JRW players pay the price for mistakes by adults
Who doesn't feel bad for the kids from the Jackie Robinson West Little League team who were stripped of their championship title after an investigation found the team played with ineligible players?
We all do, but local league officials manipulated the residential boundaries, allowing them to enhance the roster with talented kids from outside the area.
Rules were broken and someone had to pay the price.
Regardless of who knew what, we are all still proud of the kids. They conducted themselves respectfully and played their hearts out, but the trophy had to be awarded to the Las Vegas team.
The JRW team won the Illinois and U.S. titles, but there was cheating involved and it can't be tolerated if the integrity of the league wants to be maintained.
Other teams have vacated titles in the past, and some have been outed before they got to Williamsport, but Little League officials were caught between a rock and a hard place this time.
What could they do? They had to deliver a strong punishment to send the proper message.
And while we are speaking of fairness, let's remember that the Las Vegas team lost only one game in a double elimination tournament. Everyone else besides JRW and the Vegas team had two losses, and the Jackie Robinson team should have had to play them again.
It's supposed to be a blast to play in the Little League Baseball World Series, and it was a great ride for this group of kids, but it's a harsh life lesson when the real culprits were the adults.
Another coaching legend:
I knew former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, who passed away at the age of 84. We first met at Gibsons steakhouse in Chicago years ago when he would come to the NBA predraft camp.
I also ran into him at various events in Las Vegas years later, and he was great guy and very approachable.
While Tark might have been the exact opposite of Dean Smith, both were beloved by their players and can claim Hall of Fame status.
There were differences, of course.
Smith had a building named after him at North Carolina, and Tark was thrown out of the building and shown the door at UNLV.
Smith got pedigree players such as Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Charlie Scott.
Tark's players were a different type with an us-against-them approach to the game - guys such as Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson and Greg Anthony.
Tark led the Runnin' Rebels to four Final Fours and won the 1990 NCAA championship. He was as revered in Las Vegas as Dean Smith was in North Carolina.
Tark, however, also was worn down by the incessant suspicions and allegations by the NCAA about cheating, but he related well to the common man and turned Vegas into a basketball town with the players reaching NBA star status.
Even the headliners on the strip came in second during basketball season, and Tark made that all happen.
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