Celebrated youth team stripped of its crown

Associated Press

CHICAGO

A Little League team that captured the attention of the nation and the hearts of its hometown was stripped of its national title Wednesday after an investigation revealed that team officials had falsified boundaries so they could add ineligible players to the roster.

Only last summer, the all-black Jackie Robinson West team was the toast of Chicago and was honored with trips to San Francisco and to the White House.

But the sport’s governing body announced that team officials had engaged in a Little League version of political gerrymandering. Instead of politicians redrawing district maps to pick up votes, it was local league officials who changed the boundaries that determined where players must live. And after learning that their scheme had been exposed, they scrambled to persuade surrounding leagues to go along with what they had done.

“This is so heartbreaking,” said Stephen D. Keener, president and CEO of Little League International. “It is a sad day for a bunch of kids who we have come to really like ... who did nothing wrong.” But “we cannot tolerate the actions of some of the adults involved here.”

The organization suspended the manager, Darold Butler, and suspended the team from Little League tournament play until the local league’s president and treasurer have been replaced. A district official who is believed to have helped change the boundaries was also removed.

All of the team’s victories were thrown out, meaning that the wins will be awarded to other teams. Mountain Ridge Little League, the team from Las Vegas that lost to Jackie Robinson West in the national championship game, will be awarded the title.

Parents were angered by the news, saying their children were being unfairly punished.

“The boys had no inside dealings ... about any borders, and I as a mother had no idea there were any (questions about) boundaries,” said Venisa Green, who was driving her son, Brandon, to school Wednesday when they were “blindsided” by the news as it came over the radio.

“We weren’t involved in anything that could have caused us to be stripped of our championship,” said Brandon, appearing at a news conference with his mother.

Venisa Green said the move was especially disheartening because the team was part of efforts to keep children safe and prepare them for college in a community better known for gangs and drugs than any kind of achievement.

“What would you have us do, Little League, for them to be killed on the streets of Chicago?” she asked.

She wondered if the fact that the players were black had any role in the ruling, something that the Rev. Jesse Jackson and others questioned as well.

“Is this about boundaries or race?” Jackson asked.

Jackson did not discuss whether he blamed any league officials for what had happened, but in Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest suggested that it was the adults who let down the boys.

“The fact is, you know, some dirty dealing by some adults doesn’t take anything away from the accomplishments of those young men,” he said.