Learning life's lessons the wrong way

The issue: Taking youth baseball game to court. Our opinion: Spring Hill National players lose twice.

Sometimes life isn't fair. The sooner in life we all learn that, the sooner we learn to deal with life's many disappointments.

It wasn't fair that the Spring Hill National Dixie League baseball team was wrongly removed from the district tournament after a disputed umpire's call was overturned by national Dixie League Commissioner Wes Skelton.

Skelton reinstated the South Lake team the National had defeated fair and square. A South Lake player hit a home run and failed to touch home plate until his teammates realized the error and pushed him back to the plate.

As the rule book states, the batter is out. The umpire made a tough, but correct, call and the National won the game.

Instead of learning from a tough mistake, the South Lake team disputed the call. It was upheld at the state level, so the team took its case to the national level.

Skelton's decision obviously was wrong, it violated the rules of baseball as well as Dixie League rules because the decision was made far too long after the game had ended - so long that the National team had already defeated another team in the tourney. The South Lake team took the National's place in the next game and lost.

They got their just deserts.

On the other hand, the National team got gypped, ripped off and cheated out of a chance to advance.

But that's no reason to drag the issue into court to convince a Hernando County judge to reinstate the team into the state tournament.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

It wouldn't have been fair to the other teams who made it to the state level. The National could have lost their next game had Skelton not unjustly removed them.

Fortunately, Judge Kurt Hitzemann made the correct decision Wednesday, wisely choosing to stay above the fray. Judge Hitzemann said he saw no legal reason to overturn the bylaws of a private corporation, specifically the rule that makes the Dixie Youth League commissioner the "ultimate arbiter in any dispute."

Even though Skelton was obviously dead wrong on several accounts.

Still, those associated with the National team should have asked themselves two important questions before seeking relief from the courts: Do we really want circuit court judges overturning youth baseball calls? And, is this the kind of example we want to set for our children?

No.

Because of a bad decision, no one will ever really know how far the National could have gone in this tournament. Reinstating the team would have done nothing to prove they belonged in the state tourney.

Sometimes life isn't fair. This is one of those cases. It should have stayed that way. The 11- and 12-year-olds would have learned a hard, but more important life lesson.

Instead, they learned that when life doesn't go your way, sue. It's a crutch youngsters don't need so early in life, especially when we're talking about a youth baseball game.

The final consequences in this case: The young Spring Hill National players lost twice.