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American Morning

Interview With Lance Van Auken

Aired July 25, 2002 - 07:50   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: What began on a Little League baseball diamond has become the scandal of major league proportions. The Kearny, New Jersey Little League is reeling now from accusations that two coaches asked their players to intentionally lose a game against local cross-town rivals. The coaches deny the charges, and Little League officials are said to be investigating.

Let's talk more about it. Live this morning in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lance Van Auken, a Little League spokesman, is our guest.

Sir, good morning to you.

LANCE VAN AUKEN, SPOKESMAN, LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL, INC.: Good morning.

HEMMER: Listen, it is kind of a case of he-said/he-said, to this point. The coaches deny it. The players about a half dozen say that it happened. How concerned are you at this point, sir?

VAN AUKEN: Well, we are very concerned at headquarters. But the good thing is, I guess, that both teams are out of the tournament now. They have been eliminated by losses. So it gives us time to really take a good, long look at it. There is no real timetable for us to come up with any kind of decision.

So we are conducting an investigation, or maybe it's better termed a fact-finding mission -- which term I heard earlier this morning -- to see what the true facts are, and then go from there once we find that out.

HEMMER: Sir, if both teams are and eliminated, does that take the heat off Little League for now then? Is that what you are suggesting?

VAN AUKEN: No, certainly not, but it gives us time -- it's not a question of having to decide something by a game tonight, which we often have to do. The tournament committee is on duty 24 hours a day at Little League. We are playing probably about 35,000 games in a 40- day period leading up to the various World Series in baseball and softball.

HEMMER: I want you to listen to the mother of one of the players. Her name is Cynthia Ford. She was on CNN last night. In fact, she was on talking with Connie Chung. Listen to what she said about what her son told her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNTNIA FORD, PLAYER'S MOTHER: My 10-year-old son is also on the All Star team. I went to his game. He had a game away. And as I was telling one of the parents what had happened, another parent said, well, it was done two years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Has this happened before?

VAN AUKEN: Not that we have heard of in this exact kind of instance. Very often, especially during regular season games, a manager or a coach will go into a game not needing to win that game. It's not, you know, important to the standings.

And very often, just as sort of a measure of sportsmanship, a manager might put in some players to pitch that don't normally pitch, put a kid behind the plate to catch, who really wants to put on that equipment, put a right fielder in at shortstop, knowing that there's a possibility they might lose that game. Certainly not telling their players to lose, thought, that what makes the difference.

HEMMER: And again, we should stress the coaches both deny these charges. And in fact, they have been on the record with local reporters...

VAN AUKEN: Right.

HEMMER: ... in Kearny, New Jersey.

I want to get your reflections though. If you go back a year ago, Danny Almonte, the pitcher, who essentially lied about his age, about how old he was. If you consider that incident from last year, and you consider the bad taste, I guess, a lot of people are taking away from this story, what kind of impression do you think it leaves for Little Leaguers across the country who hear about this case in Kearny?

VAN AUKEN: Well, I think specifically with the Danny Almonte case and with Rolando Pellino (ph), Little League, and with this case, I think people who are involved in Little League know that both of these are isolated incidents. I mean, the question about an overage player at the World Series, we have had about 6,300 players in the last 55 years come through there, and he is the only one who has ever been found to be overage.

And as I said, this case in Kearny, it's the first time that we have heard of a coach actively telling the players to lay down. And again, as you said, you know, the coaches have denied this. And that's our job to go into the League and see what the true facts are.

And in the end, it may be something that we have to leave up to that local League board of directors. It's a group of volunteers that that community elects to represent them, and they are the people that put those coaches on the field and are responsible for their behavior.

HEMMER: We're out of time. Thanks for talking, though. Lance Van Auken...

VAN AUKEN: Thank you -- my pleasure.

HEMMER: ... Little League spokesman with us today. Thank you, sir.

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