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Imrem: Lessons to learn from JRW's fall

The Jackie Robinson West controversy should teach us all a lesson.

Be skeptical, cynical and suspicious when something is so good that it just might be too good to be true.

Lying and cheating is an epidemic in this country. If you and I don't do either, somebody we work with likely does both.

The JRW case demonstrates that when money, adults and TV are involved in a kids' game … proceed with caution.

Like most Chicagoans and Americans, I was suckered in by the Jackie Robinson West story. I forgot that every sports event should come with a warning label.

“The games you are about to see might not be what they seem … the athletes you are about to cheer might not even be athletes.”

Actually, the way society is going you might want to be wary of everything you're tempted to accept as gospel.

Nightly newscasts. Nutrition claims on food labels. Mileage estimates on automobile stickers. Your own tax return. Your spouse's age. Your mother's words to live by.

Integrity is in short supply. Accept nothing as fact. Accept nothing as real. Accept nothing on the surface.

This might not be fair, might be an exaggeration, but we're all tainted by dishonesty in sports and in life.

Last summer, Jackie Robinson West's kids from the embattled South Side won the U.S. championship in the Little League World Series.

Wednesday, Little League International vacated the title because some players allegedly came from outside JRW's district.

So here we are again, let down again.

Trusting souls that we are, we tend to believe what we want to believe and worry later about being betrayed.

Jackie Robinson West's run toward, into and through the Little League World Series felt good enough to suspend doubt.

It was convenient to believe that JRW's adult organizers had the best interests of their young players at heart.

It also was convenient to believe that anything is possible, any kid can overcome long odds and everyone has a chance to grow up to be president of the United States.

Feeling good about our country, ourselves and our futures is so difficult these days that we'd rather not question a good feeling when it permeates our being.

Denial is easier: New Englanders can deny that the Patriots cheated; Brian Williams fans can deny that he might have lied more than once; voters can deny that they voted for Illinois governors who landed in prison.

If an event isn't invalidated already it should at least come with a scarlet asterisk.

Stick one on the Patriots' championships. Stick another on all TV news anchors. Stick a bunch on records set during baseball's steroids era.

Stick an asterisk on every sports event and sports season before it even begins because the results might be tainted later anyway.

After the games end, just move on like you would from a movie. Few care whether actors filmed while on cocaine, producers embezzled money to fund the project or the script was plagiarized.

You go in, you're entertained, you discuss the work on social media and you go back to living in the real world.

That's what sports fans should be conditioned to do. Instead of everything being valid until proven invalid, treat everything as suspicious until proven legitimate.

Overreaction or not, fair or not to sports ...

The lesson is to view them cynically as little more than based on fact to be enjoyed before you return to reality.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

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