|
|
|
Volume
24, No. 2 September 4, 2001
|
Newsreel
They are the Woolsey Yankees, none older than 12, all objects of scorn or jealousy or admiration, depending on how you view the unrecognizably altered state of youth baseball. They belong to no league or no organization; their roster is ever-changing. Burnout is real, say critics of a system that gives birth to teams like the Woolsey Yankees. "This is crazy," observes Stephen Mosher, a professor of sport studies at Ithaca College who teaches a course on youth sports in American culture. "I don’t care how good a kid is. These kids are being treated as machines, commodities. Any physiologist, every M.D. would say this can be pretty risky behavior. Some kids will survive it; some won’t." --- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 15, 2001 At times, retirees complain that they have had to become the disciplinarians of their grandchildren, reports Ithaca College professor Joel S. Savishinsky in his book Breaking the Watch: The Meanings of Retirement in America. Savishinsky, who chronicled the retirements of 26 men and women, quotes one grandmother as saying: "The problem for us is that when our grandchildren come here, they’re so undisciplined and unscheduled --- the parents set few limits --- that we are the ones who create rules for them. What a reversal!" --- Washington Post, July 22, 2001
|
|
|
|
|
Andrejs Ozolins, Ithaca College Office of Publications. 10. Sept. 2001