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The infection of lying
ADAM MUSIC
Law Bulletin columnist
Published: March 2, 2015
Last summer, Chicago became the epicenter of an outbreak.
It hid itself until winter, unleashing its ramifications on some of the most vulnerable targets — the young.
And it all started with one lie.
Someone affiliated with the Jackie Robinson West baseball team, the boys of summer who became darlings of Chicago and runners-up in the Little League World Series, told the lie, shifting the boundaries on the map to allow kids who weren’t in the South Side league to play for its all-star squad.
And last week, Little League International stripped Jackie Robinson West of its U.S. champion title.
Social media has questioned the organization’s move. Some say, “Other teams shift their boundaries for their teams, why punish these kids?” Or, “Everybody knows this has gone on with them, what’s the big deal now?”
But there’s the slippery slope, isn’t it? The path where once you don’t get caught for the little white lie, you start telling greater lies — even to yourself.
It’s the path where Lance Armstrong thinks you can’t win if you don’t use steroids and doping since everyone is doing it too. The path where the ridiculous topic of air pressure in footballs dominates coverage in the troubled world of the NFL.
The path where asterisks sit next to home run records as players — against whom there are only rumors, not evidence of steroids — miss out on the MLB Hall of Fame because of the actions of their colleagues who broke the rules.
“Because the other players are doing it” can never, ever be a valid excuse if you’re breaking the rules of the game.
In the legal game, this is the path that leads attorneys to face the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, or worse — as in the case of the attorney last week sentenced to 70 months in prison for stealing $2.34 million from clients.
The attorney’s clients deserved better. And so did the Jackie Robinson West kids.
And it’s because the adults in the situation who know right from wrong, much like the attorney who is disbarred for a violation, failed the people they were supposed to protect.
Whoever did this showed they knew the Little League International rules that prevents using players from outside the boundaries of a league — who may have a legitimate desire and reason to play in the South Side circuit — from playing on an all-star team vying for the Little League World Series title.
They knew their team well enough to know the roster wouldn’t pass muster. Knew enough to redraw the map, sign it, submit it and hope nobody noticed they broke the rules.
That’s willful. That’s reckless.
Their actions have tarnished the accomplishments and memories for these kids who did everything right on the field. They were told this is your team, these are your teammates, go out there and make us proud. They had no control over how they got there.
Chris Janes, vice president of nearby Evergreen Park Athletic Association, sent an e-mail to Little League International in September with concerns about the eligibility of members of Jackie Robinson West. The organization cleared the team’s paperwork in October. But it didn’t look at the boundary map issue until December. (Read Little League International’s statement and timeline.)
September was a month too late. Maybe more.
Mark Mulder, a former MLB all-star pitcher who grew up in South Holland and played against Jackie Robinson West as a kid, claimed the league had been cheating when he played — since Mulder is 37, that would put his participation around 1990.
That means this has, if you believe him, been going on for 25 years, more than twice the lifespan of the 2014 title winners.
That means possibly a quarter of a century of adults turning a blind eye to institutionalized rulebreaking.
That means nobody should pat themselves on the back for acting half a year after the end of the Little League World Series.
Someone, such as Janes or anyone who knew this practice was so prevalent, could have raised the point at the beginning of August and spared these kids the indignities they’re currently enduring. Little League International should have been far more proactive and could have done a far better job enforcing its rules and standards.
Everyone involved created the lax environment that allowed this to happen and broke the hearts of a team of 12-year-olds.
And it’s not just them they failed — a team from Las Vegas has been deemed the U.S. champion, a title its coach doesn’t want but its commissioner, Kristi Black, president of Nevada’s Mountain Ridge Little League, said it deserved.
That’s illustrative of how the one lie has started to spread, affecting kids across the country.
It started in Las Vegas and its claim to the title. But what about the Pennsylvania team that our Great Lakes squad beat to face them? Or the players from Texas and Rhode Island they beat in the losers’ bracket to advance? Or the squad from Washington they shut out in the first round?
Now, even the New Albany Little League All-Stars, who lost to Jackie Robinson West, say they feel cheated as well, according to reports. And Little League International has named them Great Lakes champs.
But don’t expect a parade for them. Or Las Vegas. They may be champs, but does any kid want to win that way?
That’s the insidious nature of a lie. Once told, the ripples spread. Add up the players from Chicago and their opponents and you’ve got nearly 100 kids who should have unblemished, wonderful memories of playing a game.
And now they don’t.
And nobody wins.
And nobody should be listed as the winner of the Great Lakes title or as the national champion. There should be a big, glaring blank space on the U.S. Little League’s Wikipedia page under “2014 winner” that stands as a lesson to anyone in any game anywhere that sportsmanship has to be valued over gamesmanship.
You can make shirts that say they’re “Still Champs,” as one location is doing. But every dollar from the more than $200,000 donated to the South Side Little League should go to fund scholarships for the innocent players who got submarined by someone else’s shenanigans.
If one dollar from that particular account goes toward suing to get the title back, their efforts and the support of an entire city who looked upon those kids as a rallying point bringing everyone together for a brief, wonderful, unifying moment will have been wasted.
Adam Music is the online content specialist for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and Chicago Lawyer magazine. He manages the Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social media presences for the publications. Got a social media question? Contact him amusic@lbpc.com or find him on Twitter at @MusicAdamT.