ANOTHER Little League Scandal

What's with all the cheating scandals in Little League??!!  I mean, seriously.  It's supposed to be the purest athletic competition of them all.  Kids playing a game, who spent all summer doing it with their friends.  And if they're good enough, they get to end the summer by playing that game on ESPN.  Unless the adults ruin it for them.

The latest involves the team from Tulsa.  They won the Oklahoma State Tournament and were playing in the Southwest Regional Tournament when they were disqualified for using an ineligible player.  As a result, the regional championship game was cancelled and West Texas advanced to Williamsport.  The Oklahoma parents sued and were granted a temporary restraining order that would allow them to play before Little League successfully got the TRO vacated (by the same judge).  Tulsa's disqualification stood and West Texas officially moved on to the Little League World Series.

Oklahoma's disqualification came about after three different leagues filed a protest against Tulsa National Little League.  The ineligible player hadn't appeared in the Regional Tournament, but was on the roster and did play in the state tournament, which is considered part of the Little League World Series (since it serves as the first qualifier).  The player wasn't named (and shouldn't have been since this is a 12-year-old kid who did nothing wrong), but had incorrect information on his paperwork that was ultimately discovered, leading to the disqualification.

As the details of the case emerged, things only got worse.  The player didn't meet the residency requirement since he lives outside of Tulsa National's "ordinary geographic boundary."  Little League rules state that you must reside or attend school within the league's boundaries in order to play in that league.  However, his brother is a member of Tulsa National's Challenger Division, which qualified both of them to represent the league.  Except his brother didn't play in enough games for the player in question to qualify and the brother's birth year was wrong on the registration form!  The father registered the 10-year-old brother as a 7-year-old so that he could play in the under-8 division.  Once that discrepancy was realized, both boys were deemed ineligible to play in Tulsa National.

In the court filing, a Little League official said that the father confirmed the younger brother's age directly to them.  The father also admitted that the younger brother "never actively participated in any Tulsa National program or division of play," another requirement.  The Little League district administrator in Oklahoma, meanwhile, acknowledged that the father "mistakenly entered the wrong birth year" when registering the sibling (something she wasn't made aware of until after the state tournament).  It's incredibly naive to think that was a "mistake" rather than a deliberate action.  Especially after what happened with this exact same league in softball.

It was literally just a few weeks ago when Tulsa National's softball team was disqualified from the Southwest Regional for almost the same reason.  The softball team faced a total of three protests regarding six different players.  Ultimately, it was determined that the team knowingly submitted false documentation "confirming" the residency of two of those players.  Since they didn't have the proper eligibility documents for every player, the team was removed from the tournament.

Both the baseball and softball teams from the same Little League being disqualified from the Regional tournament for using ineligible players?  That's not a mistake or a coincidence.  That's clearly deliberate.  And the fact that they took advantage of the Challenger Division as a part of their fraud?  That's even more egregious!  Disqualification from both tournaments doesn't seem like enough.  There should be some sort of sanctions coming Tulsa National's way, as well.

This is just the latest.  But it also brings to light the alarming number of eligibility scandals in Little League.  Most of them involve a league getting caught using a player (or players) who's either too old or doesn't actually live there and claiming there was some sort of "mistake" with the paperwork resulting in the "error."  In all of the cases, it's the adults ruining it for the kids who didn't do anything wrong!

A team from Jackie Robinson West Little League in inner-city Chicago made headlines in 2014 when they made it all the way to the LLWS Championship Game, losing to South Korea.  The team was invited to the White House by President Obama after winning the U.S. championship.  However, it was eventually discovered that multiple players on the team didn't actually live within the league's boundaries.  Further research revealed that Jackie Robinson West had redrawn the district map, incorporating three other leagues into their district area, then backdated and submitted this falsified map to Little League as "official."

Suddenly, such a heartwarming story was uncovered as nothing more than an elaborate sham.  Little League suspended the team's manager and district administrator and all of Jackie Robinson West's wins that year were declared forfeits.  As a result, the team from Las Vegas that they had beaten in the U.S. Championship Game was retroactively named U.S. champions and the team from Indiana that Chicago had beaten in the Great Lakes Regional final was retroactively given the Regional title.  In this case, however, it's important to note that subsequent investigations determined that the players and coaches had no knowledge of the cheating.  It was all the district administrators and other adults associated with the program.

Then, of course, there was Danny Almonte in 2001.  This was the first 16-team LLWS and Almonte threw a perfect game (the first in the LLWS since 1979) while striking out 16 of the 18 batters in the Bronx's opening win over a team from Florida.  The Bronx lost a rematch to Florida in the U.S. Championship Game and ended up finishing third.  Until it was discovered that Almonte was actually 14 that summer, two years older than the Little League age limit.  They also discovered that he wasn't enrolled in school, which would've made him ineligible anyway.  Naturally, the team from the Bronx was disqualified.

There have long been eligibility questions regarding some of the international entries, especially teams that come from countries where the record-keeping isn't as thorough as it is in the U.S.  Some of those violations are simply a result of that poor record-keeping.  However, there are definitely examples where it's deliberate.  Like that of the team from Zamboanga City, the Philippines in 1992.

Only eight teams made the final tournament then and the Philippines was in the Far East Region with Japan and Chinese Taipei.  Those two countries absolutely dominated the region (Chinese Taipei was a longtime LLWS powerhouse), so Zamboanga City became national heroes simply by making it to Williamsport.  Then they capped a dominant run by destroying Long Beach, CA, 15-4, in the Championship Game.  But, alas, it was another success story that was too good to be true.  The Zamboanga City team used players that were ineligible both ways.  They had some players who were too old AND some who didn't live within the district boundaries.

After that, Little League began enforcing its age and residency requirements more strictly.  The top four teams at the 1993 Far East Tournament didn't meet the new requirements, so the fifth-place team was given the berth in Williamsport.  The Latin America champion from the Dominican Republic was also disqualified that year for the same reason.  (Remarkably, Zamboanga City was disqualified from the 1993 Filipino national tournament for using over-age players again!)  It ultimately led to Chinese Taipei withdrawing from Little League entirely in 1997, and they wouldn't rejoin until 2003.

So, what's happening this year in Tulsa is sadly nothing new in Little League.  It goes back more than 30 years to the Zamboanga City scandal.  Unfortunately, it probably won't be the last, either.  And what's the sad common denominator in all of these situations?  It isn't the kids who are at fault.  It's the grownups.  Aka, the people who are supposed to know better.

One of the best things about the Little League World Series is the thing that makes it so pure.  It's kids out there having fun and playing a game they love.  So why is it always the adults that are trying to ruin it?  For everyone!