Hello there, and welcome to the "Holy Crap I Hope This Isn't True" Department post of the day. You see, Shawn Rider, a pitcher for the Bevill State Community College in Sumilton, Alabama, has accused his coach of forcing him to kneel and take 80 and 90 mph fastballs to the chest as punishment for providing a false excuse for his absence at practice.[Frank] Hambrecht [Rider's grandfather] said Rider, a right-handed pitcher, missed a Bevill practice and initially gave coach Ed Langham a false excuse. "Like any other 19-year-old, he told the coach he was someplace he wasn't to avoid practice," Hambrecht said.Now, in fairness to Langham, the school claims that for 10 years he's run a really clean cut program (although they said the same thing about Bud Kilmer, I suppose). Also, the prosecutors for the city of Sumiton have already decided that, assuming the allegations are true, any potential crime isn't going to qualify as a "felony level assault". So, he's got that going for him.
[...] When Rider later told the coach the truth, the freshman was told to put on a catcher's mask and chest protector and kneel about 45 feet from a pitching machine without a glove, Hambrecht and Debbie Rider claim. The distance from a mound to home plate is 60 feet, 6 inches.
With the player holding his hands behind his back, Langham dispatched "80-, 90-mile-per-hour fastballs" from the machine, Hambrecht claims.
The downside is that there have been, supposedly, 10 other players from the team that signed a document supporting Rider's claim. And, also, Rider is purportedly covered in bruises from getting pelted with baseballs.
Because of the obvious alleged nature of this whole situation, I don't really want to start lashing out at either side here, but I also think that a) if what Rider says is true, then Langham is a sicko and needs to go to jail and b) if it's not, then Rider is a pathological liar who, well, I have no real reason to understand why he would cover himself in bruises and lie about being (what amounts to) tortured.
H/T: Game On
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-10-2008 @ 1:47PM
mc said...
No Happy Gilmore reference?
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11-10-2008 @ 5:46PM
Wade said...
If a coach is going to be that crazy, why would he even mess with having the kid put on a chest protector?
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11-10-2008 @ 10:49PM
Tim said...
So he didn't have a dead body to worry about, I would think.
11-10-2008 @ 11:14PM
JagerQ said...
I drive past there every now and then, will have to ask the locals about it. Aside from the punishment aspect, how different is this from what a pitcher normally risks from a shot coming back at 'em? I guess now he has a face and chest protector on?
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11-15-2008 @ 8:02AM
Kman said...
Dear JagerQ,
Well, the difference(S) would be...
The batter has not intent to drive a baseball into the chest of the pitcher.
The pitcher is further away.
The pitcher does not have his hands forced behind his back.
The pitcher has a glove when he is on the mound.
The pitcher can move when he is pitching and would either try to catch the hit ball or get out of it's way.
The pitched ball is pitched in a game for a reason... it IS part of the game instead of being pitched by a machine for the purpose of the coach (I aplogize to all legitimate coaches for putting you in the same group with this guy) creating his own little game.
Odd that this coach let him put on a catchers vest and a mask BUT didn't let him attempt to catch the ball...
Last one I can think of right now is that the batter of the ball is not inherently displaying his absolute ability to be an A**hole by hitting the ball, unlike the coach.
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11-15-2008 @ 8:12AM
kevin said...
As a guy that had played college and semi-pro for a combined close to 15 years I have to shake my head at this choice by the coach. I have coached age groups from 8 to 16 over the past 15 yrs and don't see the logic in this situation.
There are many ways to address this without a chance of injury or bruises. Suspend the kid. BUT he has to come to practice Make him run his tail off. Have him do extra work plus be the gopher for anything and everything. Basically make the kid do all the dirty work. Even pick up the dirty towels in the locker room. Make sure the entire team knows the deal. I am old school compared to coaches today but having a kid get pelted by a pitching machine doesn't do anybody any good. My guess is the coach probably lost his team with this ploy plus the kid that went thru this might end up gun shy to balls hit up the middle.
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11-15-2008 @ 8:17AM
GACracker said...
The pitcher, Shawn Rider, has mental problems here..... why would he ever refer to this person as a "Coach". Shawn needs some role model identification help.
Lanhham no longer has a team. He needs to play solataire.
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