As you may be aware, Chicago\’s Jackie Robinson West (JRW) little league team, which apparently won the U. S. Little League title, has been stripped of that honor.
That is the sad part – as explained in this excerpt from Lexy Gross and Michelle Manchir\’s article for the Chicago Tribune:
TheLittle League organization said that “after an extensivereview,” it determined that the team “knowingly violatedLittle League International rules and regulations by placing playerson their team who did not qualify to play because they lived outsidethe team\’s boundaries.
“LittleLeague International found that Jackie Robinson West Little Leagueused a falsified boundary map for their 2014 tournament,” itadded.
Inaddition to voiding all of the team\’s wins, team manager DaroldButler has been suspended from Little League activity and MichaelKelly has been removed as administrator of Illinois District 4.
Even sadder is this disgusting reaction, from Carrie Austin, the Alderman for JRW\’s district – who, let us remember, is currently running for re-election (the vote will be taken on February 24th):
“Here\’ssomething that united us as a city, as a nation, and you want tostrip that on a technicality?” Theplayers played the games, and they won the games. Now you want to take this away over a boundary? Why would youstrip these children of this achievement? Their lives have alreadybeen hell.”
Brilliant point, Ms. Austin. Guaranteed to get you votes – maybe enough to win re-election. I\’ll just bet that everyone in and out of Chicago agrees with you that loading the team with ringers is nothing more than a “technicality”. Just as I am sure that if it had been reversed and JRW – the real team, not the concocted one – lost to an opponent which did this, you would shrug your shoulders and say “Forget the whole thing, it\’s just a technicality”.
But the saddest part? JWR lost the Little League World Series to a team from Seoul, South Korea – where we have no way of knowing if it was just as concocted as the JWR team was. In fact, there is no realistic way of knowing whether any US champion plays against a legitimate team from another country.
In other words, it is possible that, although JRW should be stripped of its title, it did nothing more than what is done by the international teams it, and other U.S. championship Little League teams, play against in any given year. No way to tell.
Little League at the local level can be terrific. But – as with most sports – the more overblown it gets, the greater the likelihood that it will start to stink like month-old clams. And this is the proof.
What a mess.
