Jackie Robinson West Giving Up on Little League

Instead of submitting to the punishment handed down by Little League International for the rule-breaking that led to Jackie Robinson West being stripped of the national Little League World Series title, Anne Haley and her son, Bill Haley, will take their baseball elsewhere.

In moving to another youth league, JR West appears to have given up on a campaign to get Little League International to return the national championship to the South Side. The team’s storybook World Series victories and the scandal that followed captured the attention of youth sports fans nationwide.

Reports Mark Konkol for DNAinfo Chicago:

Next month, when kids take the field for Jackie Robinson West teams on opening day, they won’t be playing ball under the Little League banner, sources told DNAinfo.com.

Since being stripped of the Little League World Series U.S. Title amid a cheating scandal, leaders of the South Side youth baseball league have chartered 25 teams with the Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth organization, taken down its website and stripped any sign of Little League affiliation from player recruitment posters and ballfields at Jackie Robinson Park.

In December, JRW officials filed all the required paperwork and paid the fees to be eligible to field teams for the 2015 season. But that was before Little League decided to strip the team of its title in February, a move that confirmed allegations first reported by DNAinfo.com Chicago that league officials cheated by knowingly putting players who lived outside league boundaries on the tournament team, against residency rules.

» more via DNAinfo Chicago

More on Jackie Robinson West

• Jackie Robinson West Campaigns to Get the Title Back

• Evergreen Park Coach Says He Did ‘The Right Thing’ in Raising Questions

• Jackie Robinson West Little League Accused of Cheating on Residency

• The Weight Upon the Shoulders of the Jackie Robinson West All Stars

• A Jackie Robinson Little League Champ is Homeless

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Get the Full Story from Mark Konkol

The Jackie Robinson West scandal, as reported by DNAinfo:

• Jackie Robinson West Broke Residency Rules, Suburban League Claims

• Closed-Door Little League Meetings Over Jackie Robinson West Map Get Heated

• Jackie Robinson West Secretly Changed Boundary To Add Star Players: Sources

• Coach Who Claimed Jackie Robinson West Cheated Says He Has ‘No Regrets’

• Did Neighbor Leagues Get Unfairly Punished for Jackie Robinson West’s Sins?

» read more by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Konkol