People across the U.S. were mourning for the the children of the Jackie Robinson West Little League team, who were stripped of their hard-fought 2014 U.S. championship title because of the rule-breaking adults in charge of them.
The team gave up its championship title Wednesday after Little League Baseball determined that both the team and its district “knowingly violated” league rules by recruiting players who did not live within the team’s geographical boundaries.
The Jackie Robinson West Little League team celebrates the victories that would soon be taken from them.
“They’re still the champs to me,” Frank Jackson, a parent of one of the players on the team, told the Chicago Tribune. “They went all the way, they did what they had to do and went out there and played ball. This isn’t their fault.”
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The Las Vegas team that Jackie Robinson West beat for the championship will now become the victor in the record books. But even parents on the Last Vegas team expressed concern for the kids from Chicago.
“I don’t believe they had anything to do with this. This was about the adults,” Rick LaSpaluto, a parent of a player on the Las Vegas team, said. “I just pray those kids get past this.”
Little League Baseball declined to comment to HuffPost.
