Silverman: Wrongdoing In Youth Sports Is A Scourge That Will Never Go Away

By Steve Silverman
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Another youth sports scandal has emerged.

The Jackie Robinson West Team out of Chicago provided one of the feel-good stories of last summer when it won the U.S. Little League Championship and made it all the way to the international finals before losing to a South Korean team.

There were a lot of elements to the story, not the least of which was that this was a team of African-American youngsters who felt a kinship with baseball and had made it their sport of choice.

There has been a schism between baseball and the African-American community, as the numbers of professional players -- major league and minor league -- have demonstrated on an annual basis over the last 20 years.

As football and basketball draw the participants from the community, there are fewer and fewer African-Americans playing baseball. That's one of the reasons that Jackie Robinson West appeared to be such a beacon of hope.

That team's excellence on the field showed that there was still hope that African-Americans could fall in love with the game and excel at it.

But now it has been revealed that JRW cheated. The officials that run the program took players who live outside their region and falsified documents, indicating that the players lived within the JRW borders when they did not.

Shame, shame, shame on these adults. Shame on them for allowing these kids who played so well to be nationally embarrassed this day.

Well, it's not so black and white. This year it's Jackie Robinson West and before it was the Danny Almonte scandal. Prior to that, a team from the Philippines also had a title taken away because it used players from outside its boundaries, much like Jackie Robinson West.

Allegations get made, and when Little League chooses to investigate, it can find fault with the adults who are in charge of these programs.

But there are plenty of issues involved, including the programs that don't get investigated. Why is it fair to investigate one group and not the other?

These are no longer just kids' games. They are driven by parents and coaches who want their kids to have an opportunity to pursue glory. It's going on in every neighborhood in the country.

Just look at the travel baseball programs in every area of the country. From the time baseball players are 10 years old, they get separated from the ordinary players in a neighborhood and get placed on a team of all-stars.

Instead of playing 20-30 games in a season, these travel teams are playing 75 or more games per season.

If a youngster is going to play that many organized games in a season, that means he or she has the wherewithal to go on road trips, stay in hotel rooms and buy outside meals on a regular basis.

Teams from the inner city -- be it New York, Chicago, Atlanta or Denver -- don't have a lot of opportunities to play in travel leagues that give those players the same opportunities to develop their talent. The playing field is not level for any of these kids. Travel teams from suburbs give players advantages that inner city kids can't even consider.

The parents that run those travel teams are not content just to play more games against better competition, either. They hire professional coaches to run these teams, and they also like to see their kids get the benefit of the doubt over another kid whose father does not go to the travel baseball teams' planning meetings.

Youth sports is often a scourge, and when the subject is fairness, honesty and playing the right way, there are plenty of questions.

I have coached youth sports for more than 15 years, and my goal was to make sure all kids were treated well and that they were a little bit better at the end of the season than they were when they started.

As children got older -- both boys and girls -- specific complaints about playing time and opportunity were raised by the parents. Almost never by the kids.

At a certain point, youth sports is about self-interest of the players and the parents. One leader in a neighboring community learns that players come from outside a boundary, so he or she files a complaint. But what about the other teams? Who investigates them?

The idea of Little League has always been a good one, but the participants are never on even playing fields. Misguided adults may look for an edge if they feel that their players don't have the same opportunity to succeed as those from more affluent communities.

So, you can single out Jackie Robinson West or any team you choose. You have adults running sports leagues for children, and their motivations may start out as pure, but they almost never end up that way.

The wrongdoing on the part of those adults was proven, and now young baseball players are forced to deal with the shame associated with those acts.

This has been going on for years in communities all over the country, and it will almost certainly continue for years to come.

The shame of it is that some teams get punished and shamed, while others get away scot-free. Justice and fairness? That's only for some in youth sports.

Follow Steve on Twitter at @ProFootballBoy