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CNN Sunday Morning

Little League World Series Gets Under Way

Aired August 18, 2002 - 09:24   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Josie Karp covers baseball, and that means baseball of all manner, all stripes and all salary levels. When last we saw her, she was in New York City talking about billionaires versus millionaires and the ensuing squabbles, and now she's moved on to quite literally greener pastures, wouldn't you say, Josie? Looks like a vacation for you to come to Williamsport, right?
JOSIE KARP, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: A little bit. You know, it's better than a weekend off, right? And maybe I'm talking about some future millionaires. Miles, there are 16 teams from all over this country and all over the world gathered here in South Williamsport. They are all looking to be this year's Little League's world champion, but one of those teams has gotten a lot more attention than all of the others, and that is the team from Harlem, New York.

Early in the week they beat a team from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to become Mid-Atlantic champion and earn the right to come to the Little League World Series here in South Williamsport. But by the time they got here, Little League had started an investigation into whether several of their players had violated residency eligibility requirements, and it wasn't until late on Thursday night that they were actually cleared to play in this tournament.

And if it had been a very draining week for that Harlem Little League team, it looked like they might have taken out some of their frustration yesterday when they played a team from North Carolina. They jumped out to a 7-0 lead and they ended up winning that game 9-3. They have another game tonight, but I have to point out that this is actually the second time in the last two years that a team from New York City has been involved in a controversy here at the Little League World Series.

Last year, it was when a Bronx team came here, also the Mid- Atlantic champion, with a star pitcher by the name of Danny Almonte. That team was crowned third place champion here at the Little League World Series, but when they got home, it was learned that Almonte, the star pitcher, was actually 14 years old, and this tournament has an eligibility of 12 years old; that is the limit. So that team was stripped of its third place title. Almonte was stripped of his perfect game.

But Little League officials point out there is a big difference between what happened last year and what happened this year, and the main thing that they say is last year there was clearly an intent to deceive. This year they say there was no intent to deceive. They ended up making an exception. They granted a residency waiver for two of the players, but that's something they said they would have done anyway. In South Williamsport, I'm Josie Karp, Miles. Back to you.

O'BRIEN: Yeah, Josie, it seems like the rules for the Little League were kind of based on antiquated notions about nuclear families and so forth, and maybe this was probably something that needed to be modified somewhat.

KARP: Absolutely. They're going to look into that.

O'BRIEN: Josie Karp. In greener pastures. Hopefully, she'll be back in Manhattan covering that other thing, too, undoubtedly, but enjoy it while you're there. All right?

KARP: Thanks, Miles.

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