Say it ain’t so.
Say it ain’t so that the South Snohomish Little League softball team maneuvered to lose a game in pool play in the Little League World Series in Portland, Oregon, on Monday, with hopes that losing one game could improve its chances of winning the World Series title.
Family and supporters of the 11- and 12-year-old girls from the Little League team from Snohomish are justified in their pride for what had been accomplished this season.
For four years this group of girls has played together and has won state and other tournaments. This year the team advanced in its first year of eligibility for the Little League World Series, becoming the first Washington state team of 11- and 12-year-olds to qualify for the World Series since Kirkland in 2001 and the first county team since Marysville in 1989. And they did it with determination displayed by pitcher Makayla Miller, 12 — the daughter of coach Fred Miller — who pitched through illness to finish the regional tournament with two no-hitters and four shutouts. As Herald Sports Writer David Kruger reported Aug. 12, it wasn’t until Makayla won her last game of the tourney that she was taken to a hospital in Utah with a kidney infection that she likely had been suffering through during most of the tournament.
Now that drive to win appears to have resulted in questionable coaching decisions.
Having built a 3-0 record in the opening pool play of the World Series, South Snohomish, representing the West, had all but assured itself one of two spots in the second round of pool play, win or lose in Monday’s game against the Southeast team from North Carolina. A loss would have meant three teams shared a 3-1 record, forcing a tie-breaker decision determined by a formula that would have left a team from Iowa out of the tournament. After South Snohomish lost its game with Southeast, 8-0, coaches for Iowa protested to Little League officials that the Snohomish team — seeking to eliminate a strong Iowa team from further contention — was not “striving to win,” part of the pledge that Little Leaguers play under. Four of South Snohomish’s best players had been benched and batters were intentionally striking out, swinging at balls in the dirt and bunting on two-strike counts, Iowa claimed.
Little League officials found that the team had not played with the “effort and spirit appropriate for any Little League game.” But rather than boot the team, Little League officials honored the spirit of fairness and required a playoff game with Iowa. South Snohomish lost that game Tuesday, 3-2, eliminating it from title contention. Iowa now moves on.
Earlier South Snohomish officials denied the allegations and maintained the coach was only resting some of the team’s starters. By Tuesday afternoon, officials admitted coaching decisions were made “that were not in line with the spirit of the game.”
Whether it’s deflated footballs, scuffed-up baseballs or juiced athletes, we’ve become used to hearing about attempts to gain an advantage by fudging or breaking the rules at the professional and even collegiate levels.
At the Little League level, as with all youth sports, we insist that the emphasis must remain on building character, encouraging fitness and having fun. Winning can still be a part of that.
But maneuvering for an advantage by coercing children to throw games in the quest for a title is not striving to win.
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