Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Jayson Werth loves hitting bombs off Sunday leaguers.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a controversial Little League scandal that sent shockwaves through Chicago.

Jackie Robinson West (JRW) captured the hearts of America during the summer of 2014.

The team, comprised of young athletes from Chicago's South Side, dominated their way to the Little League World Series, ultimately winning the US Championship.

JRW was the first all-black team to compete in the tournament in several decades and their success truly transcended the sport.

They became a symbol of hope and inspiration, not only for their own city, but really the entire country.

During their run, the team was getting shoutouts from Lil’ Wayne, Chance the Rapper, and Carl Crawford even offered to pay the travel expenses for all of the JRW families.

Not to mention, this was also the same year that Mo'ne Davis rose to fame.

Remember this epic Sports Illustrated cover?

The combination of JRW and Mo’ne generated the highest viewership in LLWS history up to that point.

When they got home from Williamsport, JWR arrived to a hero’s welcome - they had a parade, got tons of donations, and had their photo plastered on a box of Frosted Flakes.

They even got an invite from Obama to visit the White House.

But in February of 2015, Little League stripped them of their title.

Basically, the claim was that Jackie Robinson West had used players from outside their boundaries and essentially crafted a super team.

The person who made the claim? 

Chris Janes, the vice president of nearby Little League called Evergreen Park Athletic Association - whom JRW obliterated 45-2 earlier in the season.

Even though Janes probably had ulterior motives, he wasn’t wrong.

It was later revealed that players had been recruited from areas beyond the official boundaries - only 5 of 13 players were actually eligible.

The new district administrator for JRW had sent revised boundaries to Little League without obtaining the necessary approval from the other leagues in his district.

The decision to strip JRW of their title was met with both support and criticism.

Some baseball purists thought it was a necessary enforcement to preserve the integrity of the game, but others thought it was overly harsh and super hypocritical.

In all fairness, it’s not half as bad as what Zamboanga City did.

Many called Little League opportunistic; accusing them of turning a blind eye to any JRW malfeasance while milking them for money and viewership.

Many also thought that race was a factor in the controversy, suggesting that similar rule violations in predominantly white leagues were not penalized as severely.

Before long, lawsuits started flying.

• Chris Janes sued Little League

• Jackie Robinson West sued Little League

• Even Stephen A. Smith got sued 

Ultimately, all of the lawsuits got settled or dropped and really nobody won.

Jackie Robinson West never reclaimed its national title, and the whole thing was a terrible look for Little League.

The thing that sucks the most about this situation is that the kids really ended up paying the price for the mistakes the adults made.

A movie called “One Golden Summer,” which chronicles the entire scandal and the stories of the players involved is slated for release soon.

WEBGEM WEDNESDAY

AGAINST ALL ODDS

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STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

By the time Royce got to the big leagues, he’d already won 141 games in the minor leagues.

He began his career in ‘39, but from ‘42 to ‘45 there wasn’t really any minor league baseball because of World War II.

Lint stayed in the minor leagues until ‘54, and by the time he made his debut, he was 33 years old.

It didn’t last long.

He got shelled in the big leagues and ended his career with a 4.86 ERA in about 70 innings of work.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:

• The First Strike: How a bunch of scrubs got to play against world champs

• The Anthem: How “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” became the unofficial song of baseball

• The Good Luck Charm: Why the Tigers had an orphan living in their clubhouse