Middletown mom spoke too soon and spoke in error

In the July 19 issue of the Independent, Mrs. Edith Foley criticized the coaches of the 10-year-old’s Hazlet Tournament Team for protesting the baseball game played between Hazlet and Middletown for the District Championship. Middletown was forced to forfeit the game because they had ineligible players on the field. What she failed to mention is that it is a Cal Ripken League rule that prohibits children that live outside of their team’s town to play in league games. Some local tournaments, including Hazlet’s tournament, do not have that rule, and the Middletown team participated in Hazlet’s tournament without the geographical boundary issue.

Mrs. Foley made mention of the fact that the parents of the boys are sponsors and volunteers for the team and that their league president allowed them to play and the district commissioner allowed them to play. The first two points are ridiculous since a parent cannot "buy" their child’s way onto a team, and the Middletown commissioner has no ruling in the case of other league’s rules.

As far as the district commissioner is concerned, all the teams that played in the tournament have cause to question his actions. Hazlet was not the only team to be affected by the Middletown roster, but we were the only team to have discovered the error by the Middletown coaches, and even that occurred because of an error by the Middletown coaches.

Mrs. Foley wrote her letter before the last game. She should have waited. Halfway through the second championship game, the Middletown coaches protested the game due to the fact that our pitcher was ineligible because he had pitched in the previous game five days earlier. Hazlet was then forced to forfeit this game. Of course, this seems like a unfair rule, but a Cal Ripken League rule nonetheless.

As the mother of the ineligible pitcher, I am sorry for the broken-hearted boys of the Middletown team, but while they were taking home the district title that night, Hazlet parents took home 12 broken hearted boys who just wanted to play baseball.

Leanne Evancho

Hazlet