The question of whether a 9-year-old can be barred from pitching in the Youth Baseball League of New Haven (Conn.) because he's too fast is headed to court.

Attorney John Williams tells the New Haven Register he plans to take legal action this week if the league doesn't back down.

The backstory:

Jericho Scott has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. That's too fast, the league said. Put him at any other position.

Coach Wilfred Vidro put Scott on the mound anyway last week, the opposing team walked off the field and forfeited the game, and the fun started, The Associated Press reports.

The league, for boys and girls ages 8-10, said Vidro's team would be disbanded and the players dispersed. Scott's mom called a lawyer.

“He's never hurt anyone,” Vidro said. “He's on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?”

Scott's parents and Vidro say the boy is being targeted because he turned down an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of one of the league's administrators.

Scott's team was 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when he was banned from pitching.

“I think it's discouraging when you're telling a 9-year-old you're too good at something,” said his mother, Nicole Scott. “The whole objective in life is to find something you're good at and stick with it.”

League attorney Peter Noble said the only factor in banning Scott from the mound is that his pitches are too fast.

“He is a very skilled player, a very hard thrower. . . . Facing that kind of speed” is frightening for beginning players, Noble said.

Said Leroy Scott of his son: “He's trying to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

TRIVIA TIME

Thirty years ago today, this member of the Reds became the first major leaguer with 200 career homers and 500 career stolen bases. Name him.

PROMOTION OF THE WEEK

Tomorrow, the Jamestown (N.Y.) Jammers will hold Salute to Imperfection Night, not-so-coincidentally on the same night the Patriots will play the Giants in a practice game.

Besides the 2007 Pats, the Jammers will pay homage to the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs (who went 0-14) and to former Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood, whose imperfect kick in Super Bowl XXV inspired tomorrow's “Wide Right” field goal-kicking contest for fans, milb.com reports.

GIANTS HAVE A DAY JOB OPEN

A New Jersey appellate court yesterday reversed a lower court's ruling that retired New York Giant Michael Strahan must pay about $18,000 per month in child support for his 3-year-old twin daughters, saying there was inadequate legal scrutiny of his ex-wife's claims of the girls' needs.

One of the expenses the court cited was a 10-day vacation to Jamaica for the girls' nanny and her family, listed as a gift from the children. Another was the annual clothing allowance of $27,000 Strahan's ex-wife said she needed for the twins because she dressed them in a new outfit each time they saw their father.

TRIVIA ANSWER

Joe Morgan.

– COMPILED BY BILL SUDA FROM NEWS SERVICES, ONLINE REPORTS