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Jul. 16th, 2005 08:43 amNew York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Coach charged in paid beaning of boy
By JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, July 16th, 2005
How's this for wanting to win at all costs?
A Pennsylvania youth baseball coach was busted yesterday for allegedly paying off a player to bean an 8-year-old autistic teammate in the head, police said.
Mark Downs was accused of slipping $25 to one of his players for clocking a teammate with a baseball, knocking him out of a youth league game in North Union Township, Pa.
"The league rules are that each kid has to participate for at least three innings," said Pennsylvania State Trooper Brian Burden. "Obviously, he didn't want this kid to play."
The alleged attack took place before a June 27 game between teams of 8-year-olds. Downs, the head coach of the Falcons, allegedly offered the payoff because he didn't want an underwhelming performance by the autistic boy.
Downs was hit with several charges, including solicitation to commit simple assault and corruption of minors.
But league President Eric Forsythe defended Downs as a good coach, and said the autistic boy wasn't badly hurt, even though he was sidelined after being struck in the ear.
"There wasn't a bruise, there wasn't a bump," Forsythe told the Daily News. "There wasn't nothing."
After the game, Forsythe said, all the players - including the injured boy - went for ice cream.
Forsythe said he was stunned when the mother of the boy who hurled the baseball told him her son had accepted a bonus for throwing at a teammate.
"I said to her, 'You gotta be kidding,'" Forsythe said. "It sounds ludicrous, but you never know."
Forsythe said Downs denied putting a bounty on his own player. He said he had not received any complaints about Downs, but added: "If it happened, something needs to be done to this man."
Coach charged in paid beaning of boy
By JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, July 16th, 2005
How's this for wanting to win at all costs?
A Pennsylvania youth baseball coach was busted yesterday for allegedly paying off a player to bean an 8-year-old autistic teammate in the head, police said.
Mark Downs was accused of slipping $25 to one of his players for clocking a teammate with a baseball, knocking him out of a youth league game in North Union Township, Pa.
"The league rules are that each kid has to participate for at least three innings," said Pennsylvania State Trooper Brian Burden. "Obviously, he didn't want this kid to play."
The alleged attack took place before a June 27 game between teams of 8-year-olds. Downs, the head coach of the Falcons, allegedly offered the payoff because he didn't want an underwhelming performance by the autistic boy.
Downs was hit with several charges, including solicitation to commit simple assault and corruption of minors.
But league President Eric Forsythe defended Downs as a good coach, and said the autistic boy wasn't badly hurt, even though he was sidelined after being struck in the ear.
"There wasn't a bruise, there wasn't a bump," Forsythe told the Daily News. "There wasn't nothing."
After the game, Forsythe said, all the players - including the injured boy - went for ice cream.
Forsythe said he was stunned when the mother of the boy who hurled the baseball told him her son had accepted a bonus for throwing at a teammate.
"I said to her, 'You gotta be kidding,'" Forsythe said. "It sounds ludicrous, but you never know."
Forsythe said Downs denied putting a bounty on his own player. He said he had not received any complaints about Downs, but added: "If it happened, something needs to be done to this man."
