A heart-breaking story from the South Side of Chicago, home of the Jackie Robinson West (JRW) Little League Baseball team that won last year’s US Championship, and just missed the World Championship after losing to Korea.  Officials stripped JRW of its titles because of “dirty dealing” by the adults who ran the program.  Keep in mind that this fall from grace is being shouldered by 10- to 13-year old boys who didn’t do anything wrong.

Americans rallied around the team last year as the victories piled up.  Little League baseball has had troubles attracting African-American talent in recent years, and JRW’s story served as inspiration to a new generation of black ball players.

But not every player was from the poor and working class neighborhoods of the South Side.  Essentially what happened is that the adults running JRW unilaterally decided to extend the geographic boundaries from which they could recruit talented young people to play baseball.  That process is normally well-regulated – but the head of the JRW’s district went ahead and signed off on the changes, knowing that it was wrong.  After an extensive investigation, Little League pulled the plug. 

“As painful as this is, we feel it a necessary decision to maintain the integrity of the Little League program,” said Little League International president and CEO Stephen D. Keener.  “No team can be allowed to attempt to strengthen its team by putting players on their roster that live outside their boundaries.”

After their amazing season, President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michele Obama honored the JRW kids with a White House ceremony.  And this week, the White House said that the President continues to be proud of the team.  Mr. Obama blames the problems on the adults.

“The president is proud of the way they represented their city and the way they represented the country,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.  “The fact is some dirty dealing by some adults doesn't take anything away from the accomplishments of those young men.”