From: hm514600@longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU (Henry Manguerra)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: More on LLWS
Date: 4 Sep 92 16:46:44 GMT
Reply-To: hm514600@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu
Organization: Engineering College, Colorado State University

' lookimg for a news coverage on LLWS?  Here is one but its not a 
nice one.  This news clip from Associated Press was reprinted in our 
student paper and I just want to share my annoyance to all of you out
there.

Here it goes...
Associated Press WILLIAMSPORT,Pa. - The director of a suburban Los
Angeles Little
League district said Thursday he intended to file a complaint alleging the 
Philippines team won the World Series dishonestly.

Bob McKittrick, administrator of the district that produced the runnerup team 
representing Long Beach, Calif., said he intended to prove that not all
Philippine players were from the geographic area assigned to Zamboanga City
Little League.  He said he also would pursue reports that some of the 
Philippine players were older than 12, the limit for Little League.  

"If I can prove this team was illegal and Little League (headquarters) does
nothing about it, then I will see them in court," McKittrick said.  "We 
dont care if they give it (the title) to us.  We just dont want them to have
it by cheating."  

He said tournament rules allows appeals until the first pitch of the next game.

The Philippine team defeated Long Beach 15-4 in the championship game Saturday.

Little League spokeman Dennis Sullivan said the organization has no intention
of investigating the Philippine team unless it had a challenge from within the
league.  "If a protest comes through our organization at that time we'll look 
at it," Sullivan said.

McKittrick said at least two players, including Ian Tolentino, the star of
the championship game, were from a town handreds of miles away from 
Zamboanga City.  Tolentino also was mentioned in a Philippines newspaper clumn
Wednesday suggesting some of the players may have been older than 12.  Little
League records say Tolentino will turn 13 in the fall.

Philippine sports officials denied the team was anything more than a group 
of 11- and 12-year olds from Zamboanga City.  "Its not extraordinary
circumstance for someone to raise the question of age for the Far East
team," Sullivan said.  "In the past, we've always researched it to the best 
of our ability and we have not found violations."

Similar allegations have been raised in the past about Taiwan, which has 
won 15 titles since 1969.  One year, a Little League representative
traveled to Taiwan to check records and discovered the players met the age
requirements, said Steve Weller, a former Little League spokesman.

"There are allegations all the time, but more often than not they're
unsubsstantiated," he said.  Tolentino's 1990 team was accused of
falsifying birth records for a tournament the team won in Tokyo.
---- end ---

To borrow the lingo of one of the scf'ers, here is my two-penny worth of
reaction
to this news clip...
I know we dont have to make a big deal out of this (as also reflected from
the news clip - except for the last sentence where it should not be
there) but anyway, it seems that there are two basis of the protest.  First is
the age requirement and the second one is that Zamboanga thing.  You bet I 
am not an authority when it comes to Little League Baseball, but when I watched
the World Series in ABC, I guess I learned from the commentators that the
players should be 13 years old or under on August 1, 1992 (did I say
this right?). This means that some of the boys can be almost 13 years old and
older than 12 (I hope I do make sense!).  Anyway, if the second allegation
(Zamboanga thing) is right, I hope one of our boys comes from my own Bicol
region...


  
Henry