Feb. 11--Shame on everybody.
Shame on any adult from Jackie Robinson West Little League who betrayed the trust of children by falsifying documents or knowingly used a fake boundary map to assemble the best youth All-Star baseball team Chicago has ever seen. Shame on the JRW coaches who looked the other way.
Shame on every helicopter parent who used integrity as a shield to make the allegations against JRW or investigate the wrongdoing when, just a hunch, jealousy and envy contributed every bit as much.
Shame on the sore losers from Evergreen Park and Las Vegas reveling in JRW's misery who relentlessly drove the investigation that culminated Wednesday, nearly six months later, in JRW vacating the 2014 Little League national championship due to residency violations.
Shame on all of us who swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker, because of the innocence and excellence it represented at a time we yearned for both.
And shame on me for not feeling more outrage over the feel-good story of last summer that just became another 2015 example people will use to claim that everybody cheats in sports. Everybody probably does. That makes it prevalent but not acceptable.
This story really should have been broken by NBC's Brian Williams.
But no matter what officials declare, it always will feel to me like something defined by a technicality more than a conspiracy. It feels as if Little League International is doing the right thing by the letter of its bylaws, yet it's hard for me to look at this as an example of all that's wrong with society or sports or our city. It's hard for me to grasp the idea that this group of kids from the Far South Side benefited from a geographical advantage.
I remember walking around Jackie Robinson Park and talking to people who lived in the neighborhood about the 13 African-American Little Leaguers who for a few weeks turned Chicago into America's biggest small town. With as much fear in their voice as pride, they spoke of the inherent challenges of raising kids in that environment. They knew kids on the team who had dealt with poverty and dysfunction, realities and struggles that don't justify any Little League gerrymandering but certainly make it easier to understand. These players benefited from a geographic advantage? But rules are rules. They must be enforced, if not embraced.
Whatever they take away from JRW, nobody can steal the memories of visiting the White House, riding in a parade or meeting people kids from Chicago's South Side typically don't get to meet. However the experience and exposure broadened their horizons, nobody can ever change.
This sad turn of events is embarrassing for Chicago. It doesn't have to be defining for a bunch of kids who weren't complicit to the lies. It's up to the adults who let everybody down to make sure they realize that.
dhaugh@tribpub.com
