For anyone interested, the (long-ish) article raises lots of questions, the 'answers' to which sound unneccesarily evasive for 'folks' with nothing to hide.
To lead off the dodginess, there's this gem from the coach:
“Nothing was done that should not have been done,” he said. “The thing is until anyone really sits down and reads Little League’s rules … it doesn’t make sense to entertain questions. It sounds like they don’t have a clue. It sounds like there’s a little hate going on and that comes with the territory.”
Show of hands from anyone not expecting that card to be played early on ?
And it gets 'better':
Patrick Wilson, Vice President of Operations and International Tournament Director for the Williamsport, Penn.-based Little League International .. said Little League checked Jackie Robinson West paperwork to verify that the players “live in Chicago or go to school in Chicago” and asked for additional information to verify residency. Little League officials, however, did not ask Jackie Robinson West parents to sign affidavits — legal binding documents signed under oath — to verify residency or school attendance as required according to Little League’s rules
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Wilson declined to elaborate on details of the investigation but said, “We checked the documentation and the addresses that the Evergreen Park folks sent from Lynwood, South Holland and Dolton.” He said that the organization looked at documents provided by Jackie Robinson “to support the residency and school enrollment requirements.”
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Wilson said privacy concerns prevented him from disclosing information about specific player documentation and that it is Little League policy not to disclose individual league boundary maps.
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District 4 administrator, Michael Kelley, who is the gatekeeper charged with certifying Jackie Robinson West’s tournament eligibility documents, including the league boundary map, declined to be interviewed.
