The reigning Little League U.S. Champions, Jackie Robinson West of Chicago, have been stripped of their title and Windy City emcee Twista voiced his outrage in an article published by TMZ.
“I’m outraged,” Twista says. “You don’t see this extensive of an investigation happen unless it happens to black people.”
ESPN reports that the team was stripped of their title due to a rule prohibiting the team from fielding players deemed outside of their area.
“The organization found 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,” ESPN reports. “As a result, the United States championship has been awarded to Mountain Ridge Little League from Las Vegas.”
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Twista says that the kids in south Chicago had to struggle to find places to play.
“There was a park in the Dolton area that got torn down, that made the kids have to even play at Jackie Robinson,” Twista says. “No one pays attention to what they have to go through to play baseball. It’s the friendly game of baseball … no one is comfortable when a group like them does something positive in that. They rush to tear them down.”
Little League CEO Stephen D.Keener says that they “had no choice” but to punish Jackie Robinson West in order to maintain the integrity of the competition.
Back in August, while Jackie Robinson West held a celebratory rally, Chance The Rapper offered words of encouragement.
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“It’s not often that we get a chance to learn a lesson in leadership and teamwork; ambition and humility at the same time,” Chance said on stage at a rally for the team. “You’ve seen them play. It’s seldom that you learn that lesson from the perspective of somebody in their senior — as a father, as a grandmother, as an older brother, as an older sister. It’s almost never you get that chance to view it from a TV, from a living room, on top of a balcony, overlooking a city finally hitting its stride. Chicago, make some noise…I’m so excited.”
