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TIME - Man of the Year
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CompactPublishing-TimeMagazine-TimeManOfTheYear-Win31MSDOS.iso
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moy
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092892
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09289911.000
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK, Page 22SOCIETYNot-So-Little Leaguers Forfeit a Championship
A Filipino dream team becomes a nightmare for baseball fans
The joyous homecoming for this summer's little League World
Champions turned sour even before the last shred of confetti hit
the ground. Local sports columnists claimed that as many as half
the players on the team from Zamboanga City in the southern
Philippines were over the 12-year age limit (or 13 if the
player's birthday is after Aug. 1). Little League officials in
Manila stonewalled efforts to certify the players' ages, and
most of the Philippine press and public seemed to view the
accusations as an American plot.
Last week the manager of the team dropped another
bombshell: forget about being overage -- most of the team wasn't
even from Zamboanga City. League officials in Manila had packed
the squad with ringers even though national All-Star squads are
barred from the World Series. Little League officials in
Williamsport, Pennsylvania, declared eight Philippine players
ineligible Thursday and ordered a forfeit of their team's 15-4
victory last month over Long Beach, California. The newly
crowned California team got together Thursday night for a quiet
celebration at a park. "I think this is a real big thing," said
pitcher Randall Shelley, 12. "But it would have been better if
we had won it on the field."