http://espn.go.com/chicago/story/_/id/12308988/little-league-strips-chicago-team-us-championship-suspends-coach

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

The Jackie Robinson West team, the first all-African-American team to win the championship, must vacate wins from the 2014 Little League Baseball International Tournament -- including its Great Lakes Regional and United States championships.


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 the Jackie Robinson team 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.

"For more than 75 years, Little League has been an organization where fair play is valued over the importance of wins and losses," Little League International CEO Stephen D. Keener said in a statement. "This is a heartbreaking decision. What these players accomplished on the field and the memories and lessons they have learned during the Little League World Series tournament is something the kids can be proud of, but it is unfortunate that the actions of adults have led to this outcome.

"As our Little League operations staff learned of the many issues and actions that occurred over the course of 2014 and prior, as painful as this is, we feel it a necessary decision to maintain the integrity of the Little League program. No team can be allowed to attempt to strengthen its team by putting players on their roster that live outside their boundaries."

Jackie Robinson West drew significant attention as it advanced to the tournament's title game, where it fell to Seoul, South Korea. In a sport that increasingly struggles to attract African-Americans, the team representing Chicago's South Side emerged as a force, beating Las Vegas 7-5 in the U.S. title game.

The Chicago players were lauded for not just their prowess on the field but also for their sportsmanship, and they later were honored by President Barack Obama at the White House.

Little League embraces policies designed to preserve traditional community-based leagues in which classmates play with classmates, friends with friends.

"Little League takes these matters very seriously and has spent countless hours gathering information about the many issues facing Jackie Robinson West Little League and Illinois District 4," Keener said. "During our review, it became clear that both Jackie Robinson West officials and District Administrator, Mike Kelly signed documents to make players eligible who should not have been."

The national organization said it was Kelly's responsibility to verify player eligibility based on player information that is gathered and signed by the league president, player agent and team manager.

Little League also said that it wasn't until meetings in January that local league officials acknowledged that they knew of the violation, but had never reported it to Little League International.

"Unfortunately, no allegations against Jackie Robinson West Little League were made until well after the tournament ended, contributing to the difficulty of resolving these many complex issues," Keener said. "As an organization, Little League has faced issues similar to this in the past, and we felt that we must take the appropriate action set by that precedent."

Jackie Robinson West isn't the first team to have its Little League title stripped. In 1992, Little League baseball took away the title from Zamboanga, Philippines, and handed it to Long Beach, Calif., after Zamboanga used several players that lived outside its district or were over-age. In 2001, a team from the Bronx, N.Y., that finished third was forced to forfeit its games after pitcher Danny Almonte was revealed to be over-age.


smh... no comment.

Thought that they were gonna let a team of Black kids on a team named after Jackie Robinson win the championship in America's good 'ol pastime? lol

It never ceases to amaze me that Black folks still try and be slick, but are lazy about being slick the right way and making sure there are no loose threads. It's been proven over and over that folks will try at least 5x as hard to bring us down compared to anyone else.

The coach and admins cheated. That's on them, not whitey.

"Whitey" didn't strip the wins, "Little League Baseball" did.

Pronouns help to save space.

i be making up shit all the time!

Whitey too. Not just SoWhat. What other race would be associated with trying to bring down an all black team named after Jackie Robinson? Puerto Ricans? Or was dude saying the little league World Series has a history of bring down all black teams? If so, when?

i rarely see sowhat do that.

i knew he didn't say 'whitey' in his reply. DUH. i knew that 'they' meant LL. DUH. i also know that the race make up of the LL execs is overwhelmingly white. and like Chuck, based on what 8 said about 'they' taking down a Black team i inferred that the complaint here was in part about race. that 'they' wanted to see JRW fall b/c JRW is an overwhelming Black team. my point was that JRW being so Black isn't the reason they're being stripped of the title. it's also not the reason that competitors dropped a dime on JRW. that would happen w/any team of any race. b/c it's a part of sports.

so that's why you won't see a 'my bad'. and i didn't go deeper in explaining myself b/c...who are you? and 8bit?

White folks. SoWhat got me saying whitey. What other "they" wants to bring us (blacks) down? Once he explains who that "they" is, and it makes sense, then I'll believe he wasn't talkin bout white folks. Like I said, is the they the Vietnamese? Old British women? Who?

http://www.littleleague.org/Assets/images/stories12/2012BOD-Group-500px.jpg.jpg

But yes, they = white folks.

To put these kids thru all of this is reprehensible.

Ugh!!

If I'm a kid on that team I don't give a shit. They met the President and played on national TV in front of the world.

b/c i was a champion and now i'm not. through no fault of my own.

if they got caught during the season, and couldn't compete further, i'd be with you. Now after the fact???? its sad for the kids they beat but not for that team.

or vacating the Fab Five wins...

I hope they do a 30 for 30 on this.

I'd be pissed at the coaches/admin, but I'd still call myself a little league champ.

>To put these kids thru all of this is reprehensible.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--aMEhDGDW--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_320/18mgy91s811b9jpg.jpg

https://cbschicago.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/jrw.jpg?w=620&h=349&crop=1

https://ioneadwnews.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/screen-shot-2014-08-23-at-8-13-28-pm.png?w=515&h=514

http://a.fssta.com/content/dam/fsdigital/fscom/other/Images/2014/08/27/082714-Members-of-the-Jackie-Robinson-West-All-Stars-Little-League-baseball-team-PI.vresize.1200.675.high.88.jpg

so i'll try to be brand new and act like these kids being stripped of a national title in front of the whole world isn't a big deal and they can just shrug their shoulders and focus on the fact that they got more hoes as if that's all that matters.

right.

why stop with the hoes?

I'd feel set up to fail if I was one of the kids. No matter what, they could not win cleanly because of what their coaches did.

by using kids from the burbs????????

that's it???
like seriously?? cuz if so that's ridiculous and been goin on forever an ever in every sport



or did they use ringers as well?

they didn't use older kids.

This shit goes on all the time and I bet a few teams they beat did the same thing.

city
a whole BUNCH of kids I know and grew up with did
and it still goes on
hell look at AAU Basketball

that kind of cheating leaves a team ripe for exposure.

teams get away w/it on lower levels all the time.

get it

I'm willing to bet that a whole HEAP of pros did the same shit growing up

The top tier of pretty much every other sport has "evolved" to a junior-inverse-professional status (AAU, Club soccer/hockey) to the point that "where you live" doesn't matter as much as "how far are you willing to go". There is a tier of kids baseball that is, in theory, above Little League called Travel Ball that works the same way, but Little League competitions and leagues are supposed to be strictly based on playing in local teams, however those chips may fall. Most teams that advance to Little League tournaments are all-stars from a single league, but they are at least from within the boundaries of a single league system. What happened here (and probably has happened before) is multiple leagues being manipulated to allow for this one pool of players to be put together.

different
period

but thanks

AAU is basically a travel team. They are allowed to recruit. Little League is very strict on zoning and age. Basically they pulled kids from several different districts to make one great team instead of having a few good teams. They deserve to be punished.

or whatever 'little league' football team

and say there is a team in Neighborhood C

and the kid lives in Neighborhood A....Neighborhood A also has a 'little league' football team

are you saying that the kid who lives in A is required to play for team A???

never heard of it nor seen it in practice
and this goes back to the 80's


teams never cared where u lived...nor asked...nor verified


so my take is that lil league baseball is totally different than prett much every little league sport

>or whatever 'little league' football team
>
>and say there is a team in Neighborhood C
>
>and the kid lives in Neighborhood A....Neighborhood A also has
>a 'little league' football team
>
>are you saying that the kid who lives in A is required to play
>for team A???

each team draws its own boundaries by agreement w/the other teams.

the kid has to play for the A team b/c he lives w/in the A team boundary. and in this case the C team expanded its boundary to include the part of A where the kid lives. and the C team didn't get the approval of the A team before doing this.

meanwhile the coach from team P, who C defeated in a local competition, learns of the shenanigans and snitched after C had won a national title.

>or whatever 'little league' football team
>
>and say there is a team in Neighborhood C
>
>and the kid lives in Neighborhood A....Neighborhood A also has
>a 'little league' football team
>
>are you saying that the kid who lives in A is required to play
>for team A???

if that is the rule yes. But you cant compare football and baseball. They are run by two completely different organizations with completely different rules. There is not 1 set of rules that all kids sports are supposed to abide by.

Lets take the city I grew up in. Very small city 5 sq miles. We had 2 little leagues dividing the city, Montclair Central and Montclair Eastern. Our District 23 was made up of 12 Little League's total from 4 different cities. Now for those same 4 cities there was 1 Junior All American football team to sign up for. At each Little League you might have 6-12 teams of 11 per division playing games against each other. For football you have 1 team at each division. These teams had to travel all over Southern California to play games. So you really cant compare the two sports.

Like you said teams have been doin that since forever.

of the best players from several neighboring districts. that is against the rules. it's cheating.

which is why the team is being stripped of its national title.

they used kids from areas that had a team already. in other words they divided a geographic area up and said if you live here you play _______. the coaches made a fictitious representation of that area on a map they created.

that said, in philly kids play outside of their geographic area all the time but it's different when you are fielding a team that is playing to compete in williamsport.

A lot of black kids use their aunt/cousin/grandmother's address to go to better schools.

sorry ass kid could play on our team. We had WHITE parents who wanted to hire a private investigator.

As soon as his kid graduated the coach "retired" and moved to another school district to do the same thing with his younger kid.

they give they granny's address and not they actual one.

that's how life works.

You and your kid live on the West Side. You register your kid for school at your sister's house in Oak Park. The kid's official address is Oak Park. If he gets hemmed up for Little League, are you going to come clean and say the kid really lives in the city and have him put in some shitty West Side school?

>You and your kid live on the West Side. You register your kid
>for school at your sister's house in Oak Park. The kid's
>official address is Oak Park.

no.

i register my kid in Oak Park WITH THE SCHOOL. and anything school related.

that's it.

If he gets hemmed up for Little
>League, are you going to come clean and say the kid really
>lives in the city and have him put in some shitty West Side
>school?

it doesn't work like that.

the school isn't checking my kid's registered address w/LL.

so i would use my West Side address w/LL.

the coaches and admins of several neighboring leagues conspired to create the super team that was JRW in the LLWS. that was cheating. i assume the kids weren't told that the team was created via shady means and/or if any of them had questions they were probably told that what they were doing was fine. so i don't blame the kids. i place all of the blame for this drama squarely on the coaches and admins who conspired.

and this issue was investigated twice before - the coaches and admins could've come clean instead of dragging this out. and they could've been better about their conspiracy! it clearly wasn't solid enough b/c someone snitched.

it's all fucked up now! (c) Puffy

that's a damn shame

That's the league in the suburb just west of the south side, predominantly white players.

The JRW coaches/administration are wrong as two left shoes in this, fuck them.

Just interesting to note where it originated from.

...and the trophy goes to the loser of the game???



♥ :* LUV MAKES THE WORLD GO 'ROUND!!! :* ♥

he told me during their run that there were at least 3 of their players that didn't live in that district and that somebody gonna tell on em if they go far. He saw it coming.... He knew some squad they beat was gonna snitch but he also said they weren't really hiding it too well where the kids were from.

while they aren't to blame they also can't act shocked or surprised when this was announced.

sure they know what ringers are. lol

why is the best baseball player in my school on this other team??

were y'all the national champions?

if not, maybe that's why no one dropped a dime on your team about its make up. b/c the stakes weren't high enough for them to care.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/467334748851810304/VJsw1MaU_400x400.jpeg

JRW expanded it's borders w/o permission of the neighboring leagues. and they got caught doing it.

it's cheating.

them the rules..

more than likely that bitter ass Chris Janes saw them with a few players from the burb and cried foul.

Then kept crying and crying until they were stripped because he couldn't stand to see those kids getting shine.

He isn't wrong but I can't see how he thinks he won something by bringing this to light. It hurts Chicago as a whole IMO.

and Janes' point is that other kids were robbed of their chance to have the opportunities JRW had b/c the JRW coaches cheated.

i can begrudgingly admit that's a fair point. however it's clouded by the fact that Janes coaches one of JRW's rivals. and Janes' team didn't make it to Wmsport and JRW did (note: JRW beat Janes' team 43 - 2). so yeah, sour grapes there (41 sour grapes, even). can't just toss that element out of his story. so fuck him on that part.

plus stripping JRW of its title doesn't give any of those other kids JRW's opportunities. sure, the Vegas kids will get a trophy. and they should get to go to the White House and meet the prez. but their time won't be as special as JRW's. and the Vegas kids won't get to appear on the Espys. or on the cover of SI. i doubt they'll have a ticker tape parade in their city. it's just...i dunno. as much as i see Janes' point i still think he's mostly a sore loser and i can't support him blowing up JRW's spot like this. and not just b/c i'm a JRW fan (bandwagonner, of course) or just b/c i'm Black. but those facts are part of it for me, for sure. i see my bias.

December 16, 2014
Jackie Robinson West Broke Residency Rules, Suburban League Claims
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20141216/morgan-park/jackie-robinson-west-broke-residency-rules-suburban-league-claims

December 31, 2014
Jackie Robinson West Sister League Official Calls for Investigation
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20141231/roseland/jackie-robinson-west-sister-league-official-calls-for-investigation

February 6, 2015
Firefighter Involved In Jackie Robinson West Map Flap Quits As Brooks Coach
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150206/roseland/firefighter-involved-jackie-robinson-west-map-flap-quits-as-brooks-coach

February 9, 2015
Jackie Robinson West Should Be Stripped of Title, Las Vegas Team Says
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150209/roseland/team-that-lost-jackie-robinson-west-world-series-wants-title-stripped

February 11, 2015
Jackie Robinson West Timeline, Key Dates in the Little League Saga
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150211/roseland/jackie-robinson-west-timeline-key-dates-little-league-scandal

February 11, 2015
Little League's Official Statement on Jackie Robinson West
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150211/roseland/little-leagues-official-statement-on-jackie-robinson-west

February 11, 2015
Chris Janes, Coach Who Challenged Jackie Robinson West Maps, Speaks Out
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150211/roseland/chris-janes-coach-who-challenged-jackie-robinson-west-maps-speaks-out

it was only a matter of time.


"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

Quack quack quack Mr Duckworth
____

TWITTER : Heinz21st

IG : H_N_Z

its sad that shit like this seems to happen every 5 or so years with Little League. But parents will fuck anything up. I dont know why its surprising to me that so many people here think what they did is okay. Its pretty simple. Every Little League has an area. X amount of areas equal a district, x amount of districts make up a region. When you sign up for LL you are required to bring in proof of residency to make sure you are signed up to the correct LL and a Birth Certificate to get your correct league age. Since they are the two biggest violations in LL today.

Now the kids play a season and towards the end of the season an All-Star team is selected to represent your LL in the District tournament. When you win your District you move on to compete in the Regional tournament, then on to Williamsport.

I don't care if your team did it when you were younger. It was wrong then and its wrong now. Little League isn't travel ball or aau where you are allowed to recruit and play for whatever team you can make. Its very similar to the way zoning works for high school sports. Sure you could get away with a fake address playing inter league games. But once you start moving on it gets a lot tougher to hide.

I like how they compared it to when they played little league at the lower ranks as if that made it ok.

Parents and coaches and even the kids involved knew what happened, what they didm and where they live. Its the same as when coaches, parents and kids know if they are the legitimate age when playing.

____

TWITTER : Heinz21st

IG : H_N_Z

if a white team from the burbs cheated and created a super team. Then beat a legitimate Jackie Robinson West LL team to deny them a spot in the LLWS. I bet all the ones saying its not a big deal would be pissed.

you know its true.

I'd say sour grapes if the situation were different just like I am now.

>if a white team from the burbs cheated and created a super
>team. Then beat a legitimate Jackie Robinson West LL team to
>deny them a spot in the LLWS. I bet all the ones saying its
>not a big deal would be pissed.


http://i60.tinypic.com/fau2z9.jpg

>if a white team from the burbs cheated and created a super
>team. Then beat a legitimate Jackie Robinson West LL team to
>deny them a spot in the LLWS. I bet all the ones saying its
>not a big deal would be pissed.


when i was trying figure out if i should be mad about this or not
iirc this is the team that knocked monae davis out too
really have no sympathy for them

received when her team was winning.

IMO there will always be people who are mad when our kids are winning or getting accolades.

My frustration with the hypothetical is it implies white teams don't create super teams or skirt the rules.

>My frustration with the hypothetical is it implies white teams
>don't create super teams or skirt the rules.
>
>

I'm sorry but I can't believe all these white teams are doing it by the book every year.

I dont believe these other teams are playing fair but I have no proof.

exactly none.

damn near every sports report on this story talks about how it happens all the time but go head and act like it's a one off.

you and a few others keep saying its petty and its bullshit. Its all rumors. Show me the reports saying everybody does it. I havent read that at all yet. It better not be a quote from a parent or board member from JRLL

who get caught.

you said every article was saying everyone does this. Show me those articles.

http://jkwest.com/im-a-jackie-robinson-west-truther-or-adults-ruin-everything/

I’m a Jackie Robinson West Truther (or Adults Ruin Everything)

Because JRW is full of black kids, you are going to want to play the race card. This feels safe and even logical considering how America has been trending for the past 400 or so years. But before you play the race card, at least know SOME of the facts surrounding this story.

Note 1: an alternate title for this is, “JRW Can Make You Cry Two Different Ways: How’s THAT for Talent???”

Note 2: I’m not going to cite sources, though I have many, because they are all stories from journalists and internet folk, and a citation of a journalist means little nowadays, because Brian Williams.

FACT: The Jackie Robinson West league reached the regional playoffs the year before (2013), and lost because they ran out of pitching.

FACT: Pitching is hard in little league, and when you have it, you win.

FACT: Jackie Robinson West made a deliberate effort to get more pitching by expanding the geographical boundaries of its district. That is a legal move (the district can do what it wants to do) but not legal for the Little League World Series – the folks who host the particular tournament JRW ended up winning the US Title for.

FACT: There are TONS of tournaments like this, and local little leagues form traveling teams AFTER THEIR REGULAR SEASON – think All-Star team – which sometimes are multiple leagues put together. This is so common I won’t even bother arguing with folks that say this is cheating. To say this is “cheating” is to say everyone is cheating. And when everyone is cheating or a practice becomes so common and accepted, it is no longer cheating. That practice becomes part of the culture. Players being from different places, going to different schools, and forming as a Mutant League Voltron of superplayers, is the culture of traveling little league baseball. If you can’t understand that, or AAU basketball, or Texas high school football, then you really SHOULD sit this one out.

FACT: Evergreen Park lost to JRW. EP is a league in Chicago.

FACT: EP did NOT file a complaint against JRW after that loss, EVEN THOUGH it was widely rumored (and has been for years) that JRW was getting players from all over. EP lost to JRW, and they ate it. The EP commissioner did send an email to the league commissioner, but did NOT file a formal complaint at that point.

*Race-card players: read this next one very carefully*

FACT: Rahm Emanuel is a politician, and used JRW as a victory of “his Chicago.” Mayors get to do this, so whatever. The Mayor of Lynwood wanted to take credit of his own, because one of JRW’s players lived in his town. So he made a billboard. Lynwood is outside of JRW’s boundaries.

*As Scooby Doo might say…Ruh-Roh”

Congresswoman Robin Kelly also took credit for players in her district, by shouting out some kids that lived in South Holland, also outside of the boundaries. Robin Kelly is a black woman, and felt nothing but pride for these kids.

FACT: These moments are what triggered an investigation. The LLWS concluded their investigation in December and said nothing was wrong.

FACT: After this, hell broke loose, because it was CLEAR something was wrong, and now it was clear that LLWS was going out of their way to make this go away. THAT is when the investigation began FORREAL. And after that, Evergreen Park did more research, found voting records of parents, stuff you can’t hide anymore as good as everyone tried, and the whole thing fell apart. Quickly.

It fell apart because it received so much media attention, and rightfully so (the attention, and the falling apart). I’m sad, and deeply regret how those kids must be feeling right now. By stripping the title, the punishment does NOT fit the crime.
these folks did it


Now the race-card players can say, “Well, this wouldn’t have happened if a white team won. There would be no investigation.” Not a dumb theory. In fact, considering America, that’s reasonable enough to say out loud. But the They-Are-Doing-This-In-February-To-Discount-Black-History-Month Truthers are not even close to facts. That’s emotional vitriol (is there another kind?) and we have enough racial tension to sort through. The There-Have-Been-Only-Three-Teams-Caught-Cheating-in-LLWS-and-They-Are-All-Black-Wink-Wink Truthers are all nuts. The other two teams had older kids that knew they were cheating. The people playing the game were actively being deceptive, and that’s what kills me so much about JRW being lumped in with them…

The coaches did this. The league administrators did this, and when it was time to check and double check BEFORE and DURING the tournament, everyone turned a blind eye. Everyone was okay with winning, because winning was the only point.

I swear…adults are the worst.

They have ruined every youth version of sport – coaches and parents have – and once again, the kids are left to suffer. Folks both black and white are implicated in this, and please, tell your congressperson if you’re going to cheat, so they don’t blow the lid off your cover.

There’s a rush to locate blame here, and you know what? It’s the JRW officials’ fault. That is an inconvenient truth, because those are black folks, but I’ll tell you whose fault it’s NOT.

It’s NOT the kids’ fault, because they played the games, and it’s unrealistic to say they knew the rules of traveling little league, and if they did know them, more unrealistic to expect them to enforce them against the will of parents and coaches. So to people saying, “You are giving kids the message it’s OK to cheat,” you really have to stop saying that. This is not on the kids at all.

It’s NOT Evergreen Park and Las Vegas’ fault, even though they are salty losers. The sourest of grapes.

It’s NOT White People’s fault, well…I am troubled by the aggressive nature people came after THIS team. We have no way of knowing whether other investigations are equally as robust. Not yet anyway, but I bet we’ll find out soon. Either way, if your spouse catches something bad in your phone, it’s NOT THEIR FAULT for looking.

*folks were ALL UP IN JRW’S phone though, ijs. Gotta have that password*

It’s JRW’s own fault for making winning the highest priority. Once that happens, in any field, all ethics are out the window. It came at the expense of kids on the field, and kids that couldn’t make the field because others were chosen over them unfairly. The league will lose most of the money its made because of this, and a dark cloud will hang over JRW as a league for YEARS. You know who suffers most because of that? THE KIDS. The kids always suffer.

The point here is adults ruin everything, including kids when they teach them to be Machiavellian and deceptive, as this example did. Adults ruin everything when they use kids for their own political purposes (we need a referendum on youth leagues ASAP), and adults ruin everything when they speak without knowing the facts.

A lot went wrong here, but none of it was on the baseball field. The title may have been vacated, but that’s all it is…a title. They are still the champs, and the grown ups tore everything down.

>if a white team from the burbs cheated and created a super
>team. Then beat a legitimate Jackie Robinson West LL team to
>deny them a spot in the LLWS. I bet all the ones saying its
>not a big deal would be pissed.

and went to the grammar school next to JR Park (Mt. Vernon stand up!), I can see why they did it, besides wanting to win obviously. Is there really that much interest among african American boys in little league baseball? I definitely can't think of any interest among the boys in my grammar school. At that time, they were in gangs by the age of 12. Hasn't changed much either. At any rate, it's unfortunate something they worked so hard for was taken away. And the kids are being harassed which is really sad.

to field a legit team.

>to field a legit team.
>
>

http://meredith.worldnow.com/story/26195315/peachtree-city-little-league-team-stripped-of-state-championship

Metro Atlanta Little League team stripped of state championship
Posted: Aug 04, 2014 7:29 PM CDT
Updated: Sep 01, 2014 7:29 PM CDT
Mike Paluska

http://wgcl.images.worldnow.com/images/26195315_BG2.jpg

http://meredith.worldnow.com/story/26195315/peachtree-city-little-league-team-stripped-of-state-championship?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=10438936

PEACHTREE CITY, GA (CBS46) -
The day before the team was supposed to leave for the regional tournament, the president of Peachtree City Little League received an e-mail that dashed the team's dream of playing in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA.

"It was nothing but broken hearts and sadness," Brandon Taylor, president of Little League Peachtree City said. "There have been a lot of tears shed over this."

Taylor had to call the team's coach Thursday night at a pep-rally. The team was leaving that Friday for Warner Robbins to play in the Southeast Region Tournament. Because of bad paperwork, and multiple violations, the team Peachtree City beat advanced to the tournament.

"As the president of this league, it's on me," Taylor said. "If we make an error, I am standing here telling you I did. I own that. But, it is not fair to punish these kids to let them win a district championship, and a state championship, and then pull the rug out when three levels of Little League officials missed it, just like we did."

Taylor said Little League officials had all their paperwork from the start of the tournament and never mentioned any of the infractions the team committed until two days before the tournament started on Aug. 2.

Taylor said the way the players handled the news that they would not be playing and lose their title as state champions showed just how good their sportsmanship is.

"They have not said a bad word about anybody," Taylor said. "They just wanted to play ball. They had a dream. A little league dream. They had it and it was pulled out from under them, literally the night before they headed to the tournament."

CBS46 News tried to contact officials at Little League Baseball Inc. for comment but have not heard back.

According to an e-mail sent to Taylor regarding their violations, the league was considered not in compliance with the rules and regulations and policies. The e-mail stated, "It appears that the league did not conduct a balanced draft.

"The league was in violation of Regulation III(c) as it pertains to the number of league age 12 year olds permitted per major team, which is a maximum of eight. Twelve of 14 players on National major team were league age 12, two were 11."

This rule violation among other clerical errors is what Taylor believes cost them the season.

"We don't know what we are going to do moving forward," Taylor said. "The grown-ups made the mistakes here not the kids. And the folks that are suffering are these players."

Below is the official statement from Little League on the disqualification:

"Upon the review of the Peachtree City National Little League's affidavit, the Little League Tournament Committee, in conjunction with the Southeast Regional Office, found that Peachtree City National Little League had violated Little League regulations, which led to the disqualification of their Little League tournament team. In an unfortunate situation like this, the policy of Little League Baseball is to offer the opportunity for the second place team to advance and will not make alternative exceptions in this case. Thus, the Tournament Committee has declared the final game in the Georgia State Little League Baseball Tournament a forfeit and named Columbus Northern Little League, from Columbus, Ga., as the George State Champion, advancing them to the Southeast Region Tournament," Brian McClintock a representative with Little League said.

Peachtree City is about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta.

Copyright 2014 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

and dude started doing google and record searches.

>>He said he had noticed news reports during and after the World Series that quoted suburban officials celebrating various players as hometown heroes, which struck him as odd since the kids were supposed to be living on Chicago's South Side.<<







"If you wanna help us, fine. Sit down with your kids and make 'em study at night...otherwise, shoot THIS mothaf*cka!" (c) Morgan Freeman,

The burbs will always claim him, but he grew up in the hood.


Baseball is so hypocritical.

because in little league there are specific rules saying you have to play for the league you are zoned. You guys keep comparing other sports that allow recruiting with little league. Little league does not allow recruiting.

Wade had a Chicago address...

His pops lived in the burbs...

If he played baseball then where does he play with two addresses?

Where his pops lived?

Where his mom lived?

He went to HS in the burbs because of residency.

He could have went to HS in Chicago, why? residency.

Difference is with HS sports and basketball/football cares not for residency issues or red tape. He doesn't HAVE to have a suburban address to attend school of play in the burbs.



Trey Hondras goes to school in the burbs. I went to HS with his mom who has a place in Morgan Park. Can he go to school in the burbs because his father has a suburban address...yes.

If his mom and her family live in the city, why can't he play for JRW if they are in the area?


It's petty.

And the area where his people live. Yes.

The 2013 city zoning change that rearranged wards, may have had an effect on some on the local addresses that were a block or two outside the zone.


That I know of, 2 kids had city addresses that may have been right outside JRW.


The Dolton kid I'm not sure but yeah its petty.


There is a rule that if your parents used to live in the area, then you could still play in that area as long as you submit former address proof, so I'm not sure if that's the issue with the Dolton kid or not.

The admin who didn't file and get ish approved is really at fault bottom line


White folks ain't been this happy since Tulsa in the 1920s it seems round these parts.

>Wade had a Chicago address...
>
>His pops lived in the burbs...
>
>If he played baseball then where does he play with two
>addresses?
>
>Where his pops lived?
>
>Where his mom lived?
>
>He went to HS in the burbs because of residency.
>
>He could have went to HS in Chicago, why? residency.
>
>Difference is with HS sports and basketball/football cares not
>for residency issues or red tape. He doesn't HAVE to have a
>suburban address to attend school of play in the burbs.

actually high school sports do care about residency. But they allow players to move between districts to play when the proper paperwork is filed. If you have two addresses then can play at either. If you want to play at a school outside of your district you can request a transfer to attend that school. If you are not a high school student yet and the transfer is approved then you can start playing freshman year. If you request a transfer in the middle of your HS career and its not because of your family moving. Then you have to sit out a year before you can play with the new school. There are rules to follow. As long as you follow said rules then its no big deal. Wade followed the rules so there was no big deal.


>Trey Hondras goes to school in the burbs. I went to HS with
>his mom who has a place in Morgan Park. Can he go to school in
>the burbs because his father has a suburban address...yes.
>
>If his mom and her family live in the city, why can't he play
>for JRW if they are in the area?

but where did he live the majority of the time? You have play where you live not where you go to school. If he was living with his pops in the burbs all week long going to school. Then came home to be with his mom on weekends. I would call his pops house his main address. These are the rules and they are pretty clearly stated. Im pretty sure he isnt the first kid from a broken home to make it to the little league world series. His situation isnt new and others have made it to that level and not broken rules.

>It's petty.

its the rules and they are clear. Petty or not. Whats petty is SECRETLY redrawing district lines to pull kids from other leagues. That's petty.

all the way from the district tournaments on. Every team they beat on the way was fucked. The kids arent at fault here. But this isnt the first time LL has come down like this on a team. They did this to the Phillipines in 92 for the exact same thing. But the Phillipines had actually won the entire tournament. They gave the trophy to Long Beach and took Phillipines wins from them.

His team lost and he saw JRW all up in the White House and on the Espys and on SI's cover and he mad. Sore loser. Fuck him.

Some of these kids are co-parented and have more than one address.

This is a shame because it was investigated and the League initially found nothing wrong. They are bogus for continually coming for these kids.

Racist ass Evergreen Park is the catalyst too which is fitting.

The Lynwood kid's mom lives in the city and has for a few years and most kids in Chicago go to a school away from where they live (thank you Rahm and gerrymandering)

This is BS.

the kids at issue actually live outside the JRW zone. one of them even lives in Dolton.

this ain't a case where they're living in the city but using granny's address out in Olympia Fields so they can go to a good school. it's a case of the coaches and admins creating a team of superstars by including a few kids who live beyond the bounds.

it's unfortunate b/c the exposure means the kids will lose that title. but now i agree that they'll still have those memories. and maybe it'll be easier to deal w/the exposure of the cheating since it was initiated by a coach from a team JRW had beat by 41 runs. clearly he mad and i would be too if my team had been stomped like that. but i hope i'd be more classy about it than this dude has been.

Administration is at fault yes.

Two kids have two addresses...

Admin and coach failed I never denied that but the other two kids have two addresses. Lynwood kids mom stays on 88th.

It is what it is.

to ruin a feel good story.

I heard a guy on sports radio say most of these kids knew each other from travel ball. 12 and 13 year olds who just want to play and have fun

Parents always fuck it up.

we won back to back national championships. 90% of us lived within 15 miles of each other. But all of us played for different little leagues. Shit we all almost played for different high schools. I would have loved to keep playing with them and dominating with them. But you know there are these things called rules.

Not in the wrong district, but in the wrong zone. My league was right over the fence from my elementary school and used to pass out fliers, so when it was time to sign up, that's where we signed up. Once I started making all-star teams we had to sign a waiver that said we USED to live in that zone when we signed up (which was a lie). Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten to play.

Also, once I was in babe ruth we had a kid on our all-star team who was in the wrong zone. He didn't play an inning, but when we won the district tournament the other league complained and we had to forfeit.

From what I remember, whichever team won the district tournament had the option of picking up players from other teams that were in the same district. The zones stopped mattering and as long as you lived in the district, you were good.

http://screencast.com/t/z9AuOwbA56Lr

And, again, sour grapes from the MP coach. Bc it ain't like HIS team is getting the title. He just didn't want JRW to have it. Fuck that dude.

his team lost to JRW by 41 runs.

he said he started digging through voter registration, vehicle registrations, public records...whatever he could find to look for a residency violation on the JRW team.

snitches get stitches.

That shit sounds personal. What happened to the mercy rule? LOL.

You can't score that many runs and come out unscathed lol
You meet at the pitcher's mound and brawl

here is my issue with this whole Little League bullshit. Both times the USA have been represented by teams with no white players they go hunting for shit.

What is frustrating is while I watched the championship they had the first all Black team that made it to the LL tourney in attendance. That team never got to play a game because the white teams refused to play them.

http://jkwest.com/im-a-jackie-robinson-west-truther-or-adults-ruin-everything/

6 months in February. Fuck the LLWS.

41 run defeat > race

Bc Janes sent that email after the loss. Then JRW went on to win the national title and were celebrated all over. He saw all of it and was MAD. Then he did the math once suburban politicians got involved in the celebrations and started digging. What motivated the digging? Good ol' hurt feelings. Poor sportsmanship.

If you've been involved with youth sports you've seen adults behave poorly when race wasn't a factor. I've seen white parents fight each other during youth games. No race involvement. They cheat and lie and snitch on each other too. It can get ugly. I think that's this story too.

n/m

I guess they shitting on everyone's dreams in 2014/15

breaking down how the city has been closing down fields and depriving kids of recreational activities. @TheBoyIllinois . he really went in earlier today.

but then reading this, also. this is some utter bullshit.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

____

TWITTER : Heinz21st

IG : H_N_Z

this dude is just confirming what the reports are saying. The board of JRLL are the ones that cheated. They secretly moved their borders to get kids to sign up for their league. This is pretty much saying the same thing right? I think its wrong what JRLL officials did. But not once did I ever think the kids or parents were at fault.

People need to stop taking about how the kids are being cheated by the league. No. The admins and coaches cheated and the kids are paying for the lack of their good ethical behavior.

.
.
.
"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."

i actually thought this was the norm and legal til i heard about this team's current issues......they just got caught cause they rose so high and were black

...folks acting like other teams aren't doing something similar are fooling themselves...

Ppl in the know claim this is a regular occurrence. And LLWS wanted to look the other way but the asshole sore loser coach of that rival team that was beat by 41 runs wouldn't let it the fuck go. And his investigation dug up so much dirt LLWS was forced to act.

http://jkwest.com/im-a-jackie-robinson-west-truther-or-adults-ruin-everything/

FACT: Jackie Robinson West made a deliberate effort to get more pitching by expanding the geographical boundaries of its district. That is a legal move (the district can do what it wants to do) but not legal for the Little League World Series – the folks who host the particular tournament JRW ended up winning the US Title for.

This is not true. The league can only expand when its geographical boundaries when the surrounding Little League's agree. In this case JRW expanded its boundaries secretly.

FACT: There are TONS of tournaments like this, and local little leagues form traveling teams AFTER THEIR REGULAR SEASON – think All-Star team – which sometimes are multiple leagues put together. This is so common I won’t even bother arguing with folks that say this is cheating. To say this is “cheating” is to say everyone is cheating. And when everyone is cheating or a practice becomes so common and accepted, it is no longer cheating. That practice becomes part of the culture. Players being from different places, going to different schools, and forming as a Mutant League Voltron of superplayers, is the culture of traveling little league baseball. If you can’t understand that, or AAU basketball, or Texas high school football, then you really SHOULD sit this one out.


In this "fact" he puts little league in the same category as travel teams. When they are completely different. Little League is for any kid who wants to play baseball. He signs up for his local league. He gets assigned a team. He is guaranteed playing time. Travel teams are teams you usually have to try out for. Not every kid makes the team. You aren't guaranteed playing time. There are not rules saying that you get to play x amount of innings each game. These teams are much more competitive and usually for the better players. So comparing a travel team or "Mutant League Voltron of superplayers" to little league makes no sense whatsoever. You can tell he has no idea what he is talking about because he calls the traveling team traveling little league baseball. There is no such thing.

as if.

i agree w/the thrust of the article - race is not the main issue here. JRW coaches and admins cheated in a way that's pretty common. the EP coach is an asshole and sore loser.

I dont think race is the issue here either. I think the reason most of OKP is mad is because it happened to an all black team. Little League benefits from having more diverse teams win. Rather than the same old white and Japanese faces winning. Creates interesting in a sport that is being beaten by football and basketball. I do agree dude was salty as hell after losing. I mean the lengths he went to find an infraction is a little much. But the league cheated and it needs to be penalized. The only penalty they can have is banning guilty parties from further LL involvement and removing the wins from the team. Which does suck for the kids. But they can't put sanctions on the LL for the next X amount of years. That punishes the kids moving forward. But this punishment is the same punishment they have handed out for other violations. They have been consistent with that.

>But the league cheated and it needs to be
>penalized. The only penalty they can have is banning guilty
>parties from further LL involvement and removing the wins from
>the team.

LLI didn't HAVE TO remove the team's wins. it could've just banned the guilty coaches and admins w/o removing the wins. i understand its rationale but i disagree that LLI had no other choice. it did.

Which does suck for the kids. But they can't put
>sanctions on the LL for the next X amount of years. That
>punishes the kids moving forward. But this punishment is the
>same punishment they have handed out for other violations.
>They have been consistent with that.

sure. and i think removing the wins is too much, as stated above.

I think the reason why they remove the wins is to make the punishment that more harsh to discourage people from doing it again. Last time this specific violation happened was with the 1992 World Champions. They had to vacate the title and it was awarded to Long Beach. It has happened at some of the tournaments leading up to the series. But those dont make national headlines. But it doesnt matter how harsh the punishment. Adults will continue to fuck up kids sports. The punishment could be death by stoning and you would still see a dumb group of parents scheming with their perfect plan.

and hurts the most blameless ppl in this whole drama: the kids.

I think the reason why they remove the wins is to make the punishment that more harsh to discourage people from doing it again. Last time this specific violation happened was with the 1992 World Champions. They had to vacate the title and it was awarded to Long Beach. It has happened at some of the tournaments leading up to the series. But those dont make national headlines. But it doesnt matter how harsh the punishment. Adults will continue to fuck up kids sports. The punishment could be death by stoning and you would still see a dumb group of parents scheming with their perfect plan.

It's not. The lack of good Ethics is the core issue.


.
.
.
"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."

http://abc7chicago.com/sports/chicago-mom-claims-suburban-little-league-team-forged-residency/514122/

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The decision to strip JRW of its national title is raising questions about how widespread cheating may be throughout Little League.

A coach who competes against JRW in the same district told ABC 7 that for years, JRW and other teams have used players from outside their boundaries, and until now, Little League officials turned a blind eye.

Renee Cannon-Young sees hypocrisy in the stripping of JRW's title.

In 2011, she says her son Jacoby was recruited to play in Evergreen Park's Little League, despite living on Chicago's South Side.

"The paperwork was filled out for me," Cannon-Young said. "I was told that although he was not a resident of Evergreen Park, they were going to fix that so that he could play. Just use another address, and he would be able to play."

Cannon-Young says she thought nothing of it - it was just baseball - until Evergreen Park raised suspicions about JRW.

JRW isn't the first team to violate residency rules, according to the head of Little League International.

"These types of things do happen occasionally at the local level, but they're usually sorted out pretty much when the local tournament begins because neighbors know neighbors," said Stephen D. Keener, president and CEO of Little League International.

In fact, former major league pitcher and South Holland native Mark Mulder tweeted Wednesday: "JRW Little League has been cheating and doing things the wrong way since I played them as a kid..."

Attorney Eldon Ham authored a book about cheating in baseball and says Little League has grown to be as competitive as high school sports, which has long had a problem with "ringers".

"The question that came to me was: is this an isolated incident, or is this the kind of thing with Little League being so competitive that you have to have ringers even to be competitive at that level?" Ham said.

ABC7 was unable to reach anyone from Evergreen Park baseball Wednesday night to respond to Renee Cannon-Young's claim that her son's residency was forged. Cannon-Young says she knows of at least one other Chicago boy who played for Evergreen Park that season in 2011.

BUT WHERE'S THE PROOOOOOOOOOF?????????

huh, RobOne?

http://chicago.suntimes.com/baseball/7/71/364689/evergreen-park-whistleblower-answers-allegations-cheating



Sports
Evergreen Park whistleblower answers allegations of cheating
Posted: 02/12/2015, 01:40pm | Seth Gruen


Evergreen Park Athletic Association vice president Chris Janes — the whistleblower in the Jackie Robinson West saga — told the Sun-Times on Thursday his Little League has violated residency rules, but only so the league didn’t have to turn kids away from its house league.

Janes stressed Evergreen Park has never violated residency rules in picking its All-Star teams, which is why the rules exist.

Renee Cannon-Young alleged on a Channel 7 report that her son, Jacoby, was recruited to play in the Evergreen Park Little League in 2011.

Janes said he “vaguely” remembers the child in question.

“Looking at him in the picture and trying to remember who he was, if he played in our league he was about 7 or 8 years old in 2011,” Janes said.

Little League rules mandate that any participant in a given Little League must either live within the boundaries of that league or go to school within its boundaries. That rule includes a league’s All-Star and house-league teams.

But Janes said that Evergreen Park isn’t in the business of turning kids away from playing baseball.

“Full disclosure: There is a Little League rule buried somewhere that says if a kid doesn’t live in your boundary, he shouldn’t play baseball for you at all,” Janes said. “Forget about tournament teams and all that. Every year, we have a handful of kids from Chicago that end up playing in our league. We’re just like this oasis in the middle of Chicago,” Janes said.

“What happens is we have a boatload of Chicago people that drive to Evergreen every day and work here, and as result, they drop their kids off either with another relative or in a day care facility in Evergreen. So every year we get a handful of folks saying, ‘We don’t live here, but we’d like to play baseball for you here.’ ”

In each of those cases, Janes said that Evergreen Park Little League volunteers meet with each of those parents and explain that they will be allowed to play in their house league. But because they do not live inside the Evergreen Park Little League boundaries, they cannot play on any of Evergreen Park’s All-Star teams.

“I will tell you 1,000 percent that we have never, ever, ever had a kid on one of our All-Star teams that wasn’t in our boundaries,” Janes said.

Janes said the volunteer who has the league’s records is currently in California training for work. He declined to give the name of that person. Janes said when that person returns, he would be willing to provide the residency information of Evergreen Park’s All-Star teams.

He said the Little League has told several talented players, who have played in the Evergreen Park house league, they could not participate on the All-Star teams.

While Janes did admit that Evergreen Park has in the past broken residency rules because he doesn’t want to “turn anyone away” from playing in Evergreen Park’s house league, it is widely understood that residency rules are in place primarily to create fairness among the All-Star teams.

House league teams play only within their own league. So Janes scoffs at the notion that Evergreen Park would have recruited the child in question — there’s no benefit to recruiting for a house league.

“I have spent the last day and a half just absolutely getting my character assassinated,” Janes said. “And you know what? That is fine. That’s OK. That’s fine. This Little League organization here, it’s been here for 60-plus years and has done nothing but good things for this community, and I’ll be damned if I let some jerk try to tear it down.”

But can produce them in a few days. Uh huh.

EVERGREEN PARK, Ill. — The whistleblower responsible for exposing Jackie Robinson West’s recruiting violations — leading to the Little League team being stripped of its U.S. title — was arrested by police Tuesday.

Christopher Janes is now facing a series of charges. In an Evergreen Park police report, a woman said she arrived home overnight and saw Janes running toward her.

She escaped into her house, but Janes allegedly pounded on the door, shouting for her husband to come out and fight.

Janes was arrested on several charges, including disorderly conduct, assault, resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer.

He is due in court on April 13.

http://wgntv.com/2015/03/03/jackie-robinson-west-whistleblower-arrested-tuesday/