Jackie Robinson West Little League Baseball Team 2014 World Series U.S. Champions

Ill.Gov. Pat Quinn Proclaims Aug. 27 2014 as “Jackie Robinson West Championship Day”

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, September 3, 2014


Upon returning home to Chicago as Little League Baseball’s 2014 World Series, U.S. Champions, the Jackie Robinson West (JRW) All Stars Little League team were greeted with nothing but joy and excitement from their hometown fans. The team's accomplishments were so impressive and so mesmerizing, that a prideful, Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn, proclaimed Wednesday, Aug. 27, as “Jackie Robinson West Championship Day” in honor of the team’s U.S. championship win and as runner up in the Little League World Series.

“The players, coaches and parents of Jackie Robinson West have accomplished something we can all be proud of,” Gov. Quinn said. “These young players have displayed a level of teamwork, sportsmanship and dedication well beyond their years, and are an inspiration to kids across Chicago, Illinois and our nation. Hailing from the South Side of Chicago, the Jackie Robinson West little leaguers are some of the most successful baseball players in Illinois' history. The entire state of Illinois is proud of Jackie Robinson West - this was a special season we won't soon forget.”

Thanks to their quiet confidence and focused intensity, impeccable skills, countless amazing plays and creative handshakes, the JRW team are now international stars, as they are receiving accolades from all over the world.

Comprised of 11 -13 year-olds, from Chicago's Auburn Gresham, Englewood, Chatham, Morgan Park and Washington Heights neighborhoods, the, JRW team advanced to the Little League World Series with a come-from-behind 12-7 victory over New Albany, Indiana in the Great Lakes Region final played, at Stokely Field in Indianapolis, Ind. on Aug. 9.

From Aug. 14 to Aug. 24, all Little League World Series games were played in Williamsport, Pa.

The JRW squad traveled to Williamsport, Pa. to compete Aug. 14 in the Little League World Series and won with a 12-2, score by what’s called the mercy rule, against the Lynnwood Pacific Little League Team from Lynnwood, Washington (in Little League baseball, the mercy rules usually calls for the game to end if the winning team is ahead by 10 runs after five innings).

In an Aug. 17 victory over JRW, the Mountain Ridge Little League team from northwest Las Vegas, Nevada, took the first win in the first of two matchups between the teams, giving JRW its first loss in the World Series games with a 13-2 defeat, called by the same mercy rule.

After winning 8-7 against the Cumberland American Little League team from Cumberland, R.I. on Aug. 18, JRW played another elimination game against the Pearland Texas East All Stars from Pearland, Tx. on Aug. 19 with a 6-1 win, and was victorious against the Taney Dragon Little League team from Philadelphia, Pa., with a 6-5 score. During that game, the JRW team did not face the Taney Dragon's now world famous pitcher, Mo'ne Davis, who was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine for her 70-miles per hour pitching speed. Davis played third base that day against JRW.

JRW played the Nevada team again, and beat them 7-5 on Aug. 23.

On Sunday,(Aug. 24) however, the U.S. title champions lost 8-4 to South Korea’s, Seoul Little League team who ultimately won the 2014 Little League World Series.

JRW’s final loss however, was not enough to dampen Chicago’s elation over the team’s amazing journey, as a proud Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel planned watch party after watch party and finally a welcome home rally and parade for the team, that stepped off from Jackie Robinson Park, 10540 S. Morgan Park Street and ended at Millennium Park in downtown Chicago for a citywide celebration.

Mayor Emanuel congratulated the team saying, “As the first team in the history of the City of Chicago to reach the championship game, they are the pride of Chicago and will forever have a place in the record books. This team has electrified our city and rallied people from every neighborhood to support these great kids. They have brought out the true spirit of Chicago…”

JRW also made history as the first JRW team since 1983 to make it to the World Series games.

"For those kids to make it, 31 years after we did…it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Ronell Coleman, a member of the 1983 Jackie Robinson team, was quoted saying in an ESPN news story. "It's a tough road to make it there. You can be the best team but never make it. I may be wrong, but I think we were the first all-black team [from Chicago] to make it there and they are only the second, so they have a lot to be proud of...and from the city of Chicago? It's a beautiful thing."

Founded in 1971 by the late Joseph Haley, with the help of the late Wilson Frost, then alderman of the 34th Ward, and former Ill. State Sen. Emil Jones Jr., who worked as Frost’s secretary at that time, and with support from 27th Ward Carrie Austin and her late husband, Lemuel Austin, who was also an alderman, the Jackie Robinson West Little League was created with a vision to use youth baseball as a way to help black families establish a sense of community after moving into all-white neighborhoods. Haley died in 2005, but the league has been carried on by his widow, Annie Haley and son, Bill Haley.

As the first, all African-American team to win the U.S. Championship in over three decades, the 2014 JRW team has definitely galvanized the city.

The team’s namesake, African American baseball legend Jackie Robison, born Jack Roosevelt Robinson in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers, became the first Black baseball player to break Major League Baseball's color barrier that segregated the sport for more than 50 years. At the end of Robinson's rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he had become National League (NL) Rookie of the Year with 12 home runs, 29 steals. In 1949, Robinson was selected as the NL's Most Valuable Player of the Year and also won the batting title with a .342 average that same year. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

In his Proclamation, Gov. Quinn said, “…number 42 – Jackie Robinson – would have been proud of this year’s team, which showed the same grit and grace Robinson showed as a player.”

Because fans were so captivated by JRW's success, the team’s $20 championship tee-shirts sold out at record pace from Dick’s Sporting Goods on Roosevelt Rd. and Canal Street. All proceeds will benefit the league, according to a posting on JRW’s Facebook page where countless well wishes to the team were also posted.

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