Dunlap: Turn Little League Fiasco Into A Lesson

At this point, this isn't about winning and losing --- this has to be turned into a teaching point.

And the main lesson, the biggest thing that needs to be nailed home? Some people you think you know best, some people with the stated objective to look out for your best interests, could be crooks.

Yeah, that's right.

There are shammers and scammer everywhere.

As tough as that might be to absorb, that's what this all needs to be turned into now; that is the tough lesson these kids from the Jackie Robinson West Little League have to shift this ridiculous situation into. You see, these young kids were duped --- and at 12 or so, you can chalk it up to naivety --- by a bunch of greedy, glory-hungry adults looking to bask in the peripheral shine of Little Leaguers.

How sick.

On Wednesday it came out that a team from that Little League really wasn't who we thought they were.

No, the reigning American champions had used a player from outside their designated geographical boundaries to reach Little League's top echelon in Williamsport, Pa.

Plainly, they cheated. And, plainly, they are American champions no more.

But there is not one iota of blame that should ever fall to these children, not a singular being who should ever point a singular finger at them. This is on the adults. End of story.

Or is it the end of the story?

For me, that's what's paramount here. That's the key. It won't be the end of the story, it can't be the end of the story.

Where these kids take this situation is just as important as the road they have been down. Now they are all left to wonder if their efforts meant anything. These kids were champions and now it has all been taken away from them. Imagine all you invested as a 12-year-old being ripped from you. That's where these Jackie Robinson West kids probably are today between their ears.

The focus for the players should now move into that aforementioned lesson and how cheating, ultimately, doesn't pay. The other lesson -- among about a million more here -- is that even the people entrusted to look after your well-being could be the ones most apt to use you to catapult off you for their own prestige.

Sure, none of those Little Leaguers probably want to hear any of this today, but for me the kids from Jackie Robinson West will never be looked at as cheaters. The adults associated with them who did a bad thing will.

They are deplorable scumbags.

The kids? They will be seen (by me at least) as kids given a unique opportunity to learn a great life lesson in all of this --- and turn out better for it.

In time the kids will get over having their title ripped from them. But what they learned here is something that they should be able to carry with them for the rest of their lives.

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