"It's a good sport. It got passed down from my dad, and I like hitting things," said Steven.

He was all ready for his second year of West Redmond Little League, when God got in the way.

Steven's father, Josh, was paging through the Little League Newsletter, when the Little League Pledge caught his eye. Specifically, the first line: "I trust in God..."

"They don't have to insert other aspects of religion into the simple joy of playing baseball," said Josh Benaloh.

Josh, an agnostic, felt so strongly, he pulled his son out of Little League.

"It's coercive. We just don't want to be a part of an organization that promotes religious discrimination," he said.

KOMO 4 News contacted Little League Spokesman Lance Van Auken at the Pennsylvania headquarters.

"The Little League pledge is what it is," he said. "We certainly have no plans to change it or remove the word 'God' from it. Little league is a private organization we're a non-profit entity."

Van Auken also says if a team does recite the pledge, the league has no problem if a child stands silently. There's no requirement to say it or believe it.

The Little League admits one or two parents each year complain, but they rarely have their children quit.

The pledge was written in the 1950's at the same time Congress added 'God' to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Besides, says the Little League, it's tradition.

"We'd like him to develop his own views," said Josh. Steven says, "I just want to play and have fun." He will play. His family found a different local baseball league, one that doesn't have a pledge.