The Jackie Robinson West Little League baseball team, the first all-African-American team to win the U.S. championship, have been stripped of their title after they violated a rule that does not allow teams to use players who don't live in the area the team represents, ESPN.com notes.
According to the sports site, the Chicago-based team must also vacate all wins from the "2014 Little League Baseball International Tournament—including its Great Lakes Regional and United States championships."
Darold Butler, the team's manager, was suspended from Little League activity, and "Illinois District 4 Administrator Michael Kelly has been removed from his position," ESPN reports.
ESPN notes that an investigation into the team by the organization found that Jackie Robinson West fielded a "superteam" by enlisting players who did not live within the geographical boundaries. Little League officials also found that maps were falsified to expand boundaries, which allowed players whose location made them ineligible to become eligible.
The championship has now been awarded to Mountain Ridge Little League from Las Vegas.
"For more than 75 years, Little League has been an organization where fair play is valued over the importance of wins and losses," Little League International CEO Stephen D. Keener said in a statement viewed by ESPN. "This is a heartbreaking decision. What these players accomplished on the field and the memories and lessons they have learned during the Little League World Series tournament is something the kids can be proud of, but it is unfortunate that the actions of adults have led to this outcome.
"As our Little League operations staff learned of the many issues and actions that occurred over the course of 2014 and prior, as painful as this is, we feel it a necessary decision to maintain the integrity of the Little League program," the statement continued. "No team can be allowed to attempt to strengthen its team by putting players on their roster that live outside their boundaries."
Little League officials note that they were not made aware of the rule infractions until well after the season had ended.
"Little League takes these matters very seriously and has spent countless hours gathering information about the many issues facing Jackie Robinson West Little League and Illinois District 4," Keener said in the statement. "During our review, it became clear that both Jackie Robinson West officials and District Administrator, Mike Kelly signed documents to make players eligible who should not have been."
Baseball has long been a sport that wanes in both African-American viewers and participants, so the kids from Chicago took the Little League world by storm after they beat Las Vegas 7-5 in the U.S. title game. The Jackie Robinson West team were held up as the standard for baseball for their grace both on and off the field and were honored for their play by President Barack Obama.
According to ESPN, Jackie Robinson West isn't the first team to lose its Little League title. "In 1992, Little League baseball took away the title from Zamboanga, Philippines, and handed it to Long Beach, Calif., after Zamboanga used several players that lived outside its district or were over-age. In 2001, a team from the Bronx, N.Y., that finished third was forced to forfeit its games after pitcher Danny Almonte was revealed to be over-age," ESPN reports.
Read more at ESPN.com.