Jay Mohr Tackles Stories Others Are Afraid To Touch

We know the weekly feature in which we rip various sportswriters is on hiatus, but we can't let the earth complete one more revolution on its axis without commenting on our friend Jay Mohr, online journalism's answer to Paris Hilton. Call it Why Your Internet Columnist Sucks, and bear with us, please, while we vent.

In his latest column over at SI.com, the poor man's Denis Leary takes a poke at Little League baseball, trotting out the weary, cliched premise that kids' leagues which don't keep score are somehow preparing our youth for pea coats and collective farming. Mohr complains that his Godson, who plays in a T-ball league for 6- and 7-year-olds, hit two home runs that were limited to doubles because of the league's no-homer rule. Also, the game was declared a tie even though his team won. Says Mohr:

I am so sick and tired of all the coddling that goes on in kids' sports these days. If your child feels bad when he gives up a home run, then help him get over it. Why not teach kids at a young, impressionable age that there are winners and losers? Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That's what the game — and life — is all about.

We agree with Mohr that life isn't fair sometimes — like that time we had to sit through Crash, for instance. But while Mohr the neo-journalist is at that impressionable young age, he needs to be made aware of two things: First, the "Kids these days are too soft and parents are too overprotective" angle ceased to be fresh many years ago ... in fact, French archeologists have found cave paintings dealing with the subject as far back as 18,000 B.C. Second, no Little League in our wide and wonderful land implements hitting restrictions such as these all the way through every age division. It's only in some T-ball leagues — for 6- and 7-year-olds — that home runs are not allowed, and if you ask the typical child of that age how he feels about it, he won't care; he'd rather be at home playing in mud anyway.

Mohr, by the way, is a devout Yankees fan who claims that his team's traditional success has nothing to do with payroll — making him one of the last members of baseball's version of the Flat Earth Society.

Eye-Opening Experience [SI.com]