can attest that a bad day in Albuquerque is better then a good day in Philadelphia.
As for the Journal....one does not need to be generally negative to observe just how true the sentiment expressed in #3 is.
Heh. You just gave me a 'Police Squad/Airplane' image of one batter pulling out a camera before he runs the bases, and the next sitting down on a stool, between home and first, to do a watercolor painting of his home run.
The summer team I coached we had a 10 year old throwing curveballs. We talked to his dad about it but he basically said "it's my kid, he can do it if he wants."
And why shouldn't he? Kids throwing curveballs may not make it to the big leagues, because of arm damage, but they probably weren't going to make it there anyway. And it's not like they're going to be crippled for life because of this. Worst case is they'll end up playing first base on their slow pitch team, or only 3 innings at third instead of the whole game.
*-noted as a guy that is sitting in his cubicle thinking of the time he threw a no-hitter in 8th grade with a steady diet of curveballs, the apex of my athletic career.
Ahhh the time-tested 'Don't tell me how to raise my kids' trump card.
And yeah, I'm looking back fondly on my junkballing days as a 12 year old. 3 straight one hitters!
But you know what? Sure, my shoulder's not great, from whatever abuse I gave it in Little League, but I had a lot of fun.
But you know what? Sure, my shoulder's not great, from whatever abuse I gave it in Little League, but I had a lot of fun.
This is why I've got my youngest boy on a serious PED regimen now. Sure, it may not help him down the line, but since he probably wasn't going to make the big leagues anyway, the fact that he can have warm memories of crushing the competition as a 9-year-old will make it all worthwhile.
PEDs will ACTUALLY hurt him. Not in some overwrought "Yeah, my arm hurts every now and then when I play softball" sense, but in an actual sickness that will affect his life.
Also, it's really unfair to the other little kids.
But if he's capable of striking them out without cheating, and all it MIGHT cost him is a small slice of the tiny shred of a chance he had to make it to AA ball? Seems worth it to me. YMMV. I know that playing little league all star baseball is one of my happiest memories, and I wouldn't have gotten there without a curveball. And what did I pay for that? A grimace when I throw the ball in from left field in my slow pitch games. Fair trade.
Two things:
I'm sick of every time someone says something critical it's either "hateful" or "hatin.'" If you do something even remotely controversial in public, it's likely to draw a reaction. It's hardly hate. Deal with it.
Also, and call me old fashioned (kind of like Strasburg), but I'm not a big fan of 12 year olds using the word "pimp" in this or in any other context like "pimpin' they cribz" or whatever. HAHA we're using a word that describes someone who beats up women and gets them hooked on dope and trades them like cattle. So funny blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh epicness LOLZ!
I think so, but nobody's certain.
It's impossible to know with certainty.
Edit: Damn you spike!
Double edit: How about "They were only able to figure out his velocity."?
As for the curves, I get where Fly is coming from but I don't buy it. I see no reason to put a kid in a position where he is likely to do damage to himself, even if it is relatively minor. Maybe I'm wrong but as a coach I feel I have a responsiblity to protect the kids from themselves at times. Their health and enjoyment of the game are the most important things.
And you do, to the point that you should mention it to the dad. But it's hardly the end of the world, or an indictment of the guy's parenting, for him to say "Meh. Kid's having fun."
But if the curveball is what makes him good? He wasn't that good anyway, and hasn't cost himself anything.
The word describes other things besides that, and has for a while now. I understand your point, but that ship has sailed.
Similarly, if the kid says "I have a killer curveball," we barely notice anymore that he is using a word about murder.
Agreed and I did say something to his dad as noted above. I'm not saying it's the end of the world or makes the guy a bad parent (though he was kind of a jackass for so many reasons) but I don't think it's right.
"Pimp My Ride" may have pushed this meaning solidly into the mainstream.
I was hesitant to bring this one up, but yeah, you can't listen to kids talk about video games without hearing "rape" about every 10 seconds - "Man, that greater demon in WoW totally raped my paladin last night." Ugh.
OK, "rapey change-up" makes me laugh, though.
I don't know, can you really own someone with a slow pitch? Rapey to me suggests fastball all the way. A change up is just too tricky to be rapey.
I thought it was funny that on Sportscenter they would put the full quote onscreen, but the anchors refused to say "pimp" and kept changing it to "showboat."
Isn't that pretty rare too? How many programs even offer full rides anymore? I have to think the number of pitchers getting baseball scholarships in the entire country is not significantly larger than the number of professional pitchers overall.
And I have a hard time believing throwing tons of curves at a young age will inhibit you from having a normal life. Its a twist of the wrist, not getting knocked in the head repeatedly.
If this were deadspin, this would set off an avalanche of posts involving young males, "normal life" and "twist of the wrist".
Since this place is much classier, hopefully mine will be the first and last.
Roofies are plenty tricky.
NCAA schools are allowed only 11.7 scholarships per year, and they are given out in pieces with very few full rides. So, if you're planning on spending serious change on your kid's baseball travel team career in order to get a scholarship - you're a economic moron.
I would love to see this message be required to be stamped on all sign-up sheets* for travel ball (which my son won't be playing, once I saw the absurd price tag just to register for one local team).
* I'd probably allow the grammar to be cleaned up. (-:
I threw very few per game in high school and only started to use it regularly when I went to college. At that point I changed my motion from throwing overhamd and 12-6 curves to 3/4 and changing the curve to be a slider/hard curve.
Once I was in college, that was it for position play for me - pitching only!
Or, like me, maybe their arm will hurt every time they play catch, or play golf. I will never be a ball coach, because I can't throw BP.
AG#1F, sorry to burst your bubble, but the research is very clear that breaking pitches involving supination are very damaging to young men's arms.
And as someone who has had the process happen to him, once the elbow starts to go, it's actually fairly exruciating.
You can throw a little dolly curve with just a wrist movement but (a) it's actually hard to throw properly and (b) it ain't any good.
Agreed with SoSHU on wishing parents knew more about the NCAA scholarship system. Not only have I seen parents pouring their energy (and all the kid's time and concentration) into a dream of a free ride that was never going to happen, I have even seen a kid turn down a good six-figure bonus offer to take a scholarship to a shitty state school - that he ended up leaving after two years anyway, because the kid was obviously not a scholar.
Didn't Juan Marichal know how to throw 3 or 4 different kind of breaking balls from 3 or 4 different arm slots by the time he was 12?
Announcer 2: Thanks [announcer 1], let's go over them. First off, he needs to establish his the inside corner. Secondly, he definitely needs to make sure his killer fastball is working so the batters have to expect it. Finally, his needs to sprinkle in some usage of his rapey change-up to keep them off balance.
Announcer 1: ...
Heisenberg was driving down the freeway when he got pulled over by a cop. The cop came to his window and said, "Do you know how fast you were going?"
"No," Heisenberg replied, "but I know exactly where I am."
Ok, love this. Do you mind if I use it to illicet blank stares of my own?
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