Deposed Little League team gears up for ‘one more battle’

Little League International announced Wednesday that it was vacating all of the Jackie Robinson West squad’s wins from last year’s tournament, including from the Great Lakes regionals and U.S. championship, because some of its players lived outside its assigned boundaries.

“As far as we know, all the children met the residency requirements,” attorney Victor P. Henderson told reporters Thursday. But Henderson added that he is still in the process of discovery and left open the possibility that some players might have been unintentionally ineligible.

Bill Haley, the director of Jackie Robinson West Little League in Chicago, said the team had been cleared in December by the governing body.

“Clearly we have one more battle to face,” Haley said.

Official: Tell us — in writing — what we did wrong

Several more meetings followed, including one on January 31 when several issues came up, including that “Jackie Robinson West Little League used a falsified boundary map for their 2014 tournament and that Jackie Robinson West Little League officials met with other leagues in District 4 to try to get the territory they wrongfully claimed was theirs for their 2014 tournament.”

“During our review, it became clear that both Jackie Robinson West officials and (the) District Administrator … signed documents to make players eligible who should not have been,” Keener said.

On Thursday, Henderson acknowledged that there were boundary changes but again said it was too early to know if anything untoward was done intentionally.

CNN’s Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.

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