Adults Fail Jackie Robinson West Players

Something says Jackie Robinson would cringe at the story of Jackie Robinson West. A team named for the noble man who broke baseball’s color line in 1947 was stripped of its 2014 Little League U.S. championship because it broke the rules by using players from outside the team’s boundaries.

Video below of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue model Nina Agdal.

The feel-good story of the summer of 2014 became far from that Wednesday when Little League Inernational president and CEO Stephen Keener took away the title as well as other victories JRW posted. JRW manager Darold Butler was suspended from Little League activity and Illinois District 4 administrator Michael Kelly was removed from his job.

Little League determined JRW had created a false boundary map to be able to use players from outside the actual boundaries.

Pretty clever kids, right? Wrong. This was all the result of adults (using an incredibly vague definition of “adults”) providing an example of how not to behave.

“Quite honestly, we had to do this,” Keener told ESPN on Wednesday. “We had no choice. We had to maintain the integrity of the Little League program.

Ah, integrity. So that’s what this is all about?

Well, possibly vindictiveness and sour grapes, too.

“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.”

Former big-league pitcher Mark Mulder tweeted: JRW little league has been cheating and doing things the wrong way since I played them as a kid. Sad that those kids are taught that’s ok.

And he followed that up with another tweet: Good chance the people running it now played for them when I was little.

If that is the case, then why didn’t someone take action sooner? Mulder is 37. Pretty sure that means it has been 25 years since he was 12.

Video below of SI Swimsuit rookie Hailey Clauson.

As chronicled by Mark Konkol of DNAInfo.com since December, the vice president of Evergreen Park Athletic Association was the person behind the effort to reveal the truth about JRW. His email in October began the latest chapter in a story that captivated much of Chicago and a fair chunk of the United States.

One of the Evergreen Park teams lost to JRW 43-2. Payback perhaps? Righteous indignation? Take your pick. Maybe both.

“The real troubling part of this is that we feel horribly for the kids who are involved with this. Certainly, no one should cast any blame, any aspersions on the children who participated on this team. To the best of our knowledge, they had no knowledge that they were doing anything wrong. They were just kids out playing baseball, which is the way it should be. They were celebrated for that by many, many organizations, many people. What we’re most concerned about today is that it’s going to be hard on these kids. And that’s the part that breaks your heart.”

The youngsters are African-American. So one has to wonder how that factored in to all this.

As much as some people may see racial undertones to the tale, supporters of JRW did themselves no favors by having some players at a press conference Wednesday at which Jesse Jackson, The Rev. Michael Pfleger and parents decried what had happened to a bunch of 12-year-olds. And having kids speaking out, whether at a podium or the target of media types, seems so wrong.

“I can’t help but question whether the same thing would have been done with another team from another place — another race,” Pfleger said.

And, of course, that brought out knee-jerk reaction from folks who welcomed Little League’s ruling. Whether the reasons behind such sentiments had a racial component — and clearly some did — isn’t the central issue here. No matter how much one side might want it to be and how much the other side could care less.

Anyone looking for adults to act like adults in this saga apparently would be hard-pressed to find many. And that includes the Chicago media — other than Konkol — that avoided reporting on the story until mere hours before Little League issued its ruling.

Folks running JRW screwed up. You can call it bending the rules, if you want. Bottom line: They were caught cheating. And if you want to say other teams do the same thing, go ahead. But it doesn’t diminish the fact that JRW was guilty. With guilt come consequences.

It’s unfortunate that youngsters have to pay for the sins of their elders.

In the aftermath of all this come reports that Evergreen Park has recruited players from outside its boundaries. Can’t wait to see how that plays out.

What could have been a learning experience for all concerned — and an experience with a positive message — has been lost. Maybe that message can be found. But the likelihood of that occurring seems small. And it will remain that way until the adults involved start behaving like responsible grownups.

If this is Thursday (and the odds seem overwhelming that it is because yesterday was Wednesday — provided that today is Feb. 12, 2015, or a subsequent Thursday), then it is time once again for “Sports & Torts” at noon Central time on Talkzone.com with co-hosts David Spada and Elliott Harris. This week’s guest on the highly acclaimed interview show (well, it is held in such esteem in the Spada and Harris households as well as reportedly elsewhere) is chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance and former Cleveland Browns offensive guard John Wooten, who was one of the players blocking for legendary running back Jim Brown.

Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the exhilarating efforts of the editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com):

Advertising opportunities are available on ElliottHarris.com. For information and rates, contact sales@ElliottHarris.com.