Somewhere, Jackie Robinson himself is turning over in his grave. And somewhere else, maybe Bill Belichick is smiling.
Everybody loses on this one. Jackie Robinson West, a team so lovable the Bag himself fell head over heels, had its title taken away.
So, for this debacle, there is plenty of blame to go around, and I’ll spare no one.
Thank you, ESPN, for the brilliant decision of broadcasting so many Little League games on TV. Yes, the championship game was always on TV, but come on. All the regional games, too! No need for it. You put kids this young on TV and something like this is going to happen.
Thank you, me. I was one of the aforementioned idiots who watched the regionals. Never again.
Thank you, JRW coaches. It’s called a map and you guys certainly saw an opportunity to stretch some boundaries. Of course you did! You were going to be on TV!
Thank you, parents, for setting such a fine example for these kids. Of course you “saw the opportunity,” as Jay Gatsby would say about the 1919 World Series.
And thank you AAU and Little League and anything else that puts these kids on some kind of bizarre pedestal well before it’s necessary. Oh yeah, FYI, it’s never necessary.
Let’s see, I’m so disgusted, I haven’t seen anything this bizarre since, oh I don’t know, a week ago at national signing day.
Once again, thanks, ESPN, for broadcasting all these athletes, letting everyone know where it is they’ll be playing football and attending fake classes and cutting corners so they can be on TV.
By the way, here’s a classic headline I saw: “Politicians stand by Jackie Robinson West players.”
Well, of course they do! If anyone knows anything about stretching the boundaries of a Chicago neighborhood map, it’s politicians!
We need something positive. We look to the Bulls, I think. It depends on what day it is.
Seriously, Mike Dunleavy is finally back! Yay! Finally, we’re all … no wait. Jimmy Butler’s shoulder is hurt.
That’s OK, we should get … wait, and we might be trading Taj Gibson? What?
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We still don’t know what this team is yet. Unreal.
Bag Boy is a RedEye special contributor.