Yes, there are tears in baseball, and there are tears in life. So what’s the problem with showing the emotional reaction of 12-year-old Josh Lester, second baseman for the Columbus, Ga., Little League team that won the world championship this week?
Maybe it was the size of the picture, which took up nearly a third of last Saturday’s front page, that prompted dozens of readers to react so angrily. Or perhaps it was the use of Tom Hanks’ line from the movie “A League of Their Own,” displayed directly above Josh’s picture: “There’s no crying in baseball.”
Jonesboro reader Carolyn Worthy’s reaction was typical of what we heard. Her concern was for Josh’s well-being and the certainty that he would be ridiculed by other children, maybe even scarred for life as a result of the AJC’s decision to picture him crying when his team lost an earlier game in the series.
Society doesn’t allow men and boys to show emotion, said Worthy. “I don’t see anything wrong with crying,” she said. “We should be able to show our emotions and not be laughed at.”
For the Saturday story, AJC sportswriter Michelle Hiskey wanted to find out how tears are viewed in kids’ sports, knowing that most youngsters who compete become emotional at some point.
“I pursued this story because tears are universal,” she said. “They represent strong emotion and evoke the same. Even people who don’t know anything about Little League baseball know that kids cry. I was curious is it OK for them to cry? Does that depend if it’s after a win or a loss? What messages do they get from coaches, parents and peers? What message would a sports psychologist say they should get? How much of this is part of the stage of life they are in?”
As Hiskey asked these questions, she found widespread disagreement among parents, players and coaches about the shedding of tears, which made for a great story about the pressure we put on children to excel at sports and to behave a certain way.
Hiskey’s story included comments from Josh’s dad, who said he saw nothing wrong with players crying. “He’s like me, sensitive, wears his emotions on his sleeve,” Jimmy Lester told Hiskey.
When I reached Lester after the photograph ran, he said Josh and his teammates were too busy celebrating to worry about a picture.
“I asked him about it and he was fine with it,” said Lester, a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Lester said he would be more concerned if his son were throwing bats or helmets after a loss.
“If he was a weak person, he would have folded under all this pressure of the series,” said Lester. “If crying is the worst thing he ever does in the game, I’ll tip my hat to him.”
When Josh’s team went on to defeat Japan Monday for the world title, the boy was crying so hard he couldn’t be interviewed by a television announcer. But so were some of his teammates and the heartbroken players on the Japanese team.
“A certain amount of this is about projection,” said Mike Lupo, the AJC deputy managing editor who plans the front page. “It’s about a very deeply held worry about what masculinity is today. There’s a lot of concern about whether men are manly anymore. We have a whole lot of anguish about it. The story was about that, and how you react to the image has a lot to do with how you come to this whole thing.”
Had a similar picture of a young female athlete appeared on the front page, it’s doubtful readers would have complained.
Yet the question remains for some readers: What were editors thinking showing Josh in tears?
After listening to readers who questioned the photograph, Hiskey understands, as I do, why people were angry. It was never her intent, nor the intent of the designer (who selects the photographs), to humiliate or exploit a child.
“I could see why the photograph was chosen,” said Hiskey. “I wrote about him being an emotional kid and the photo showed how much that is true. But Josh is not Jeff Francoeur. Children are fragile. Tears make them even more so.”
Josh’s picture was chosen because of the local connection and the fact that his father was interviewed for the story. But it was displayed it in a way that made the point of the story, and the picture, unclear.
The photograph that best illustrated the story ran inside, of a team manager from Lemont, Ill., kissing his son’s forehead as the boy cried over a loss. It was a tender moment that captured the passion and dedication of those who take part in youth leagues.
