Chicago-based Jackie Robinson West Little League team was riding a crest of success this month, including a photo op with President Barack Obama, when it came crashing down in a very messy cheating scandal. The team was accused of effectively stacking the team with ringers from outside of their district — a serious infraction for such teams. The first all-African-American team to win the U.S. championship was stripped of its honor in favor of Mountain Ridge Little League from Las Vegas. In the meantime, there is a suggestion from at least one Chicago leader that the action against the team is racist.
After the championship, the league officials were told of the allegations for the first time despite the fact that the team managers were aware of the violations. Team manager, Darold Butler, has been suspended from Little League activity and Illinois District 4 Administrator Michael Kelly has been removed from his position. The League found that the team used a falsified boundary map and that there was a conscious effort to stack the team with top ineligible players. No Bill Belichick is not the part-time coach.
Jackie Robinson West lost to Seoul, South Korea after beating Las Vegas 7-5 in the U.S. title game.
National league officials were reportedly shocked when, in January, local officials admitted that they knew of the violations. The rules are quite clear. Indeed, in 1992, a title was stripped from a team from Zamboanga, Philippines Zamboanga used several players that lived outside its district or were over-age. Likewise, in 2001, a third-place team from the Bronx, N.Y., was stripped for using ineligible players though that was due to an age disqualification.
These types of violations always raise an interesting question of liability. The actions of these officials, rather than the players, are at issue. Their knowing violation of the rules not only led to the heartbreaking stripping of these kids of their title, but make the real winner in Las Vegas feel like they are merely default victors. It also negated past expensive trips and games where hundreds of players and parents worked for championship titles. The league itself has a defense in relying on the good-faith of local officials. However, the local officials cost the league and various families dearly in their effort to rig the competition. Those officials in some ways got off lightly in simple suspensions as opposed to facing the financial and emotional costs of the violations.
In the meantime, Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Push Coalition has denounced the action as unduly harsh. It is unclear how Jackson believes the team should be allowed to remain champions after winning with ineligible players. How is that far to the Las Vegas team and other teams?
Yet, Rev. Michael Pfleger takes it further in stating “I can’t help but question whether the same thing would have been done with another team from another place — another race.” The answer appears to be yes. The league has taken such action in the past with non-African American teams.
Source: ESPN
Nick
As far as the much I don’t understand about America, I would venture to guess that most Americans don’t really understand very much about America and those that have observed from a distance, come to live here, and have a broader experience from which to view, might just understand America very, very, very, well.
Nick
So you don’t like soccer. I like soccer. I like baseball-the A’s.
My point is the problems start when the focus moves from the kids to the adults running the stuff. I’ve seen it happen in both baseball/T ball, and soccer. White or black coaches. It’s got nothing to do with anything else.
My wife is Colombian and our kid is a pure Scottish, Ukrainian, Spanish, Canadian, American kid. He played soccer in California with Hispanic kids, on the East Coast with yuppie kids, and in Colombia with Colombian kids. Soccer is the greatest game in the world, regardless of what anybody says, the breadth of nations and number of fans proves that. Rugby is second. Hockey is third, Basketball is fourth. Baseball is fifth. American Football is fifty percent athleticism and fifty percent circus hype. Baseball is part picnic. Soccer, Rugby, Hockey, and Basketball are all sport.
Affirmative action means you don’t have to follow the rules. That is why they can’t understand why they were called out on this.
Follow the rules. Using a claim of racism is a mistake. Everyone must follow the rules. What kind of lesson is being taught to these young men if their team leaders cheat and then try to use race as a shield?
Isaac, I expected a baseball is bad, soccer is good, rant from someone. There is much you don’t understand about the US. Your comment here explains much. My son played both baseball and soccer. He is Colombian so soccer is in his blood. I love my son. I watched hundreds of soccer games. IT SUCKS!
I did not like coaching my children. I coached my son in baseball ~5 years. I coached my daughters softball team about the same. I coached her teams more as defense. Parents asked me to so as to prevent a horrible coach doing it. I dislike softball almost as much as soccer. The vast majority of teams I coached were not my kids teams. I never said boo to my kids coaches, knowing how intrusive parents can be and not wanting to be one of them. The great basketball coach, John Wooden, was asked once about coaching @ UCLA. He won national championships virtually every year. A reporter asked, “Since the championships do all the recruiting, isn’t UCLA the ideal school to coach?” Wooden smiled and said, “UCLA is a great school to coach. I am quite fortunate. But, the ideal job would be coaching @ an orphanage.”
For parents of kids, there are some HORRIBLE coaches out there in all sports. A coach MUST be positive. If there is something negative that must be dealt w/ it should be done succinctly. If it is a negative involving an individual player, that should be done off to the side, after the game, in private. If it is a negative involving the team, quickly, directly and then let it go. But, if a coach is not positive, don’t let him/her coach your child. I coached some great players. None were good enough to make a living @ the sport. It is the life lessons I learned and taught that were valuable.
Jim, As I said, it is a different world now. Good move w/ the house. I’ve been to Temecula, nice town. Turning into a wine area.
I put our five year old in T ball and started the wonderful journey of watching kids play sports. Right there from the beginning it started. The kids were fine. It was the coaches. Watching a bunch of five year olds in oversize helmets hitting balls and chasing balls was nothing by delightful. Until, Mr. Baseball a coach who supported the league with his overbearing personality and supposed experience playing and coaching brought his eleven players onto the field to play against our seven. With eight players in the infield, two on first base, our kids were out, one two three. His kids typically stopped at five runs per inning.
This guy, Mr. Baseball was black which made it next to impossible to approach. The white organizer was visibly, not interested, in straightening anything out.
I mentioned it to the organizer and was sent away with a “don’t worry, the kids are all having fun”. Neither us parents nor the kids had any fun that day.
So, our son started to play soccer and made it through eleven years into the Premier League, his team placing fourth then second in the state championships. The same thing, the coaches and the organizations invited other players, with dad’s that were shopping for better teams, to play in hopes of moving on. Our teams, that had played together all season, obviously some contributing more than others, saw the middle weight players sit out for ‘visiting’ players so the organization could hang more banners in the offices.
This guy, Mr. Soccer was white which made for some long and intense conversations with me, over beers at the local bar.
A team gets together and plays a season. The coach, regardless of winning should have as its primary goal to provide the best experience for the kids. Sitting out a game while players from other teams take their place is not that.
Adjusting borders to pull in ringers is obviously no good. The games, until the pros, are about the players, not the organizations.
Robert Rex EDWARDS , MLB has no rule about getting talent from other countries.
Nick, Now it’s not even good enough to just make the games for parents. Now you are expected to make every practice. When I played, just the fees and not being home to do what was expected of you was reward enough. We shared rides to games/practices and if that didn’t work you walked the 5 miles to get home. Now my parents would have been in jail for that.
I’m familiar with Chula Vista. I lived in CA for about 10 years in a town called Temecula. When my house doubled in value in just 4 years I got the hell out before the bubble burst. Smartest move I’ve ever made.
Does anyone remember the time that they used a older kid to do little league. The coach was threaten that he team would be in dismantlement if they lose another season. So. he got a boy who was 2 years older than the maximum but unknown to everyone. They even made a Walt Disney movie based on the real story. Now look at the fact that Baseball them import outsiders all the time and even pay them to be just like this them. So, if adult can cheat with an import then why can not little league too. Big league baseball even goes to other countries to recruit talent.
So, if the rules can not be obeyed by the adults, then why should the kids teams follow the rules. After all, the little leagues are following an example of what they there adult counterpart.
Now we just have to hear from Al Sharpton. He will be leading the parade to get their trophy back. Chicago, who would have thunk it?
Having been a competitive baseball player, and coached baseball for over 30 years, I have experience w/ matters such as this. When you coach a good “travelling” team, the team is always under scrutiny from other coaches and league officials. “Ringers” are all too common. With very few exceptions, the parents of the ringer, and the ringer himself, are quite aware of their ineligibility. And, as you might imagine, so are the teammates and their parents. Travelling teams can be like soap operas. With Little league kids, this stuff happens more often than w/ older kids. I coached Little League for many years, but also American Legion for several years. American Legion is high school boys. Their names, records, ages, schools, are much better known and documented so ringers are less of a problem.
As someone mentioned, Jesse Jackson weighing in means crying “wolf”..err, racism, was as predictable as the sunset. We watch the sunsets in San Diego and know exactly when to walk up to the beach. If this were a upscale, urban, team, other coaches and league officials would be scrutinizing them just as much. There is a blue collar, Mexican community just south of San Diego. Chula Vista won it all a couple years ago. I am certain their roster was closely scrutinized. The geographical boundaries are well known for people involved in competitive league baseball. Hell, when you look @ a league website they have the boundaries. The Jackie Robinson Little League was a great story. I cheered for them. I am Italian ands not ashamed to admit I cried watching them lose.
Youth sports has changed dramatically in my lifetime. I was a star player. My parents would never even thought of contacting a coach about where I played, how much I played, etc. My mother grew up in a tough, large family. She hardly ever attended my games[baseball or football], thinking it to be hovering. My old man worked different shifts in the factory and tried his hardest to be @ my games. But, sometimes he couldn’t. Parents were supportive. They also knew their place. It is now entirely convoluted. Parents see athletics as a way to get a free education via scholarship. I coached Division 1, 2 and 3 players. They are rare. It’s no longer “youth” sports. It’s now PARENT/youth sports. And, the “adults” are always the ones responsible for violations like this.
I find it hard to believe that only the local officials knew about this. I’m not willing to give the parents and kids a pass on this. Don’t they know where they live? The good news is they got caught.
Nothing new here & not racist. They must have been taking notes from the Chinese, Japanese & Philippines teams.
The money angle:
Cheating and Little League isn’t an original concept. As the game has grown and the World Series has lost much of its innocence amid all the sponsorship banners flapping in
a brisk wind and the $80 million in assets and almost $25 million in revenue and a TV rights fee contract worth $76 million, some just can’t help themselves when chasing the
spotlight atop such a mountain’s worth of capitalism.
So, Chicago produces yet another group who refuse to follow the rules. I’m stunned..
Of course it is racist and you are racist for writting about it and I am for reading.
The mistake here was in not having proper Affirmative Action rules in place for African-American teams. I’m sure the local league officials just assumed what they were doing was OK because why should they be expected to compete under the same rules as everyone else?
Why do kids always have to suffer the consequences of cheating adminstrators, coaches etc.? Syracuse University Basketball Team will not be playing any post season games because of something that was done before they even arrived at the university, Chicago Little League players are stripped of their title because of cheating adults whom they trusted etc. Perhaps SERIOUS fines for those who commit the “crime” should be in order. This has happened so many times and it isn’t fair to the players or their families.
It always irritates me when I see the wrong people suffer for the activities of others.
I stopped reading as soon as I read Jesse Jackson was involved. He never lets facts get in the way of screaming “racism!”
It was the right decision, but it’s a shame these kids have to bear the brunt of the foolishness and greed of a few adults.
Of course it’s racist. You surely can’t believe that anything as noble as little league baseball could be tarnished by cheating. My goodness how would a scandal like this look to the choir boys up in the bigs?