The Mountain Ridge Little League Baseball team was notified they are now the World Champions. So that means the Little League team who represented me won the title almost 6 months after the game was played. I live within the Mountain Ridge boundaries, I actually know the coach, Ashton Cave....
Why?
Because Jackie Robinson West who won the title did not abide by a very important rule that you use the players within your boundaries. It isn't an all-star situation, which some people think. It is a neighborhood team, that is why it is so hard to win. Little League officials have all kinds of checks and balances.....so how did this happen?
This is not the way Mountain Ridge wanted to win. And now that they have, so what? Did they get to hold up the trophy? Did they get to throw out the first pitch at the World Series in San Francisco or meet the President? Nope....
Mountain Ridge is a very special team who won the hearts of everyone in Las Vegas. They beat the team Mo'ne Davis played for. You remember her, the phenomenal girl pitcher who was on the cover on Sports Illustrated and also received an Espey. They even beat Jackie Robinson West 13-2 earlier in the double elimination tournament. These were not kids of privilege, these were regular kids with parents who raised money with baked sales and garage sales for the trip to Williamsport.
My friend April Nakasone sent me this message, " I liked what Coach Cave said on the radio this morning. He wishes instead of them getting the trophy, there would just be a big blank on 2014 so parents can use it as a valuable teaching lesson." Thanks April...you are right.
I feel terrible for the Jackie Robinson West players. They have spent the last 6 months thinking they won a title that was taken away today. I hope Jesse Jackson, who took them to Disney World, gathers them together and explains what happened. That is wasn't their fault but some coaches and some parents decided to pull kids in from the suburbs to play with an inner city team. It is going to be a terrible fall with brand new circumstances because they were rock stars in Chicago. And it isn't their fault this happened.
It really does come down to success in life is what you learned in Kindergarten.
