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Young baseball star is too old
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Little League tossed out pitcher Danny Almonte's perfect game and all his team's victories Friday, including a third-place World Series finish, after Dominican officials determined he was 14 years old, not 12, and too old to play. In addition the team's founder, Rolando Paulino, was barred for life from associating with Little League and Almonte's father faces criminal charges in the Dominican Republic for allegedly tampering with official documents. "Clearly, adults have used Danny Almonte in a most contemptible and despicable way," said Stephen D. Keener, president and CEO of Little League Baseball in South Williamsport, Pa. The boy who dominated the competition with 70 mph fastballs was ruled ineligible Friday after a birth certificate showing that he was 12 years old was found to be false, according to Manuel Ramon Morel Cerda, the president of the Dominican Electoral Committee, which is in charge of most public records. The government plans to charge the boy's father, Felipe de Jesus Almonte, with falsifying documents, and is considering charges against the mother, Sonia Rojas Breton, Morel said. Little League rules prohibit any player born before Aug. 1, 1988, from competing this year. "I feel like the government has sold us out," Almonte's maternal uncle Jose Rojas told the Associated Press on Friday in a telephone interview from Almonte's hometown of Moca, Dominican Republic. He said the boy would return home soon but declined to elaborate. Almonte led his team to the U.S. championship, throwing the first perfect game in the Little League World Series since 1957. His team lost to Apopka, a Florida team, but won a consolation game for third place. "It saddens us that there are people who are throwing out the work we have done against this sort of thing," said Jose Daniel Calzada, baseball commissioner for the Dominican Republic. He was referring to efforts made to prevent age tampering, which in this poor country is often done to get youngsters into the lucrative professional minor and major leagues in the United States. President Bush, recently inducted into the league's Hall of Excellence, said he was disappointed to hear Almonte was over the age limit. After their third-place finish, Almonte and his team were honored in New York, receiving the keys to the city, a parade through the Bronx and a tribute at Yankee Stadium. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the city would not ask for the keys back, saying, "It would only add to the hurt and pain that the innocent children of this team are already experiencing." Victor Romero of the public records office in Santo Domingo investigated Almonte's birth documents in Moca, about 90 miles north of the capital of Santo Domingo. He also investigated records from the nearby town of Jamao, where Almonte's mother, Sonia Rojas Breton, said he was born. Officials found the birth certificate from Jamao to be false after speaking to the witnesses who had signed the birth certificate. The town official from Jamao who registered Almonte's age as 12 last year has been suspended. Almonte's mother has a handwritten, photocopied birth certificate that said her son was born April 7, 1989. But Moca's official records office has another birth certificate that said he was born April 7, 1987. League founder Rolando Paulino, meanwhile, said Friday in New York he trusted the documents that were given to him. "If the parents lie to the league that is not my problem. I accept the information that the parents gave to me," said Paulino, flanked by team members and parents. Antonio Vazquez, district administrator of the Puerto Rico Little Leagues, said Friday that Paulino in 1988 brought a team from Moca to represent the Dominican Republic in the Latin American Little League Tournament, held in Carolina, a San Juan suburb. He told the Associated Press Friday that organizers determined that Paulino's team had six overage players. The team won the tournament that year, but because of the age dispute, they were stripped of the title, which ended up going to Panama, said Carlos Pagan, the San Juan-based Latin American director of Little League Baseball. Also on Friday, two New York Little League administrators said the Rolando Paulino Little League teams used ineligible players on at least three occasions in 1998. Paulino denied those reports. Child welfare officials in the Bronx also said Friday they were investigating the school enrollments of the entire Rolando Paulino All-Star team after questions were raised about at least two players. The city's Administration for Children's Services decided to check all of the Little League team's players "to make sure they're enrolled for the coming school year," spokeswoman Jennifer Falk said. City officials have already determined that Almonte was not enrolled in school last year. "We're treating that as a case of education neglect," said Falk, whose agency is trying to determine why Almonte, who lived with his father in the Bronx, did not attend school during the 2000-01 year. Its investigation could lead to the removal of Almonte from his father's home and placement in foster care, she said, although it is more likely officials will try to work out another solution. Rumors about Almonte's age plagued the team throughout the tournament. On Monday, Little League officials in South Williamsport began an investigation into Almonte's age after Sports Illustrated uncovered the document that said he was born in 1987. Meanwhile, a U.S. official who asked not to be identified said Almonte and his father are in the United States illegally. They applied to come to the United States in June 2000 and were issued tourist visas, but the visas expired six months after their arrival, the official said. The New York Post initially reported Aug. 23 that the youngster's visa had expired. Little League officials say Almonte's immigration status did not affect his eligibility to play because all that is required is that a child be of age and that a parent or guardian live in the community he represents.
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