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American Morning

Dominican Republic Ruled Yesterday on Little League Pitcher's Age

Aired August 31, 2001 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The latest on Danny Almonte, one of the baby Bronx Bombers. His Little League career looks like it is in big trouble. The star pitcher may cost his team its third-place finish in the Little League World Series.

Associated Press reporting this morning that the Dominican Republic ruled today Danny Almonte is 14 years old, not 12 years old as he had claimed. That would make him too old to be one of the little boys of summer.

Our Jason Carroll is watching this story, as he has been now for days, out of New York City. Jason, what is the latest?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here's how this whole thing happened. An Associated Press reporter spoke to a member of the government records office in the Dominican Republic. That member of that office was sitting on a special committee looking into Danny Almonte's birth records.

Now, that AP reporter says that that committee member told him there are a number of contradiction in the second birth certificate. There -- as you know that there are two birth certificates, one indicating Danny is 12, the other indicating that he is 14. This committee member said that the birth certificate from Almonte's parents showing that Danny is 12 years old, which is the legal age limit to play Little League ball, is not convincing.

Earlier this week, birth records were uncovered by a "Sports Illustrated" reporter that seemed to indicated that Danny was 14 years old.

CNN had an opportunity to speak with representatives from that government office in the Dominican Republic. They are extremely upset that this information was leaked. They say it is not official, and that the only person who can give the official results of their investigation into Danny's age is the president of the committee. They are planning on press conference for 11:30 eastern time.

Little League officials told us yesterday, Daryn, that they would accept whatever age that officials in the Dominican Republic had decided to reach. And early this morning we did also have an opportunity to speak to a spokeswoman from Danny's team, the Rolando Paulino All-Stars in the Bronx. She told us -- quote -- "We were lied to. We only went with the documents provided to us. We believed the father, he gave us three documents to indicate he" -- meaning Danny -- "was 12. We have no experts to examine the documents. We apologize to everyone for not investigating further. We are in shock."

They are planning a news conference for about 12:00 eastern time. So we're just going to have to wait and see what everyone has to say about all of this. Daryn.

KAGAN: Very good. Jason, I'm hearing that you'll see that news conference live here on CNN.

Instant teenager, more on that just ahead.

Jason Carroll in New York. Thank you.

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