Chicago Little League team stripped of all 2014 LLWS wins

[mabrowndog]

So that heart-tugging story last summer about the underprivileged inner-city African-American kids who somehow came together to shock the nation on their run to the Little League World Series final? The uplifting journey that was destined to reverse the eroding interest and participation in baseball by America's black youth?
 
Well, it's joined the legion of UMass' 1996 Final Four appearance, Rosie Ruiz's Boston Marathon "win", and Pete Carroll's second USC national championship in being stricken from the record books.
 

 
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 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 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.

 
Congratulations, Vegas.
 
And holy shit, do adults in youth sports suck.

 

[Spacemans Bong]

Vegas being the team that tattled on them kind of sucks as well. Fair's fair, but there's a whiff of running to the teacher with that.

 

[Fred not Lynn]

And this is why you shouldn't have World Championships for 12 year olds...

 

[MentalDisabldLst]

Vegas being the team that tattled on them kind of sucks as well. Fair's fair, but there's a whiff of running to the teacher with that.

 
I don't think that's the only, or even most likely, interpretation of this paragraph:
 

Former Las Vegas league president Kristi Black, whose organization pushed for the Chicago team to be stripped of the title, said she felt "sad" for the JRW players.

 
She may have done the bolded after the cheating had already been discovered - i.e., focused on the punishment face, not the determination of guilt.  Unless you've read elsewhere that Vegas did indeed do the research that discovered this, or turned them in.

 

[HomeBrew1901]

Vegas being the team that tattled on them kind of sucks as well. Fair's fair, but there's a whiff of running to the teacher with that.

This is a horseshit statement, they cheated, end of story.
 

 
I don't think that's the only, or even most likely, interpretation of this paragraph:
 
 
 
 
She may have done the bolded after the cheating had already been discovered - i.e., focused on the punishment face, not the determination of guilt.  Unless you've read elsewhere that Vegas did indeed do the research that discovered this, or turned them in.

From what I've read, a parent from Vegas was talking to parents of the JRW and said to a group (or a couple individually not sure) something along the lines of it being tough raising kids in the city and a number replied that they don't live in the city and that's what spawned the investigation.
 
I feel bad for the kids on JRW and also the teams that lost to them. 
 
Fred is right, it's a great tournament but this sucks the fun out of it.

 

[Fred not Lynn]

Fred is right, it's a great tournament but this sucks the fun out of it.

You must be referring to a different Fred. There is nothing athletically healthy about 12 year olds competing in a World Championship. It's a shitty, exploitative and borderline abuseive tournament and they shouldn't have it.

Still fun to watch, though.

 

[moondog80]

That sucks.  I live in Cumberland, RI, which was eliminated by the Illinois team, and my kids are just starting to get involved in little league.  For reference, Cumberland is split into two different leagues (National/American), kids are assigned a league based on odd/even birthdate (for families with more than one kid, it's done by the oldest child for convenience).  My understanding is that league enrollment is low enough that they could have just one league (and, presumably, an all star team that would have been better), but the guys who run the league are against it because they want more kids involved in the all star team.