Baseball or DEATH!

Some cheaters got caught. And because they didn't follow the rules, there were penalties.

And of course, the penalties were all about.....racism:

• [Sun Times] The Jackie Robinson West All Stars became a yellow beacon of hope last summer to a city plagued by violence — and a country torn apart over race.

"torn apart over race"? We're sure they meant "torn apart over false allegations of racism regarding the criminal behavior by minorities and completely legal and justified action by law enforcement," right?

And the "plague of violence" was perpetrated in the minority neighborhoods by....oh yeah...minorities.

• [Sun Times]... the Rev. Jesse Jackson said the South Siders are also the victims of a “wholesale attack” on their integrity.
  
  “Is this about boundaries,” he asked, “or race?”

Um, it's about boundaries Jesse. They laid out the maps, explained their decision, explained how the rules were broken...it was all right there. But once again, you're a crisis in search of a cause and playing on the ignorance of your constituency isn't pretty.

• [Sun Times quoting Pfather Pfleger] “Are you telling me that the same kind of obsession of stalking, going over this for months, would have happened — would have been done — if the Las Vegas team had won?” Pfleger said. “I’m sorry. I live in America. Maybe I’m tainted by that. But I believe that. And I believe that racism is in the midst of this thing.”

You're an idiot. We've proven that time and again and you only cement your position as a moron each time you open your mouth. If you don't like it, there's the door. We heard the archbishop of Iraq is looking for priests.

• [Tribune] Venisa Green, mother of player Brandon Green, said Little League International’s decision felt like a familiar blow.
  
  “It is amazing to me that whenever African-Americans exceed the expectations, there is always going to be fault that is found in what we do,” she said. “Little League says that they teach character and they teach courage. Well, this isn’t an act of courage, and this sure isn’t an act of character.”

Really? What is truly amazing is that you feel to "exceed the expectations" you have to lie, cheat and subvert. And when you get caught, blame the organization for making rules that everyone is supposed to follow....except you.

It's actually courageous on the part of the Little League to strip the title and demonstrate that there are penalties to breaking the rules. Especially knowing that they're going to face a firestorm of Jesse and his minions flinging about unfounded and unprovable charges of racism in an attempt to bully the organization.

• [Tribune] The world we live in don't have much to offer black kids. They can't come out to play without worrying about getting shot or pulled into a gang.

The Tribune removed (surprise!) some of the more inflammatory quotes without noting the changes in an earlier version of this article. The essence of one was that the Little League would rather their children were killed in the street than actually succeed at baseball. This one is almost as asinine. This world, and despite what pfather Pfleger claims, this country offer more to black kids than anywhere else on the planet, but without some strong parental direction, and that means both parents, schools, churches and yes, even little leagues, aren't going to fix what ails the community.

Perhaps if more parents taught their children that there are penalties for lying, stealing, or cheating, there would be less burglaries, robberies, shootings and killings? Just a thought. And someone go tell that Eric Holder asshole were having that discussion.