Seemingly an inspirational movie in the making, Anthony Burruto is a student at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida. He has been playing baseball since he was 8 years old, despite the inconvenience of having both of his legs amputated when he was an infant. He plays the game on prosthetic legs that are all he has ever known, and does it well as a pitcher who can throw a mean curve and a fastball that has been clocked at 80 mph. This is Anthony’s sophomore year, and his goal was to play on Dr. Phillips High varsity baseball team this spring.
After two days of try-outs, Coach Mike Bradley cut him. Anthony’s metal legs, adept as he was at using them, made him too slow off the pitching mound when he had to field a bunt, said the coach, and teams would take advantage of his inability to jump off the mound quickly.
Sorry, kid.
Now Orlando columnist George Diaz, a host of bloggers and others are condemning Bradley, accusing him of being heartless, unfair and biased, and in so doing raising significant ethical questions. Let’s examine them.
1. The critics begin with the claim that Bradley is wrong on the merits: Anthony obviously would be an asset to the team. Diaz writes, “In cutting Anthony, Bradley whiffed on the big picture: Despite whatever limitations you want to place on him, Anthony is the consummate teammate. If somebody is slacking off, all Bradley needed to do was point at Anthony and say, “What’s your problem?” The argument is that a legless pitcher would be inspirational to his team mates, and that this alone, regardless of how well he can play by high school baseball standards, would make him as asset. Well, that’s a nice idea, and it might even be true, but this is Coach Bradley’s team, his decision, and his responsibility to decide what the proper criteria should be for making the squad. “The big picture” might contain great public relations opportunities for the school (Anthony has been on the cover ESPN the Magazine) and his serving as a role-model for other players, but these possibilities are both contingent on how well he can play. None of us saw the try-outs; none of us are paid to do what is best for the Dr. Phillips High baseball program as we see it. We have no legitimate basis to call the coach’s call incompetent on the basis of factors having nothing to do with baseball skill. Diaz “proves” Anthony was worthy of inclusion because he has been successful in the Little League and other levels of baseball as he progressed to this point. Over twenty students were also cut from the squad, and every one of them could make the same argument.
2. “He’s not looking at him like he’s an athlete,” Anthony’s mother has said, echoing others. “He was looking at him like he’s a disabled person.” In other words, the coach is biased. There is only one way this criticism could be true: if a player with exactly the same skills as Anthony who had both legs was accepted to the team while Anthony was cut. There is no evidence of that, or allegations to that effect. A pitcher has to be able to field his position. If it is true, and the person who is charged with the decision has determined that it is true in his judgment, that Anthony—not any pitcher with prosthetic legs, but this pitcher with prosthetic legs—is unacceptably slow fielding bunts, then cutting him is completely fair.
It is also ironic and contradictory for Diaz to make this argument, since his claim that Anthony would be an inspiration is specifically based on the existence of Anthony’s disability. Diaz isn’t arguing that every student who can’t field bunts should make the team, only that pitchers with prosthetic legs should. The fact is the Anthony’s mother, whose particular bias is completely benign, is 180 degrees wrong: the critics of the coach are angry that he didn’t look at Anthony differently because of his disability.
3. Is winning the only objective of high school sports or should other factors—teaching team work, sportsmanship, values like dedication, diligence and commitment—be part of the goal as well? The obvious answer is that both are important, and that one needn’t be sacrificed to the other. A well-coached winning team will also embody all those values and more. A team that embraces those values and still plays badly has an obvious contradiction to rationalize away, so winning teams are more effective at conveying the value of hard work and dedication than teams where it all comes to naught. Again, finding that balance is Coach Bradley’s job, and we have no legitimate reason to say he isn’t doing it properly. A player who makes the squad for “inspirational” rather than talent reasons could be resented by a team that feels a more skilled player might have led it to more wins.
4. There is no question about it: pitchers have to field their position, and a pitcher with a weakness fielding bunts is a potential liability, because the other teams can exploit his weakness by bunting repeatedly. But, asks Diaz, what team is so heartless and tasteless to do this to a courageous player with two artificial legs? “Would a coach be so obsessed with winning that he would order every player to bunt?” he asks.
So now we’re saying that the other team should treat Anthony differently because of his legs.
Well, which is it? Does the young pitcher want to be treated like any other baseball player, or does he want special privileges, like a tacit agreement among coaches that they won’t take advantage of his weaknesses? What is really being argued for here, between the lines, is a kind of cheating. Yes, the other teams could and maybe even should bunt on Anthony, but it would look awful to the fans, and no coach or high school is going to want to be portrayed by the local media as going out of the way to make a courageous young man fail because he had the misfortune to be born without bones in his legs. This is one more argument that relies on Anthony’s disability earning him special privileges that a more typical pitcher who is slow off the mound would never receive. Coaches should tell their players to bunt against a player like Anthony. Diaz is arguing for creating circumstances that will make them feel guilty for doing their jobs.
5. Wasn’t cutting Anthony just two days into the week long try-out process unfair? The coach could have worked with him on his fielding; maybe it should have been a season-long project. Jim Abbott, the former major league left-handed pitcher who had a successful career despite having no hand on his right arm, was amazingly adept at fielding, but only after constant practice at the high school and college level. But Abbott was not just a good pitcher in high school, he was an overpowering one who was almost impossible to hit at all, much less bunt against. (Abbott has to be seen to be believed: there is a video here.) Presumably if Anthony’s pitching was good enough to outweigh his fielding deficiencies, he would have had a whole season to improve the latter.
The ethics verdict on the coach’s decision is that it is unfair to criticize Coach Bradley. His job is to coach a successful baseball team and to place the best available players on the squad. No matter how inspirational, hard-working and courageous Anthony Burruto undeniably is, Bradley does not have an obligation, ethical or otherwise, to help him achieve his dream if he cannot also play as well an any other qualified player. Diaz quotes Dennis Rasmussen, who pitched in the majors 12 seasons and a friend of the Burruto family, as saying, “This decision was wrong. You took away the hopes and dreams that Anthony’s been hanging onto. He crushed a young man with no apparent reason.”
Sure there was a reason. The coach determined he couldn’t field his position well enough to pitch. If Anthony really wants to make his high school team based on his talent rather than his prosthetic legs, that is reason enough.
Ethics Alarms 
The coach should consider having this student “try-out” and if he can “cut-it”, let him play.
But he did let him try out. Do you mean let him play on the team, and then cut him if it doesn’t work out? That’s why they have pre-season try-outs. What am I missing?
Well said. The decision to cut Anthony may be a pivotal one in his life, and the best gift the coach could have given him: to treat him like one of the guys. If he wants this bad enough, he can work for it like anyone else. Being judged on performance is the perfect lesson.
Terrific point. Let’s hope those around Anthony don’t convince him that he’s a victim.
I wouldent call him a victim, just more prone to adversity, and sensitive to exposure. And how he would handle that adversity, would be a useful role model for others to take note.
Anthony seems to be a truly remarkable young man. It would be unfair to the rest of his team to afford him a spot on the roster that could be filled by a more skilled player. As coaches and players move up the food train, the decisions become more difficult. The coach has been charged to do what he feels is in the best interest of the team. In his opinion, he has fulfilled that responsibility, difficult as it may have been.Hopefully Anthony’s school has a JV program that will allow him to hone his skills and compete for a position next year, I wouldn’t count him out.
good point. What does it mean to be a ‘skilled’ player? At this level I believe that most players will not make it to a professional level. These values which the coaches should be teaching them, are lessons which can be applied beyond baseball, and thru all aspects of life.
I know a great kid, great baseball player who had great recommendations from his baseball coaches, but when he tried out for a college team his freshman year, he sprained his ankle the second day of tryouts. He got cut, but played all year for the club team, which had it’s best season ever and went on to playoffs as a number 1 seed. This year, another player got injured and the coach put him on the team as a walk-on. Timing had something to do with both decisions, and if the coach in this case had better players at this point, he had an obligation to choose them. I agree with Joe and you — let’s hope Anthony, who has no doubt faced many challenges in his life, faces this as another challenge and not as a victim.
The coach judged Anthony as a ballplayer. That’s what he’s supposed to do. Anthony and the team are better served if he’s judged on his abilities; otherwise any accomplishment he ever makes will be discounted.
This is absolutely crazy. Here is a kid who grows up with a disability, has done everything to overcome his disability, whose parents have supported him and given him the tools he needs to succeed in life. Read the story people! He has been playing the game all of his life. He was on the cover of ESPN The Magazine two years ago because is he a good player. There are approximately 3500 students enrolled at DP during any given year, and the teachers and staff are great. Only problem over the past few years has been with the sports, partially due to an out of control athletic director and a weak Principal who goes along with the AD’s mindset that when it comes to athletics, nothing else matters except their perception of winning. When I say their perception, I mean the coaches do not always pick the best athletes or players. They also don’t follow Orange County Public School rules. It’s the country club mentality. They do what they want, they bring in what ever players they want, and, because no one from the county ever investigates, many student athletes have been hurt along the way. If you want to know how they treat athletes at this school, just look up what happened to another DP athlete this fall, Darrion Denson. This is a freshman football player at the very same school that was beat up by his own teammates for walking into the Varsity Locker room. (It is well known there is a long standing, unwritten rule at Dr. Phillips that only Varsity players are allowed in the Varsity Locker room – anyone else who enters get hazed – go figure, how does this happen at a PUBLIC school?) Did the Coach, AD or Principal do anything? NO. Were the players who beat the boy punished? Only one was suspended for several days. Read the stories and you will see. Many people in the Dr. Phillips High School community know how it works. If you are on the in crowd, you get everything and are treated well. You could even get caught smoking pot in a car on campus during the middle of the day by the Principal, and if you are a star football player, nothing will happen to you. But all bets are off if you look different, act different, are poor or have outspoken parents – you can forget your athletic career at DP. So all you people out there, take it from someone who knows. Look up the story on Google about another high school in Orange County, just 15 miles away, Winter Park High School and Nate Winters. Nate lost one of his legs in a boating injury in August of 2008. Once he healed and got used to his prosthetic leg, Winter Park’s head baseball coach, Bob King let him play a few games with the Junior Varsity to get back in the swing of things, then let him pitch for the Varsity. This Coach is a great man, this team has the right mindset and they all did the right thing. Why can’t Dr. Phillips see fit to do the right thing as well?
Thanks for the background. Hmmm….
One point: ESPN didn’t put the player on its cover because he was a good player—there are lots of those. He was on the cover because he plays baseball with metal legs.
Exactly. He shows others that he is able to overcome challenges which face him, not only in baseball, but in life. I believe that is the message which ESPN was sending that you must have missed.
High school athletic activities should be amateur events based on sportsmanship and the all-around development of high school students. Leave the rampant vying for selection and moneyed professional careers to college and university students. In other words, let high school youngsters be kids and not be driven by the belief that “only winning counts for anything.” Shame on coaches and the principal at Dr. Philips High School, as well as the community of Orlando, Florida if they allow this happen to Anthony.
I want to play quarterback for the UCLA Bruins. The fact that I’m 78 yrs old and live in a wheelchair should have nothing to do with it. Unfair, illegal discrimination against the disabled!
Shame on coaches and the principal at Dr. Philips High School, as well as the community of Orlando, Florida if they allow this happen to James. Wait, who’s James? The kid that was cut so Anthony could be on the team.
For sports that have unlimited rosters, letting everyone on works. My track team never cut anybody. If the guy that ran 100 meters in 15 seconds came to practice, he ran in meets. The logistics allowed this.
The baseball team has a limit on players. The players also affect each other. If you can only have 25 kids, who should they have cut instead of Anthony? Why is James not as worthy of sportsmanship and all around development?
Nobody cares about James—he’s not tear-jerker movie material.
But he’s got glasses and a ponytail! Paint on his overalls! He could never be popular.
Our class thinks Anthony should be given another chance to make the team this year, or at least the coaches should have allowed him to try-out all week long. We’d like to tell Anthony to keep working out and never give up your dreams.
Kindly, MM, CC, LR, SC, MW, MW
Unfair! There is and should always be more to sports in high school than just gymnastic superiority. Anthony Burruto would have added much to team in his own way. If the only purpose of school sports is to win,win,win……then God Help Us!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shame on the school administration to condone this type of shortsitedness in their athletic department. You are just plain wrong…..and in this process have caused undeserved suffering to many. rgc
We covered that territory last month. What does this kid add that another kid doesn’t?