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The parents of the 13 players on Jackie Robinson West, the Chicago-based Little League team that was stripped of its 2014 national title for falsifying local league boundaries, have sued Little League Baseball Inc., local officials and the rival coach whose concerns triggered the initial investigation, as well as ESPN and its commentator, Stephen A. Smith. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois. It is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages due to emotional and economic distress, as well as the restoration of the 2014 U.S. title. The Jackie Robinson West team drew significant attention in 2014. In a sport that increasingly struggles to attract African-Americans, the team representing Chicago's South Side beat Las Vegas in Little League's U.S. title game before falling to South Korea in the world championship. Less than a year later, Little League Baseball said that Jackie Robinson West used a falsified boundary map and that team officials met with neighboring Little League districts in Illinois to claim players and build what amounts to a superteam. As a result, the team was stripped of its U.S. championship and forced to vacate all wins from the 2014 international tournament. Manager Darold Butler was suspended from Little League activity, and Illinois District 4 administrator Michael Kelly was removed from his position. In Thursday's lawsuit, the parents of the players allege they were never notified during the season that there were eligibility issues because of the residency requirements of Little League, which "was responsible for reviewing and scrutinizing the residency documents with the boundary map and then confirming the eligibility of each player participating in the tournament." The parents allege that "Little League was aware of the potential residency issues of the children of the JRW parents but chose to ignore and/or deliberately conceal these facts in order to garner higher ratings, publicity and money for Defendant Little League." The lawsuit also alleges that stripping the Chicago-based team of its title was against Little League's rules and procedures and kept JRW from "sufficient due process." In addition, the JRW parents claim that ESPN's Smith defamed Butler, the team manager, while on First Take "by indirectly and directly stating that he had engaged in criminal, fraudulent acts." In a statement released later Thursday, ESPN said, "We have not seen the lawsuit, so it would be inappropriate to comment." A Little League spokesman said the organization was aware of the lawsuit but hadn't reviewed it. The Jackie Robinson West team initially lodged a lawsuit against Little League in June 2015, but it filed a motion to dismiss it two months later.
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