Justice for Little League

#18: Chris Janes - Re: Here Here 

Chris

This issue has been brought to my attention by scores of long time, loyal Little League volunteers who are really upset about this and would like some answers.

I personally have been deeply  involved with Little League Administration for many years and have been involved in countless boundary disputes and player eligibility issues. The first thing I think you need to ask when looking at cases like these "Is this the entire story?"

Before I sign or recommend someone else to sign this petition, I was wondering if you could possibly clear up some things for us.

If you just read some of the articles on-line, it looks like someone may have pulled a fast one, but before anyone can make a fair assessment, I think that Little League needs to be forthcoming with exactly why they approved a boundary expansion, if indeed that was the case. Could it have been something else? A waiver, school residency issue, something legal that would permit kids that resided out the the boundary to play with JRW? Someone has to have a letter from Little League somewhere!

In the article, it states "It was discovered that before the 2014 season a Little League administrator in Chicago's District 4 ) I assume the DA?) approved a new map for JRW Little League so that they could load its team up with star players, But that map wasn't approved by any of the other teams in the district, as rules state it needs to be. The administrator at the center of this, Michael Kelley, was previously an official with Jackie Robinson West for 20 years, according to DNA Chicago."

Question is this: Was the boundary area given to JRW Little League an open area at the time or was it part of an existing chartered league? Exactly when was this discovered? If the area given JRW was part of  an existing league boundary area, the affected league should have been fully aware of the proposed change before it was even submitted and then officially notified , in writing, by Little League International of the decision to approve that change. They would have needed to know so they could modify their boundary map for registration purposes, so NLT Jan- Feb 2014.

A District Administrator doesn't have the authority to change bopundary areas-They can only recommend a change ( or disagree with it) but the approval can only be given by the Charter Committee in Williamsport. If it affects other leagues, those leagues have to go along with it or Little League needs to have a good reason for doing it!  In my experience, Little League wouldn't just take area away from a league for no good reason. Were they servicing that area properly? Are there other circumstances that maybe you're not aware of?

Boundary changes affect all leagues in a district- That’s why this process should have been totally transparent from start to finish with everyone affected being involved and fully aware of what was being asked of the Charter Committee. 

These accuations have called into question the integrity of the Little League organization that all of us volunteers dedicate a good piece of our lives to and it can't just hang in the wind unresolved.

I guarantee that volunteers from coast to coast want to know what happened here and most will openly support you if you're right. We won't cheat nor will we allow it to happen.