What kind of operation is Little League Baseball running these days (“Lemont teen takes a stand against alcohol,” Metro, July 16)? I always thought that Little League was a place where you could find clean cut, all-American youth. It would probably not be a place where you would find kids running around advertising alcohol establishments on their backs.
About four months ago, a nice 14-year-old kid by the name of Krystle Newquist from Lemont decided that she would play softball for yet another season with the Little League. But she had discovered that her grandfather had died from cirrhosis of the liver. Then she discovered that the sponsor for her team was going to again be a liquor establishment. This combination of circumstances began to prey on her mind. This was a moral dilemma for this highly intelligent young child. How could she support the kind of establishment that had killed her grandfather?
She was ingenious. She took out a roll of her mother’s duct-tape and covered up the name of the sponsor on her jersey. She consulted with her mom and dad, and they approved. The result? She has been thrown out of Little League baseball.
She went to the school board and complained. The league’s games were being played on public school premises. The same establishment would not have been allowed to advertise liquor products anywhere on the school grounds, why should they be allowed to advertise on her back, on the school grounds? The school board refused to help her.
The international Little League officials have yielded to local autonomy. They say they only ban sponsorship of alcohol and tobacco products, not establishments. I say this is hypocrisy of the worst kind.
The school board is wrong and the officials should be ashamed of themselves. This young girl has put her name, reputation and family on the line.
May the ideals of the Krystle Newquists of the world continue.
