The Weight Upon the Shoulders of the Jackie Robinson West All Stars

In the City of Broad Shoulders, much has been thrust upon the young shoulders of the Jackie Robinson West All Star Little Leaguers.

Some see this phenomenal all-African-American baseball team as an example to follow for other kids growing up in Chicago in the thick of the gangs, drugs and violence that rip through the neighborhoods of the South Side.

Some see these kids as the great black hope for Major League Baseball, hopeful that their well-publicized success in Williamsport, PA, will inspire other young blacks to pick up baseball bats and gloves.

Having captured the fascination of the American public, still others describe the storybook World Series play of the Jackie Robinson West All Stars as a much-needed opportunity to forget a world of intractable problems and troubling news — the beheading of a young American in a Middle East war zone, the racially charged protests in Ferguson, MO, a severe earthquake in California — or at least a “refreshing distraction,” as ABC World News put it Sunday evening in an homage to “the scrappy pre-teens from Chicago’s South Side.”

Just 11, 12 and 13 years of age, over the 10 days of the Little League World Series, these boys played their hearts out and had people throughout the country talking about their soaring home runs and double plays.

In the parlance of our digital times, #JackieRobinsonWest went viral, and everyone, it seemed, tried to elevate their baseball play into something bigger than kids from the neighborhood who, on hearing the words “play ball,” would go out and play very great baseball.

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After they knocked off Philadelphia on Thursday night, an ESPN interviewer awkwardly reminded the boys and the television audience that the South Siders came from an environment of gangs and violence, and asked the starting pitcher how he felt to now be regarded as an example. Fresh off the exhilaration of another big victory in a much-hyped game, one step closer to the World Series’ ultimate prize, the child gamely tried to answer, too.

“We mean a lot to the city because seeing an all-African-American team come from the city is a good thing,” said Marquis Jackson. “It shows that kids can do anything.”

In 1971, Joseph Haley founded the Jackie Robinson West All Star Little League as a way to bring together new families moving into Morgan Park and forge a sense of community. The league is carried on by his son Bill and his widow, Annie.

In a newspaper story last week, the New York Times decreed that “a dialogue on race” was unfolding at the Little League World Series thanks to the Jackie Robinson West All Stars. Calling the team the “best marketing” for baseball, the paper surmised that the kids could spur a renaissance of African-American interest in the sport and possibly even boost the numbers of young blacks entering the big leagues.

Haley brushed off such talk.

“Our mission is absolutely not turning out major league baseball players,” he told the paper.

Chicago White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams, speaking with Time magazine about what the Little Leaguers mean for Chicago, noted that “we’ve woken up to bad news far too often” in the city of Chicago.

Between Tuesday’s Jackie Robinson West victory and Thursday night’s win, Chicago woke to news that a 9-year-old South Side boy was shot several times behind a house in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. Antonio Williams had asked his mother for a cupcake before dinner on Wednesday, and she told him no. He got a little angry, as 9-year-old boys sometimes do, and ran out of the house. Just a few blocks away, someone shot him several times and he died alone in an alley.

The seventh child between the ages of 9 and 15 shot to death in Chicago this year, little Antonio Williams will never get to play Little League.

On Saturday, the Jackie Robinson All Stars emerged as U.S. Champions with a 6-5 victory over Las Vegas in a grudge match against the only team to beat them in an earlier round of the tournament.

The city of Chicago held two watch parties that day, one downtown and one on the South Side. Hundreds gathered and cheered and tweeted their admiration for the boys playing baseball in Williamsport. City officials said a parade and rally would be planned for Wednesday to celebrate the Little Leaguers.

Meanwhile, a priest staged a neighborhood prayer vigil for Williams and his family gets to plan a 9-year-old’s funeral.

So, let’s not look at the triumph of the Jackie Robinson All Stars as a spark to a renewed pipeline of African-American athletes for Major League Baseball.

And let’s not look at their amazing victories as our much-needed distraction from all the bad news plaguing the world and the city of Chicago. Do we deserve to be distracted from the truth that some Chicago neighborhoods are lawless firing ranges where children risk their lives just by walking down the street? If anything, our attention should be riveted on that problem.

No, the respite belongs exclusively to the boys of the Jackie Robinson All-Star Little League and their parents.

For 10 days, they could forget all their troubles and leave the worries of their neighborhood behind. And for 10 days, they played baseball better than any other kids in the world. Better than every team but the one from Seoul, South Korea, the one sent them home with an 8-4 loss on Sunday.

Whatever may come next, they’ll have the joy of the Little League World Series for the rest of their lives.