Another Reason Why L.L. Is Bad

[NetShrine]

Islanders pay to probe Bronx Little Leaguers

Coaches and families have spent over $10,000 on private detectives, but investigations of youngsters' eligibility have turned up nothing

Friday, August 24, 2001

By STEVE POLITI
Advance Correspondent

Staten Islanders joined in hiring private detectives in an effort costing more than $10,000 to discredit the Bronx Little League team that has been piling up victory after victory.

One South Shore dad put up $2,000 on his own. But the investigation turned up empty.

The Bronx kids on the Rolando Paulino Little League 12-year-old All Stars team have been getting more coverage from the city papers and newscasts than their big-league neighbors at Yankee Stadium.

But not everyone is rooting for them.

Two rival coaches, including the manager of South Shore National's All-Star team, which the Bronx team eliminated from Little League playoff competition, say they hired the investigators because they were convinced the Bronx players are over the age limit and ineligible. Under Little League rules, players may not turn 13 before Aug. 1.

The coaches said the investigators, whom they would not identify, did not find enough evidence to force the team to forfeit games, and several official protests were denied.

As reported in the Advance last month, a protest by South Shore on the grounds that a Paulino All Star had not played in the requisite number of league regular-season games was rejected by Little League headquarters. South Shore played Paulino in a sectional semifinal July 24. Paulino won that game, 13-0, behind a two-hitter by Danny Almonte, who pitched a perfect game in Paulino's LL World Series opener and won again last night on a one-hitter.

"I'm not expecting anything to happen," South Shore manager Bob Laterza told the Advance the night the protest was filed. "Nobody wants any part of these kinds of protests, even though it's legitimate. But maybe if we file enough protests against (Paulino), we'll be able to stop them in another year."

This year's protest, which was rejected the next day by Little League headquarters, apparently grew from work done by a private investigation firm Laterza said he hired -- for $80 an hour -- to look into whether the Paulino team used ineligible players.

The bill, split among a group of parents, coaches and area residents, came to more than $10,000. Laterza said investigators interviewed fans at Paulino games and contacted officials at the U.S. immigration office. They attempted, and failed, to obtain the players' passports and birth certificates.

Little League spokesman Lance Van Auken, reached in Williamsport, Pa., yesterday, said the Bronx team had "been through more scrutiny and has produced more documentation than any other team in history."

Still, the coaches stand by their belief that the team is made up of ineligible players.

"Those kids are not from the area, they're not 12, and they shouldn't be playing," said Laterza. "Every team they beat is a victim of their shenanigans."

Last night, the Paulino All-Stars defeated Oceanside, Calif., 1-0 to advance to the U.S. championship game tomorrow. The Bronx team is two victories away from the Little League World Series title. The Series concludes Sunday in Williamsport when the U.S. champion plays the international champion on national television.

The Bronx team is named for Rolando Paulino, 38, who immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic in 1990 and started a Little League that is made up of 38 teams. Paulino is a sports writer for a Spanish-language newspaper in the Bronx.

Paulino, who oversees the all-star team, has repeatedly denied allegations that his players are overage. He has said he carries the players' birth certificates with him to every game to head off protests from opposing coaches.

The protests keep coming, with no success.

Steve Perillo, a parent of one of the South Shore players, said he contributed $2,000 to help pay the investigator. He also hired his own lawyer and sent a copy of the retainer to the Little League office and to Merrill Lynch, a key sponsor of the Bronx team.

He said he also issued a challenge to the Bronx team.

"We told (them), 'You put your birth certificates on the table, we'll put ours on the table, and if everything is legit, let the best team win," Perillo said. "But they wouldn't do it. This is a handpicked team from the Dominican Republic. Nobody wanted to push the envelope because of their ethnic background. It's politically incorrect."

But Van Auken, the Little League spokesman, disagrees, saying the team's ethnicity -- 10 players are Dominican born and two are Puerto Rican born -- has intensified the scrutiny.

"I think some of it is thinly veiled racism and the fact they're good ballplayers," he said. "Any time a team has more than one year of success in a row, people make the assumption they're cheating when, in fact, all you have to do is look at the dedication of these kids."

Still, there are doubters.

Last summer, the Bronx all-stars defeated a team from Pequannock in the Eastern Regional. The Pequannock coach, Doug Bencsko, said he would "bet a hundred grand" the talented players were overage and from different neighborhoods in the Bronx.

"I had the best 12-year-old team in the district last year, but I missed an opportunity to go to Williamsport because of them," Bencsko said. "It bothers me. It really bothers me."

That sounds a lot like what Laterza had to say after last month's loss to Paulino.

"I've still got the best 12-year-old team in the city," the South Shore manager told the Advance that night. "Everybody in the city's afraid to say it. I'm not."

Bencsko said the Paulino players had bragged to his players that they were older than 12. Bencsko then demanded to see a list of the Paulino team's affidavits attesting to their ages and dates of birth.

"(Little League officials) would allow me to look at, but not copy anything down," Bencsko said. "They had two brothers, but the kids had birth certificates that were six months apart from each other. I asked, 'What's with this?' and they told me they were brothers, but had different mothers. They had answers for everything."

Bencsko memorized three of the addresses and hired a private investigator for $200 -- "I got a deal from a guy I know," he said -- to knock on the doors.

The investigator came up empty.

Benscko filed an official protest after an Aug. 15, 2000, loss to Paulino in the Eastern Regional. Two hours after the game, the protest was denied.

"I questioned every one of these kids, but they (Little League officials) told me I had to have proof of their age or who their legal guardian is and where they live," Benscko said. "The burden of proof rests with the accuser. Do I have the money to investigate them to prove it? Of course not."

Another coach agreed.

"We were trying to nail them last year, but we couldn't get anywhere because you have to prove everything," Ken Barrell, whose Albany-based team lost to Paulino in the New York State championships last year. "In speaking with Little League coaches from all over the East Coast, everybody knows it stinks but they're so slick about what they do. You know you've been cheated but you can't put your finger on it."

Bob Gerbasi, the Little League's district administrator in the Bronx responsible for checking ages and home addresses, chalks the protests up to one thing: Sour grapes. He said Paulino, tired of the constant scrutiny, provided photos to go with the birth certificates.

"I have some teams who didn't say a thing until they lost," Gerbasi said. "These people are very narrow-minded."

"We go through this every year and we've proved every year that they're wrong," Paulino manager Alberto Gonzalez told the Advance upon hearing of South Shore's protest last month. "We're not stupid enough to make the kinds of mistakes they're accusing us of.

"We've played in (the Eastern regionals) several times against teams much bigger than us and we've lost and never complained. You have to be a good loser."

© 2001 The Staten Island Advance.

[Duque]

And here I thought private investigators were all fedoras and Peter Lorre and falcon statues painted black.

Though you can't beat a profession where you're getting paid to go to baseball games (even little league ones)

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by Duque
Though you can't beat a profession where you're getting paid to go to baseball games (even little league ones)

And, $80 a hour! That's like $156,000 a year. Where do I sign up?!

If it's true that one parent ponied up two grand himself, that's REALLY sad. Think of all the things two grand could do - tuition, charity, a night a Scores............

[nyy26wc]

A caller on WFAN this morning says he lives in the town that was challenging the childrens' eligibility and it's class/racial warfare.

According to that caller, the parents who are challenging the children are from a rich community (something we could easily figure out by seeing how much $ they have to throw away on this matter). The caller said the parents resent that their children had to lower themselves to play on the same field as poor foreigners, resent that the Bronx team's parents waved a Dominican flag in the stands and even though all of the allegations are true, the rich whites knew they couldn't do anything about it this time, but are instead hoping they will deter the Bronx team from even participating in the future.

The caller made a poor attempt to attribute the racism to just other parents, but his own bigotry couldn't have been clearer.

[NetShrine]

If there's a sense of payback in the universe, those kids from the Bronx team will grow up to be big league players and the daughters of the parents on S.I. will grow up to be Baseball Annies willing to do anything to get close to the players.

Little league may be even worse than the Big Leagues in some ways. That's why I always played in an independent town league when I was young. No pressure, no intrigue, no politics, no 9 year-olds throwing curveballs, no cheap home runs, just plain fun. Baseball in its truest form.

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by Throwback
Little league may be even worse than the Big Leagues in some ways. That's why I always played in an independent town league when I was young. No pressure, no intrigue, no politics, no 9 year-olds throwing curveballs, no cheap home runs, just plain fun. Baseball in its truest form.

And, the way it should be!

[nyy26wc]

I don't remember if I told this story before in this forum, so I'll take the chance that I might be repeating myself.

I had an interesting experience as a little leaguer.

I was the worst player you could ever imagine. I was the little weakling with glasses who couldn't hit the ball and was scared to death whenever someone threw a ball anywhere towards me.

I knew from experience in practice and from playing with my friend that I had only the smallest chance of hitting the ball if I swung the bat. I also knew that the ball somehow found its way in my bat's path, it wasn't going anywhere. Off live pitching, most people could bunt the ball farther than I could hit it when swinging at a normal strength, when I was that age.

The year before this story took place, I played in the 8 year old league. In that league, there was no live pitching and everyone just hit off the tee. I was so bad that the only hit I got all season was a weak 100 or so bouncer towards 2nd that I actually beat out.

But, I also knew that, as bad as I was, the control of a typical 9 year old pitcher was awful. I knew that the pitcher had a good chance of throwing 4 balls before he's able to throw 3 strikes. So, I figured that if I never swung the bat, I could increase my chances of getting on base from nothing to pretty good.

So, I decided to go through the entire 1980 little league season without swinging the bat. The league didn't print our stats, but I had to have led in walks. I also had to have had a real good OBA. I did strike out a bunch of times, but also walked in the majority of my plate appearance. I would have walked even more, but there were some umpires who lost patience with me and intentionally called some bad pitches strikes, in the hopes that I would abandon my plan.

In the last game of the season, in my last time up, the coach threatened me. He told me the team was having a pizza party after the game and if I didn't swing the bat, I wasn't invited. So, I swung once, at a bad pitch, and didn't come close to hitting the ball.

It was a bad move on the coach's part, since if that strike was changed to a ball, I would have had another walk, instead of a strikeout.

The next year, early in the season, pitchers got so fed up with me that they started to throw out at me. After a couple of games, I decided to call it a career.

[NetShrine]

Lee - - I bet you were the Yost of the Town.

Yeah, that's kind of like my first year of Jr. Baseball. I had only one at bat, despite never sitting out a game or missing a plate appearence. The pitching was so bad that I had all walks except one strikeout. I still scored a lot of runs and what-not, but I never hit a ball all year. When I got to Senior baseball, though, I led the league in batting average instead of walks.

[NetShrine]

I think many have the same 1st year Little League experience. I see to recall many walks and "K'ed looking" from my 1st year.

Second year, my approach was "swing hard in case you hit it" and that got me going - - once I realized that making contact wasn't a hard thing, I started becoming a real hitter.

Actually, another one of my gripes about LL is the quality of pitching - - it's either dominating or no control whatsoever - - how does that lead to kids playing and having a good time?

Yeah, I caught a guy once, who was actually like 16 years old at the time. I bet he threw about 90, but you never knew where it was going. I had to wear a sponge inside my glove. Nobody, and mind you these are 8th grade to Sophomore kids, could touch him. He either walked or struck out everyone he faced. I remember one time he threw one, and I was ready for it...It was about 7 ft. above the plate. I jumped up in the air, it hit my glove right in the pocket, actually CLIMBED up the webbing, and hit the backstop on the rise. I'm not sure exactly how that relates to the core subject, but all the control talk made me think of it.

[Duque]

Originally posted by nyy26wc
In the last game of the season, in my last time up, the coach threatened me. He told me the team was having a pizza party after the game and if I didn't swing the bat, I wasn't invited. So, I swung once, at a bad pitch, and didn't come close to hitting the ball.

It was a bad move on the coach's part, since if that strike was changed to a ball, I would have had another walk, instead of a strikeout.

By any chance was your coach Tony Muser?

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by Duque
By any chance was your coach Tony Muser?

Duque.

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by Duque


By any chance was your coach Tony Muser?

Tony Muser would have taken me out of the lineup.