"Coach jailed for beaning autistic player" AP

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In baseball, the expression "to bean someone" means to deliberately hit another player's head with the ball.

Getting hit in the head happens all the time, but the umpires have to make a judgement call as to whether the person throwing the "bean ball" did so intentionally or not.

In the major leagues a bean ball, deliberately aimed at a batter's head, is used ocassionally as a "dirty trick" by a pitcher to humble a good batter or theoretically try to shake him up so that he can't hit powerfully. The pitcher will usually get one warning and if he does it again, purposefully, he could be removed from play, or even evicted from the park by the umpire.

There is no place for a bean ball in little league play. It's just too dangerous.

Sorry to sound like an ignorant Brit but what's beaning?

Sigholdaccountlost, read the post above yours. Unless you were joking.

As to the topic, that is a really stupid way to get a kid off the team. I'm not sure if it deserves a jail sentence, though.

I do not agree with the assessment of a hate crime as a crime against a member of a minority. A hate crime is a crime against the minority itself-- if I get into a fist fight with a black man (I'm white) because he's a jerk, then that's not a hate crime. If I decide that a black man is being uppity and not minding his place, and choose to make an example out of him, then I'm committing a hate crime.

A hate crime is an act of terrorism, and should be punished accordingly.

All that being said, I don't think this was a hate crime. I think this was a small man with a small... bat... who felt that winning was the all-important thing. I do not think that the prison is too much, because as the coach, he was responsible for this kid's safety. In addition to the fact that he was deliberately depriving this kid of protection, there's the fact that he bribed another kid to do his dirty work.

Fortunately, the other kid had a shred of decency and realised what he was doing was wrong. Considering the circumstances, I don't think the other kid deserves more than a slap on the wrist. Fortunately, the coach was not able to corrupt him so much that he didn't know right from wrong.

For those who think Jail is excessive for ordering an assault on a kid-- autistic or not-- just bear in mind that if it were my kid, he'd be begging to go to jail, and for a lot longer than one to six years.

Good riddance, to bad rubbish!

I agree with Catalyst, on all points. Nobody assualts a family member of mine. When I have children, it'll be no different.