Jackie Robinson Little League stripped of U.S. title

South Williamsport, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – The Chicago area team that won last year’s Little League United States championship has been stripped of its title for use of ineligible players.

According to a statement from Little League Baseball, the Jackie Robinson West team knowingly used players who live outside of its boundary area and must vacate all wins from last year’s Little League tournament, including the Great Lakes regional championship and the United States title.

In addition, the team’s manager, Darold Butler, was suspended from participating in Little League and the district administrator, Michael Kelly, was also dismissed from his position.

“For more than 75 years, Little League has been an organization where fair play is valued over the importance of wins and losses,” said Little League International CEO Stephen D. Keener 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.”

The investigation began last September after a league official from a neighboring district in Illinois expressed concerns pertaining to players’ residencies.

“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 added. “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 2014 U.S. championship has been awarded to the Mountain Ridge team from Las Vegas, which lost to the Chicago squad in the title game.

“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 stated. “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.”

It’s the third time Little League Baseball has had to take action against a team for using ineligible players. A Philippines team that won the championship in 1992 was disqualified and a team from the Bronx, New York was stripped of its third-place finish in 2001 because it was determined that star pitcher Danny Almonte was 14 years old and not 12.

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