Winning, unruly fans key conflict

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A judge must decide whether four teams from the Clairton Little League Football Association were booted from a midget league for winning too much -- or because their players, parents and fans are too unruly.
Allegheny County Judge Ronald Folino held a hearing Friday on a lawsuit filed by the Clairton group last week. Clairton said its only crime is that its teams win too many games.
"This has to do with nothing but the fact that they've won 125 games and lost only four in three years," said Burrell A. Brown, the attorney for Clairton, which fields four teams of 7- to 13-year-olds.
But officials with the Mon Valley Midget Football League said Clairton teams don't police fights that occur at its games. One Clairton team also broke the league's "mercy rule" in a 66-8 victory at Elizabeth-Forward, officials said.
"They have a right to police their league and that's what they did," league attorney C. Christopher Hasson said. "The league was concerned for the safety of other kids."
The Clairton group claimed in its suit that it was expelled from the league without prior notice on Oct. 6.
But league officials said the Clairton teams were put on probation Sept. 22 after fights occurred at a game a few days earlier. Then, on Sept. 26, Clairton team leaders organized a boycott of the Elizabeth-Forward concession stand after they learned a leader on that team had reported the earlier fight to the league.
Police were brought in to take away hoagies and pizza that Clairton fans had brought to that game in violation of league rules. Clairton "ran up" the score against the Elizabeth-Forward team in retaliation, the league said.
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