1992 Little League World Series

__NOTOC__Infobox LLWS
Year=1992
Start_date=August 25
End_date=August 29
Teams_participating=8
Champion=flagicon|USAflagicon|California Long Beach Little League
Long Beach, California
Runnerup=flagicon|PHL Zamboanga City Little League
Zamboanga City, PhilippinesThe 1992 Little League World Series took place between between August 24 and August 29 in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

The Little League baseball team representing Zamboanga City won its way through national trials, the Far East series, and after brushing aside the competition at the Little League World Series, were crowned champions of the 46th Little League World Series. The team was stripped of its title after Filipino journalists revealed to the world that the team had used ineligible players who, variously, did not meet either age or residency requirements. The team from Long Beach, California, whom Zamboanga City had defeated in the final, had the title awarded to them.

Far East series

Between 1967, when Japan's West Tokyo were victorious, and 1992, the Little League World Series was won 19 of a possible 25 times by the Far East champion. Competing against the national champions of traditionally stronger baseball nations like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, Filipino teams had been unable to qualify for the LLWS. [http://www.littleleague.org/series/history/league.htm#PHILIPPINES Search by League Name ] ] In 1992, however, the Far East were represented by Zamboanga City, who had won the national Filipino title.

The tournament

The 1992 tournament debuted the round-robin format; no longer would a team play against a predetermined opponent in the first round, with the winners facing each other in the semifinal, with the winner advancing to the Saturday championship.

The new format had each team play the other three teams in their bracket, and then having the top two teams play each other in the semifinal, with the winners advancing to the championship.

Zamboanga City defeated Kaiserslauten, Germany, then Valleyfield, Quebec, then lost to Epyguerrerro, Dominican Republic, in the 3 preliminary games. This was enough to get them into the international final, a rematch with Epyguerrerro, which they won, 5-1. [http://www.littleleague.org/series/history/year/1992.htm 1992 Little League Baseball World Series ] ] The world series championship game, on August 29, against Long Beach, California, was a blowout, Zamboanga City running out 15-4 winners after a 7 run first inning. [http://www.littleleague.org/series/history/scores/1992line.htm 1992 Line Scores ] ] The team was hailed as heroes in the Philippines, President Ramos giving the team a gift of 1 million pesos to contribute to the livelihood of their families.http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.filipino/browse_thread/thread/e4ce98160d1e6745] Long Beach head coach Jeff Burroughs remarked that semi-final pitcher Roberto Placious had the poise of a high school or college pitcher. http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.filipino/browse_thread/thread/8bf73b715469e304]

Initial investigation and disqualification

A few days after Zamboanga City's triumphant victory, however, journalist Al Mendoza of the Philippine Daily Inquirer began publishing stories suggesting that some players were ineligible. Local administrator Armando Andaya was faxed four questions from Creighton Hale, Little League president, regarding player ages, birth certificates, residence, and a specific question regarding winning championship game pitcher Ian Tolentino's participation in a tournament in 1990 (possibly with the view of suggesting this would have to have made him overage). Andaya admitted to violating rules on district representation - eight players were from outside the Zamboanga City area, some as far away as Luzon and unable to speak Chabacano, the language most commonly spoken in Zamboanga. Andaya claimed that the 8 players replaced, for various reasons, were unable to go to China for the Far East series and that the out-of-district substitutes were only used to make up numbers rather than to give the team an extra edge over their opponents. "Field of schemes", Sports Illustrated, vol. 78, issue 2, Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company, 1993]

Little League Baseball stripped Zamboanga City of their title, declaring the championship game a 6-0 forfeit, and awarded the championship to Long Beach. The exposed players and parents remained defiant, and accused Little League Baseball of denying them due process. http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.filipino/browse_thread/thread/5f3c252d2a769f67]

More revelations

With many Filipinos outraged at what they saw as an unpatriotic betrayal by Mendoza, who was given the key to the city of Long Beach, fellow Inquirer journalist Armand N. Nocum conducted further investigation http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=61630] and found that even the six true Zamboangueños were over-aged, at least one as old as 15,"Series Fraud Called Wider", New York Times, Late Edition - Final, November 8 1992, The New York Times Company, 1992] and thus ineligible. It was discovered that, as with the eight non-district players, the fraud had been maintained by the players' assumption of identities of (eligible) players who had represented the city at the national championships, the families of whom were reportedly willing to reveal all, jealous of the prizes bestowed upon the players who had used their sons' identities to represent their country at the Far East and World Series'. In some cases, even the parents of the ineligible players assumed appropriate identities to maintain the appearance of propriety. Nocum, seemingly backing Andaya's assertion that the substitutes were not chosen to artificially inflate the team's performance, was reported later as saying that had the original Zamboanga City team participated in the World Series, they would have trounced Long Beach by far more runs.

In an interesting post-script, Zamboanga City were disqualified from the Filipino national titles the very next year in another over-age player scandal. "East Vs. South In Opener / Pairings positions set for Little League Series", San Francisco Chronicle, June 3 1993, Associated Press, 1993]

Qualification

August 24

Elimination round

Round4
27 August |flagicon|PHL Zamboanga City, Philippines|5|flagicon|DOM Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |1
27 August |flagicon|California Long Beach, California|1|flagicon|New Jersey Hamilton Square, New Jersey|0
29 August "Forfeit: see above"|flagicon|PHL Zamboanga City, Philippines |0|flagicon|USAflagicon|California Long Beach, California|6

Notable Players

Sean Burroughs (Long Beach, California) MLB Free Agent third baseman

References

ee also

*Little League

External links

* [http://www.littleleague.org/series/history/year/1992.htm 1992 Little League World Series]
* [http://www.littleleague.org/series/history/scores/1992line.htm Line scores for the 1992 LLWS]