[Hammock Parties]

Holy ****.

A thousand Bobby Knights coaching for a thousand years couldn’t pile up enough dark deeds to touch the devilry this T-ball coach—that’s right, T-ball—conjured one afternoon in Dunbar, Pennsylvania. On that 2005 day, 27-year-old Mark Downs Jr. offered one of his Falcons a cash bonus to injure a player on his own team. Downs instructed 8-year-old Keith Reese Jr. to use the pregame warm-up to bean 9-year-old Harry Bowers, who was autistic and visually impaired, so he couldn’t take the field in a crucial playoff game. Explains Keith: “Mark told me that if I hit Harry in the face with the ball, he’d pay me $25 and then Harry would be out of the game.” When his first attempt nailed his teammate in the groin, Downs told Keith to “try hitting him harder.” The next ball struck Harry’s ear, drawing blood and sending him to the hospital. Downs, father of four (including two girls who played for the Falcons), was charged with criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault. Harry’s mom says the incident left her son scared of sports. Final score: Evil 1, Humanity 0.