So, what do you folks think of this whole situation? I think it's sad for Danny. It sounds like his dad is to blame in all of this. I would venture to guess that his dad is looking for his son to make it to the big leagues and beating up on 12 year olds is a way to get into the spotlight. It is also a shame that he has lived in the USA for 18 months and has yet to attend school. This entire incident does not bode well for future players "south of the border" (Dominican, Puerto Rico, Mexico, etc.). Any of the bigger kids will now automatically be assumed to be older. In addition, Danny and his father are in the USA illegally. They were on 6 month tourist visas that expired in 2000. I wonder if Danny knew how old he was. In America, we take it for granted our kids know once they get to be 2 or 3. Any non-USA citizensa care to comment?
Don't know if this is exactly on topic, but I remember seeing an old pic of Frank Thomas in his little league days. Dude was so much bigger than the other kids his age, he had to play in the next higher age bracket I bet he made a FORTUNE in lunch money back in school As for Almonte, it doesn't really matter how old he is...His arm is probably shot for life after throwing all those curves and 70 mph fastballs
To me, that is the saddest part about this whole thing. I don't care if he's 12 or 14, no kid that age should be throwing that many curve balls. He might need Tommy John surgery by the time he's 17 ...
I was throwing a 12-6 curve at 10 and still throwing it at 21 and a scalpel has never been close to my arm.
Grummett: we're speaking of probabilities, man. It almost seems now that teams assume that a player from Latin America is a couple years older than he really is. I'm sure not all of them are, but it seems true for quite a few of the sensations, such as Adrian Beltre, El Duque, Furcal and now Almonte. In fact, I'd wager that the "liars" are 1. a minority and 2. that many of them don't know themselves. I wonder if there parents even know, sometimes. In history, you run across all sorts of famous writers, generals, etc who's real birth date can't be confirmed. In societies that have less use for a calendar, perhaps it's just less important.
As a Dominican, I can tell you without a doubt that its probably true that this kid is 14. They suck at keeping records. But I also can tell you that in Little League, if you are good, they automatically think that you are older than stated. For example, my brother never played Little League Baseball until he was 12. When he went and had his first game, he went something like 4-5 and the first hit he got was a lined BB against the wall in left center. While we were cheering, this man with a clipboard behind me yells to another guy across and says "Hey, did you see that?". The other guy says "Yes!" So, I turn around and say "Hey, thats my little bro out there!." The guy says to me "Whats his name?" I say "Kris". "How old is he"? he said. I say "12". He says to me "No way". Now, I never paid any mind to that until I saw this situation here in the Bronx develop. Then, 6 years later, I put all the pieces together. About 2 days after that game, we had to RESUBMIT a birth certificate for my brother who was born in Houston. We gave them a copy. But now they wanted the original. I never had second thoughts about that until recently. You see, when you are in Little League and you just appear out of no where and play well, they automatically question your age because they never seen you before. Its standard procedure, I think. They just want to make sure that the coach is not "importing" players to enhance his team and those players could be older than what the BC states.
Rafael Furcal is older than he says? DAMN! I guess I'll have to find another answer to that trivia question: Who was the first person to play in a Major League game that was born in the 1980's? And Grummett, that may be true about you, but different bodies develop at different speeds, and certain bodies are more susceptible to injuries than others. The fact is that throwing a curve ball puts a lot of torque on the wrist, and the ages of 12-14 are very important in terms of bone growth and development. That "snap" of the wrist that is important in throwing a curve ball can cause the radius and ulna to grow in the wrong direction, leading to pain and bone deformities...It has happened before...
Of course I suspect that Danny's dad forced him to do it, and we will never know whether Danny was a willing accomplice or yet another victim of a delusional, ignorant parent. But at 14, he certainly knew what he was doing was wrong, very wrong. I feel a hell of a lot sorrier for the other kids whose Little League experiences were adversely affected by this low-down, lying, cheating, scum-sucker than I do for the Alamontes. I also feel sorry for other kids from the Dominican who will be unfairly accused or suspected by narrow-minded people who think cheating is a race or nationality related behavior. The screwed up thinking and values that lead to this kind of behavior is exemplied by the statement of Joann Dalmau, a spokeswoman for the Rolando Paulino team: Give me a break.
As a Puerto Rican I can assure you that Puerto Ricans are in fact born as American citizens. For whatever reason this fact seems in dispute with a lot of people I meet. LOL I once heard Rich Lord on the radio actually comment on Roberto Clemente needing a work visa to play major league baseball which of course is just ignorant and insulting. The reason that Dominicans and Cubans falsefy birth certificates is because the major leauge draft does not apply to these countries. If a 19 year old Dominican can make himself 16 and impress scouts, that will enhance his chances of getting a big signing bonus. Puerto Ricans are part of the major league draft just like the rest of the USA. There is no benefit for Puerto Ricans to mess with their birth certificates anymore than players from Arizona or Minnesota because they're all drafted the same. That's my public service announcement for the week.
Furcal is apparently 22 years old. Last year he was supposed to be 19. The Astros have just admitted that Wade Miller is 32, Oswalt 31 and Hernandez is 39.
It's crap like this that ruins the games. I love the sport of baseball, but please to all parents and coaches rembember for the kids sake, that it is only a game. Cheating for a little league game is just down right wrong. Now I don't know if it was all the dad's knowing, but the obvious losers are many in this situation: 1. His teammates from NY who will have their 3rd place finish stripped. 2. The other little league teams he played agains in the regionals and the WS. You never know, the team they beat in the regionals could have been the WS champions but never go tthe chance. 3. Most importantly the Little Lague and the LL World Series. I thought it was bad a few years ago when one of the teams (Japan?) got caught cheating on birth dates. And for injuring his arm, I definetely think it could have some negative impacts. At that young of age I think doctors recommend not throwing curves, only fastballs and chage-ups. I'm not sure how much he throws in the rugular season, but it seemed like he was throwing every other day during the series. That can't be good for a young arm. And yeah there are MLB players who threw a ton of innings, but they are the exceptions I would bet. A good coach would have limited his innings, which they may have done. He is still quite a talent, but at 14 he doesn't seem to be such a phenom as when he was 12.
I had a feeling that this could happen. What struck me funny was that in an interview after one of his games, he spoke entirely in Spanish! I don't know why--maybe I'm just ignorant, but I got this feeling from listening to this interview that something strange was going on like him being too old and/or not going to school. Now, I've lived in a small town all my life, and I know that in huge cities like LA, NY, Miami, and Houston that Spanish is spoken by many people. It's obvious that he felt more comfortable talking in Spanish, but something was telling me that maybe he didn't know how to speak English because he wasn't learning it in school. Then it's revealed that he hadn't been to school in 18 months ! Now, there's word that Danny and his father's visas expired 6 months after being in America and they never got renewed. This is truly an ugly incident and a black eye for Little League that will take a long time to heal.
The funny thing is that by lying to be YOUNGER than he is, he'd have to wait 2 extra years to sign with a big league team. Now that it's come out, he'll actually be able to sign (if teams are still interested) in 2 years instead of 4. Unless Little League success is your goal, I still don't understand why you'd purposely try to be *younger*.
Youth sports parents screwing it up for the kids. Not much surprise there. For all the good parents, there's always plenty more who have lost touch with reality.
Well, I would love to be a couple years younger myself. Maybe the age thing had to do with school enrollment? Also, I'm not near as impressive with his accomplishments now that he is 14. If he could do that to a high school JV team on a 60 feet 6 inch mound then that would be impressive. Regardless, he seems like a good kid and I think Sports Illustrated could be ruining his and his family's life.
http://espn.go.com/moresports/llws01/s/2001/0831/1246383.html Well, now it seems like Almonte wasn't the only kid on the Bronx team that wasn't going to school. What was Danny doing during the day when he was supposed to be in school? Practing his pitching?? His father, IMO, is one of the worst parents that I have ever had the misfortune of reading about.
Good grief. What do you say to the teams that got mowed down by him and went into the locker room and home crying? Some team had a .555 team batting avg. and he one hit them! How do these kids get their experience back? They have to spend the rest of their life wondering what could have been. Can they be played over?
