Major League Baseball

Chicago mayor attempted to restore Jackie Robinson West's title

Published Feb. 12, 2015 12:03 p.m. ET

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Hours after Little League International announced its stunning decision to strip a Chicago team of its national championship, the city's mayor was on the phone asking the organization to reverse a decision that he said unfairly made the young players responsible.

But Little League International CEO Stephen D. Keener would not budge, telling Mayor Rahm Emanuel that as difficult as the decision was and as tough as it has been emotionally on the children and their families, the decision by the organization's charter committee was final, according to the organization's spokesman.

The organization announced Wednesday that Jackie Robinson West had been stripped of its title because team officials falsified boundaries so they could add ineligible players to the roster and that the officials then scrambled to persuade surrounding leagues to go along with what they'd done.

Little League International spokesman Brian McClintock would not detail the conversation between Keener and Emanuel. But the Chicago mayor's office said that during the 10-minute call, first reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, Emanuel suggested alternative punishments could apply, including banning the league from playing for a certain period of time.

The decision has turned the young players into "perpetrators when they are victims," Emanuel said, according to his office.

Though McClintock said the decision is final, in Chicago where the march of the all-black team from the city's South Side was one of the most heartwarming stories in recent memory, angry community activists made it clear that the fight to give the boys back their championship at the Little League World Series is not over.

A high-profile Chicago attorney said he's working with local Little League officials to investigate the international governing body's decision to strip the Chicago team of its national title.

Attorney Victor Henderson said during a news conference Thursday that he'll look into Little League International's ruling that local officials knowingly added ineligible players to the Jackie Robinson West team.

Henderson also wants to know if other teams do the same thing.

Henderson was flanked by league officials, the team's manager and the league's director, Bill Haley. Haley says the team provided proof its players were eligible.

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