Youth sports are filled with many lessons for kids and parents alike, and what happened between these Little Leaguers in a recent game has taught us all one of the most important lessons in sportsmanship.
The moment, caught on video, has gone massively viral and it’s easy to see why. In it, a 12-year-old Little Leaguer is hit in the head by a fastball, but recovers quickly, thankfully. He then sees that the pitcher who accidentally hit him is understandably upset and shocked by the ordeal. What started out as a very scary moment ended up being an incredibly sweet display of empathy.
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Kaiden Shelton, a Texas East pitcher, threw the fastball for slugger Isaiah Jarvis of Tulsa, Okla., when he lost control of his pitch and sent the ball straight into Isaiah’s helmet. The big moment occurred at the Southwest Region Little League championship game at Marvin Norcross Stadium in Waco, Texas, earlier this week.
“I wanted to make sure he was okay,” Isaiah told NBC News. “And I wanted to make sure he knew I was okay.”
In the video, Isaiah can be seen falling to the ground, clutching his head as the game stops and everyone runs to see if he’s okay.
“I was in shock because I’ve never been hit with a ball that hard,” says Isaiah.
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You can see the moment when Isaiah realized that Kaiden was upset. He pauses, he takes it in, and then runs to the pitcher’s mound to assure Kaiden that he’s okay.
“I think it was the most remarkable thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Isaiah’s trainer, Sean Kouplen, told Mademoiselleosaki. “Hiting someone over the head is not an easy thing to get over, mentally and emotionally. If you hit a guy, you’re probably going to be pretty down with yourself and emotionally after that, and you have to think, ‘Is that him, okay? Did I just give him a concussion? So I made sure he was okay and I told him I was okay and I just told him I was okay.”
Kouplen is correct. Concussions are something most people associate with football in sports, not baseball. But head injuries account for 17% of all injuries in professional baseball and often require surgical treatment.
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No wonder Kaiden felt a surge of excitement and anxiety after accidentally hitting his opponent.
“Hey, you’re doing great. Let’s go,” Isaiah tells Kaiden in the viral video as he gently hugs him to show him that it’s not only okay, but it’s okay to feel your feelings about it. This is what healthy masculinity and good sportsmanship look like. What an amazing example to show the world about kids and sports.
“We feel bad for each other. I felt bad for hurting him and he felt bad for when he was crying and he came over and hugged me and made me feel better,” Kaiden told NBC News.
Isaiah’s team, the Texas East, won the game, but this viral Little League moment is the most apt display of how it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. Many people on the Internet agree.
That is absolutely beautiful on both sides. The genuine care and concern for the opposition player shows two young men who have been raised to be civilized human beings as well as good sportsmen. I am literally teary eyed and drowned out by this display of humanism. Thanks.
— Jeanne Johnston (@JeanneJ25802024) August 9, 2022
Quality kid right there. Good breeding and training
— Gabriel Wood (@gchwood) August 9, 2022
It was amazing to see these two kids come together like that and for the people who say they would have done worse, it’s probably because you weren’t good enough to play baseball. this team 🙏🏻⚾️
— DELRAY #7 (@Darrell77628098) August 9, 2022
“Being a good person is more important than being a great player,” Isaiah’s father told Mademoiselleosaki, “and seeing him exemplify that today on the field and on television, which I didn’t even know was on television at the time. moment. moment, seeing him do that makes me very proud.”
Source: www.mother.ly