Mountain Ridge’s Cave understands big picture, unlike others involved in Little League

Think about Dave Belisle and his impassioned speech today. Think about Carl Stotz and that lilac bush, about Bill Bair and his stories of a simpler, less complicated time, when kids didn’t suffer for the choices of adults.

Think about Ashton Cave and his unshakable commitment to do and say the right thing.

From its beginning, there has been more good than bad with Little League baseball, more volunteers with the correct set of values and integrity than those who conspire to defraud the brand and stain its intended mission.

Think about the good apples.

The rotten ones aren’t worth anyone’s time.

Those adults from Jackie Robinson West on the South Side of Chicago who schemed to violate rules and rewrite boundaries in hopes of building a World Series champion, and later visited surrounding leagues to persuade them to go along with the scam, are the pathetic exception to a significant truth: While Little League unquestionably has lost its way over the years along a path now littered with tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue and a presence on ESPN each summer that has caused many to lose all perspective about what’s most important in youth sports, those who volunteer to impart ethical standards across 7,000 leagues in 82 countries far outnumber those who seek ways to cheat the system.

Little League International on Wednesday stripped from Jackie Robinson West the U.S. championship it won by beating Mountain Ridge 7-5 in August, when a nation embraced the feel-good tale of an all-African-American team from a city suffering from the effects of violence and budget cuts and that needed something good.

Mountain Ridge, the first team in Nevada history to make the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., has been awarded the U.S. title.

It is an empty gesture that is neither deserved nor, by most, welcomed.

Mountain Ridge lost the game.

It shouldn’t be viewed otherwise.

“They beat us,” said Cave, manager of Mountain Ridge. “They were a very good team. They were the better team that day. This is about the choice some adults made and accountability. We all make mistakes. We need to be responsible for them.

“We don’t want the title. A blank spot for the 2014 U.S. champions will be the best thing and a constant reminder of what happens when you don’t follow the rules. Each family can determine how they want to label what we accomplished, but I won’t refer to us as national champions. We have moved on.

“This is a life-learning lesson for the entire world.”

It would be easy to think first today about those at Jackie Robinson West involved in the eligibility shenanigans; about the team manager and district administrator who approved the use of illegal players; about the coach in Chicago whose team lost to Jackie Robinson West 43-2, went out of his way to praise its players and then promptly began the entire investigation by complaining to Little League about kids and boundaries; about the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH coalition predictably grabbing onto the spotlight and suggesting race was involved in the decision; about the pious and often hypocritical entity that is Little League International, whose main objective has over time transformed from teaching kids baseball to lining its pockets.

Don’t think about any of them.

Think instead about Cave, who understands the big picture of Little League more than anyone else, whose belief that a greater message about right and wrong should be learned from this more than Mountain Ridge accepting a championship it didn’t earn again defines the type of character he owns.

Think about Belisle, the Rhode Island manager whose speech to his team after its elimination loss from the World Series to Jackie Robinson West brought tears to those watching across the country. How he told his players to hold their heads high, how they had traveled an incredible journey and about the pride they instilled in those back home, how they were fighters and sportsmen and kids who never quit, how they were his boys, how he needed one final big hug, how he loved them.

Think about the 87-year-old Bair, who sits daily at the birthplace of Little League in Williamsport, a seemingly ordinary field along Fourth Street, imparting tales about how he was a batting champion that first season in 1939 and how the organization was formed when Stotz sprained his ankle on a lilac bush playing catch with his nephews at home, sat down and thought there must be a better and safer place for baseball for neighborhood kids.

Think about the innocence that still exists within Little League, as difficult as it is to discover in times such as this.

Mostly, think about the kids of Jackie Robinson West.

There wasn’t a more engaging, energetic, polite, entertaining group in Williamsport six months ago. They never stopped competing. Never stopped smiling. Never stopped embracing the moment. Never stopped playing like champions.

Said a White House spokesman on behalf of President Barack Obama on Wednesday: “The president was proud of the way Jackie Robinson West players represented their city and country. The fact is, some dirty dealing by some adults doesn’t take anything away from the accomplishments of those young men.”

Nail. Coffin.

There is a quote that says kids play sports with a great deal of fairness and sportsmanship, but once they learn how important the game is to adults, they will then learn how to cheat. How incredibly sad but true at the same time.

Much good still exists in Little League. When you look past those with selfish intentions, past the unruly parents living through their kids, past the corporate posturing from suits representing a child’s game, you will notice that a majority of youth baseball remains defined by volunteers intent on imparting those ethical standards, by everyday people who do extraordinary things for children.

Don’t let the rotten apples soil that vision.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 100.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.