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August 27, 2001
8:32 PM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

The Little League World Series: Part 2The controversy continues...
posted by sassone (14 comments total)

Just make it stop.
posted by canoeguide at 8:39 PM on August 27, 2001


Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. I wasn't believing that kid was really 12- he was almost 6' tall, and had a less babyfaced look to him, like he was into his adolescence; I figured more like 14-15. Although 14 isn't that much older than 12, there is a big difference between a 12 year old who can throw 75-77 mph and a 14 year old who can do the same. At 12, that kind of preternatural velocity translates into probably 100mph+, Matt Anderson stuff when he matures; at 14, he'll still be in the 90's and a legitimate major league prospect, since he's shown control and good movement.

But Sidd Finch he ain't, and if you saw his picture or the video, he didn't look 12 at all...
posted by hincandenza at 9:08 PM on August 27, 2001



Maybe if he had played for the winning team... then I could understand a controversy. But he wasn't even on the second place team. So the American public is supposed to care?
posted by wondergirl at 10:30 PM on August 27, 2001


This happened at every level of baseball I played.

8-10 year olds? He's 11!

11-12 year olds? He's 14!

13-14 years old? He's 15!

It goes on everywhere, all the time. I don't see any reason why the little league world series would be any different.

(by the way, no way can you tell when a kid is 14 if he's major league bound. You can guess, that's about it)
posted by justgary at 10:55 PM on August 27, 2001


So the American public is supposed to care?

Well the problem is ESPN & Co. hyped this kid like he was the second coming of El Duque because of his perfect game so his face has been plastered all over the place moreso than all the other little leaguers.
posted by owillis at 1:00 AM on August 28, 2001


"I can remember my mother sitting behind the backstop in Midland, Texas, telling me what to do," he recalled. "She's still telling me what to do."

at least now i have clarification on who's calling the shots while george reminisces the glory days that, by his own accounts, have passed.

"I peaked in Little League."

hmm... no stats here, but i'm betting many americans agree.

"I equate Little League baseball with good families," Bush told Sunday's crowd.

12% of people agree: baseball is cool. thank goodness for that.

and all this time i thought the soccer kids got exploited the most...
posted by basmati at 1:08 AM on August 28, 2001


This kind of thing happens all the time after the Little League World Series, contrary to the romanticizing of the league as an oasis from professional sports.

Calling a star player's age into question reminds me of one of the oddest stories my wife covered as a newspaper journalist: In Lewisville, Texas, in 1991, 10-year-old Natasha Dennis was so good in youth soccer that two parents demanded that she undress in front of a witness to prove her gender.
posted by rcade at 5:44 AM on August 28, 2001


My favorite tidbit surrounding the issue: The Staten Island crowd, which is mostly white, spent more than $10,000 dollars on private investigators to examine the records of the Bronx team, which is mostly Latino.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:52 AM on August 28, 2001


Mo, what are you saying? Are you suggesting that if a white team had used a 14-year-old pitcher they would just ignore it?

I think competitiveness might have played a bigger part in the equation than the race card.
posted by sexymofo at 6:17 AM on August 28, 2001


the accusations probably wouldn't have even come up; after all, those other countries have systems where it's easier to falsify birth records ... or so the rationalization goes.

i was sad that the bronx team didn't make it to the finals.
posted by maura at 6:39 AM on August 28, 2001


A team of young Native American girls were forced to submit to strip searches to prove their gender when they wiped up the floor with their mainly white competition in basketball in South Dakota (or Wyoming?) a few years back. Unfortunately, legal errors and filing delays kept the girls from getting any redress in the courts for the (racist) horror they suffered.

These kinds of things happen more than we know. Strangely they seem to center around minority kids being questioned by white adults.
posted by Dreama at 7:17 AM on August 28, 2001


Sounds like another recent story -- also involving a kid from the Dominican.
posted by moses at 7:56 AM on August 28, 2001


This country gets scarier by the minute. I wonder whatever happened to good losers and good sportsmanship.
posted by Option1 at 8:09 AM on August 28, 2001


I wonder whatever happened to good losers and good sportsmanship.

it'll soon be appearing over at Bulfinch's.
posted by tolkhan at 8:43 AM on August 28, 2001


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