Chicago's Little League Team Stripped of Championship

[speedkilz88]

Little League punishes Chicago team



Little League Baseball has stripped the U.S. championship from Chicago-based Jackie Robinson West and suspended its coach for violating a rule prohibiting the use of players who live outside the geographic area that the team represents, it was announced Wednesday.

Jackie Robinson West must vacate wins from the 2014 Little League Baseball International Tournament -- including its Great Lakes Regional and United States championships.

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AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

The Jackie Robinson West Little League team was ruled to have used players from outside its local area by recruiting players from neighboring districts.
The team's manager, Darold Butler, has been suspended from Little League activity, and Illinois District 4 administrator Michael Kelly has been removed from his position.

The organization found that Jackie Robinson West used a falsified boundary map and that team officials met with neighboring Little League districts in Illinois to claim players and build what amounts to a superteam.

As a result, the United States championship has been awarded to Mountain Ridge Little League from Las Vegas.

More of article:
http://espn.go.com/chicago/story/_/...s-chicago-team-us-championship-suspends-coach

 

[big dog cowboy]

First thing that popped into my head was the Patriots. Not sure why.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

Bad enough they went outside their requirements but they falsified a map.

Too bad for those kids.

 

[WV Cowboy]

I have been involved in youth baseball for 25 seasons. Little League baseball for 18 of those.

I will never understand how they got by with this at the District level, at the State level, at the Regional level, let alone at Williamsport.
They check birth certificates, and usually 3 proofs of residence at every level.

What a shame for the kids, they probably had no idea that this was going on.

But this just emphasizes what I said a few times in the Penn St. threads. "When people in authority do wrong, it impacts all of those below them."

The consequences aren't fair to the kids, but it is inevitable that when authority cheats or screws up, it is going to impact them.

 

[jimmy40]

so these kids know who they play against in their league and then they see one of those kids that should be playing on their All Star team playing for another league's All Star team, I gotta call BS on these kids not knowing what was going on. What am I missing here?

 

[WV Cowboy]

so these kids know who they play against in their league and then they see one of those kids that should be playing on their All Star team playing for another league's All Star team, I gotta call BS on these kids not knowing what was going on. What am I missing here?

Come on, what you are missing is the adults that pull this stuff are smarter than to try and pull what you are suggesting.

I don't know the details of what went on in Chicago, but I have seen it tried around here. They try to get kids that are close to the imaginary line that Little League draws up to determine what league you play in based on where you live. They sign up in a league near them, but not the one they are supposed to be in.

The kids that are on the Chicago team that shouldn't be, .. have been there since before the beginning of the season. If not more than one season. They play in the wrong league all of the regular season, and then just move in to the All Star season.

The kids don't know exactly where every kid lives and whether it is within the boundary set up by Little League.

Kids just play with whoever shows up at the first practice. They don't ask questions.

 

[joseephuss]

You don't give the kids enough credit. They are smarter than you or me these days and can easily mastermind these things.

 

[WV Cowboy]

It's not that they aren't smart enough, .. it is just that they are not responsible for those things so they don't even think about that stuff.

They don't have to have affidavits signed, check birth certificates, proof of residence checks, etc.

Kids that are 10, 11, and 12 years old are not paying attention to anything like that, they are just having fun playing baseball and being with their buddies.

I have been coaching youth baseball 25 of the past 30 years.
18 of those in Little League.

I know this age boys. They are a ton of fun to be around, but they aren't worried about any of the legal requirements surrounding Little League.

 

[jimmy40]

Come on, what you are missing is the adults that pull this stuff are smarter than to try and pull what you are suggesting.

I don't know the details of what went on in Chicago, but I have seen it tried around here. They try to get kids that are close to the imaginary line that Little League draws up to determine what league you play in based on where you live. They sign up in a league near them, but not the one they are supposed to be in.

The kids that are on the Chicago team that shouldn't be, .. have been there since before the beginning of the season. If not more than one season. They play in the wrong league all of the regular season, and then just move in to the All Star season.

The kids don't know exactly where every kid lives and whether it is within the boundary set up by Little League.

Kids just play with whoever shows up at the first practice. They don't ask questions.

thanks, I knew I was missing something.

 

[joseephuss]

It's not that they aren't smart enough, .. it is just that they are not responsible for those things so they don't even think about that stuff.

They don't have to have affidavits signed, check birth certificates, proof of residence checks, etc.

Kids that are 10, 11, and 12 years old are not paying attention to anything like that, they are just having fun playing baseball and being with their buddies.

I have been coaching youth baseball 25 of the past 30 years.
18 of those in Little League.

I know this age boys. They are a ton of fun to be around, but they aren't worried about any of the legal requirements surrounding Little League.

I was only joking.

 

[Fletch]

Bad enough is that they represent Jackie Robinson (West) through his name, and they cheat? Shame on them! Way to represent a good man.

Stephen A. even said as much on First Take. They get what they deserve.

 

[WV Cowboy]

Does anybody know how many boys were on the team illegally, .. who they were, .. and what their role was?

Was it the star SS for example?

 

[EST_1986]

I have been involved in youth baseball for 25 seasons. Little League baseball for 18 of those.

I will never understand how they got by with this at the District level, at the State level, at the Regional level, let alone at Williamsport.
They check birth certificates, and usually 3 proofs of residence at every level.

What a shame for the kids, they probably had no idea that this was going on.

But this just emphasizes what I said a few times in the Penn St. threads. "When people in authority do wrong, it impacts all of those below them."

The consequences aren't fair to the kids, but it is inevitable that when authority cheats or screws up, it is going to impact them.

I agree they should reform the way they verify these teams, it seems every few years we have some type of cheating scandal with the LLWS

 

[Future]

More kids getting punished for the stupid crap adults do.

Unreal.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Yet it took the rat until October to rat them out. If his team was blasted by this team in June, why not rat them out until October?

 

[DFWJC]

Does anybody know how many boys were on the team illegally, .. who they were, .. and what their role was?

Was it the star SS for example?

My guess is it was a fairly high number. We'll probably find out. I bet at least a pitcher and few other starters.
The irony is that the international teams do this every year.

 

[jterrell]

various:

Tough deal and you hate to see grown people cheat in youth athletics.

Acting as if this is rare though is crazy. I played little league against kids who were often 3 and 4 years older. --easy to play them under a younger siblings birth certificate.
Cheating is in fact pretty rampant.
There is very little they can do since there really aren't IDs at that level.
It is a birth certificate and an address verification via a bill but the number of kids who live with Momma but play via Daddy's home address are fairly large.

This happens across sports and it is really hard to understand. No idea why anything thinks it worthwhile. Probably the same people so overly concerned with kids getting participation trophies or whatever... i.e. knuckleheads. Winning at youth sports means almost nothing. Participating and developing is what matters.

 

[WV Cowboy]

Acting as if this is rare though is crazy. I played little league against kids who were often 3 and 4 years older. --easy to play them under a younger siblings birth certificate.
Cheating is in fact pretty rampant.

I guess it goes on, but I can't agree that it is rampant.

I don't know where you played Little League, but 15 or 16 year olds kids don't play Little League around here, .. ever.

Are you talking just some kind of youth baseball, .. or are you specifically referring to leagues sanctioned by Little League Baseball?

Little League is a pretty efficiently run entity, they run a tight ship, .. and they do everything right, for the most part.

Maybe I just don't see it in our state, and it goes on elsewhere, .. but I have a lot of confidence in the integrity of Little League Baseball.

 

[trickblue]

This isn't unprecedented... LL teams of the past have been stripped of the title for using ineligible players.

The adults implemented the plan, but the kids were complicit. They knew they had illegal players on the roster. This has been going on for ages and I saw it firsthand when I played LL ball back in the 70's. We knew even when other teams were playing with ineligible players...

 

[jterrell]

I guess it goes on, but I can't agree that it is rampant.

I don't know where you played Little League, but 15 or 16 year olds kids don't play Little League around here, .. ever.

Are you talking just some kind of youth baseball, .. or are you specifically referring to leagues sanctioned by Little League Baseball?

Little League is a pretty efficiently run entity, they run a tight ship, .. and they do everything right, for the most part.

Maybe I just don't see it in our state, and it goes on elsewhere, .. but I have a lot of confidence in the integrity of Little League Baseball.

Little League Baseball starts at local levels and a lot of teams do not make it past regional play. Each area has it's own commission and leadership.
It's been a long time since I played and I now coach basketball and have seen other sports more so than baseball the last 10-15 years but cheating is common in all of them.
I can't remember a single year of the little league world series where there wasn't some speculation about cheating. --Either some 20 year kid playing out of the Bronx, this current residence issue or players moving into the area for eligibility that was tied to one of the California teams a few years back. There have been some questions about the international teams as well but I haven't paid as much attention.

It is just the nature of this stuff that it is hard to police and easy to cheat.
I've played in ID verification NCAA certified tourneys where kids were 2 years older than I knew personally.
Unless you compete against them directly it is tough to go turn them in and even when you do it often takes weeks to get someone ruled out and like this, ends up being after the fact.

I am sure the vast majority of people are doing the right thing but sheer numbers indicates cheating will happen a lot.

I am still upset over getting knocked out of a state quarterfinals once to a team from our region that we had beaten 4 times that magically added a player from another city.
I did turn them in DURING the game and they got trounced minus said player the next round but it did nothing for us.
We finished 2nd the next year tho to get some level of satisfaction.