What little Johnny's happiness is worth

Caught this story in the Rapid City Journal about some guy that is accused of scamming money out of a business owner and parents for a baseball clinic and travelling team.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_0b681aa6-9082-11df-af76-001cc4c002e0.html

http://insidedakotasports.com/traveling-team-organizer-alleged-to-have-scammed-33000-from-local-parents-and-coaches

The parents paid more than $5,000 for their 9-year-old to be on this team. I'm sure when the kid turns 24, we'll be seeing a story in the New York Times on how he couldn't catch a break because all of the jobs her turned down all paid less than $50,000.

Another story I saw makes the dad, a military policeman, look like even more than an idiot. He paid the "organizer" of the travel team in cash because the organizer didn't want to get the IRS involved.

http://insidedakotasports.com/update-ellsworth-airman%E2%80%99s-family-stung-by-anderson-at-the-sum-of-6300

 

First of all, unless this kid is Cy Young or Babe Ruth reincarnated, $5,000 for a baseball clinic is absolutely moronic.

But, the parents' lunacy shouldn't excuse this guy from what he did. In a slightly different situation, we had the Little League president in our town scam thousands away from the league. He used the money on Las Vegas trips and other things. Fraud is fraud, no matter the intelligence of the participants.

 

That is not an unusual amount at all to spend on a young baseball player these days. It's insane, but not unusual.

 

“It sounded legit,” said Packwood.

'nuff said.

We have a nation of complete morons.

 

Pops shelled out $6,300 for his nine year old to travel to florida... yet the team had never even had a practice.

Sorry, but if you are that stupid, you almost deserve to be separated from your money.

 

This guy must have taken a page out of a guy up here who did the exact same thing with youth hockey players.

Had kids come in from literally all over the world to play in "elite level tournaments" and basically did five days of practices in a rink outside Toronto and then ran off with their money--several hundred thousand if I remember correctly

 

He also told them that he had a tournament set up in France so these kids - who weren't even good enough to play in the watered-down Tier II leagues in Toronto - could get scouted by NHL teams. Some parents are stupid enough to believe anything when it comes to their kid's sports' "future".

 

At least Toronto is a hockey hotbed.

This guy is extracting 6 grand from baseball parents in South Dakota, for pete's sake.

 

What's sad is that the parents of the 9-year-old apparently think it's important to get scouted at that age.

 

I remember when I was "selected" for the Who's Who of American High School students. All I (I mean my parents) needed to do was send $40 to be included in the publication.
Even I wasn't that gullible.

 

I remember receiving letters to have my name in a book at the Baseball HOF and another to join an exclusive club of high school scholars. Obviously, the letters quickly found their way to the recycling bin.

 

Forgot about the tournament in France thing. They finally caught the guy if I'm not mistaken. I remember reading about it in the Star and thought, "How could those parents be so damn stupid?"