The owners of the Carousel tavern and liquor store Tuesday severed their 26-year-long sponsorship of the Lemont Little League, saying they could not afford the legal battle a 14-year-old girl threatened to mount if the tavern’s name were not removed from the back of team jerseys.
Lawyers for the teenager welcomed the move but said they plan to continue pressing their fight to the national level. Kathleen Zellner, a Naperville-based attorney, said she sent a letter to national Little League officials in Williamsport, Pa., last week threatening a legal suit if the policy is not changed.
“We want the national Little League to reconsider their policy and change it to prohibit businesses that sell alcohol or tobacco from advertising on the backs of kids,” said Zellner, who represents Krystle Newquist, of Lemont, who refused to wear a jersey branded with “The Carousel” because she thought it promoted alcohol consumption.
Not since a 12-year-old Florida girl refused to wear a protective cup during a Babe Ruth League baseball game has the pee-wee version of the national pastime been under such an assault.
The bitter tangle began as a seemingly simple request by a teenage softball player but quickly escalated into a nasty legal fight that attracted national headlines. Ultimately, it disrupted the Lemont Little League season, chased out one of its 59 sponsors and divided residents in this small Will County town.
“The Carousel is a small, family business,” Mike O’Brien, owner of the popular Lemont hangout, said during a news conference Tuesday. “We cannot afford the expense and aggravations that accompany the defense of a lawsuit brought simply because we gave away money to help . . . kids in our community.”
National Little League Inc. spokesman Lance Van Auken said the problem could have been easily solved.
“It’s a shame that a negative light has been focused on an organization that does so much for so many kids,” he said.
Van Auken said Newquist was not the first Little Leaguer to object to wearing the uniform. Youngsters have asked for waivers on religious grounds, such as softball players who wanted to wear long pants instead of shorts because their religion requires such modesty; and Jewish boys who want to wear yarmulkes. In each instance, the policy was waived.
“We’ve always tried to accommodate kids who want to play ball,” Van Auken said.
The national Little League, which sponsors 3 million youngsters in 94 countries, does not have a specific policy prohibiting alcohol or tobacco-related sponsors’ names on jerseys. That decision is left to local leagues, Van Auken said. But national officials strongly suggest direct advertisement of alcohol or tobacco not be placed on jerseys.
Still, Van Auken defends the organization’s right to set its own rules.
“We are a private, non-profit organization that does not accept any government funds, and I have difficulty seeing how we can be taken to court by a child who wants to force us to add regulations of some sort,” said Van Auken, adding that he has not seen the letter Zellner sent to league officials.
The Lemont fight began three months ago, when Newquist, a star first baseman, refused to wear a team jersey with the words “The Carousel” emblazoned on the back. Newquist, who has played Little League ball for seven years, said she objected to the uniform after she found out her grandfather died of cirrhosis of the liver.
The youngster showed up at her first game with duct tape over the team logo. League officials allowed her to play that night, but the board of directors later refused to waive the uniform requirement, even though national Little League officials allow, and even promote, such a move. Lemont Little League officials told Newquist to don the jersey without duct tape or sit out the season.
Newquist’s parents volunteered to come up with $250 to sponsor the team. League officials said no. Newquist tried to switch to another team. League officials said it was too late in the season.
Angered by the league’s refusal to accommodate their child, the Newquists hired an attorney who threatened to sue the O’Briens if they did not ask that their sponsorship money go toward equipment instead of sponsorship on league jerseys.
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“Our argument is not as broad as a kid saying, `I am a vegetarian and I don’t want to wear a McDonald’s jersey’ or `I am an atheist, so I don’t want to wear a church-sponsored shirt,’ ” Zellner said. “What separates this from every other argument is that they are asking kids to be billboards for a product that is illegal for kids to use.”
On Tuesday, Mike and Pat O’Brien, who own the Carousel and have put two sons and several grandsons through Lemont Little League, said they regret having to withdraw their $500-a-year sponsorship of two teams.
“Although we support the Lemont Little League . . . we are very disappointed that someone would threaten to file a lawsuit against us for merely making a contribution,” Mike O’Brien said.
O’Brien said the tavern will make an annual donation to the Open Door Pantry, which serves homeless people in the area.