Changing the Rules, Mid-Stream.

Sports writer Dave Zirin argues that the first all-African-American Little League championship team from the Chicago area should have been excused for recruiting players from outside the city boundaries, and picking off the suburban black players to play on the city team.

Fair enough.

But before you go changing those rules Mr. Zirin, all of the other leagues in the country should get to decide if they want to establish their teams on the basis of race or ethnicity, rather than geographic boundary lines.

An all-Dominican team from NYC, say.
All the best Cuban-American players in the Miami area, say Miami Dade up the coast to Palm Beach County.  All the Jewish-American ballplayers in the same region.
All the white kids from Houston and the suburbs...

Or is it just the African Americans he thinks need a special competitive advantage on the athletic field, here -- the baseball diamonds?

You see,
there's a reason, legally, why Little League takes all comers -- the fat kids, nerds, Jews, girls, blacks, delinquents -- didn't you see the original Bad News Bears, Mr. Zirin? 

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), a former minor-league baseball player and an alcoholic who cleans swimming pools, is recruited by a city councilman and attorney who filed a lawsuit against a competitive Southern California Little League, which excluded the least athletically skilled children (including his son) from playing.

To settle the lawsuit, the league agrees to add an additional team the Bears which is composed of the worst players.

Those kids -- collectively, The Bears -- were ultimately winners, because they didn't sacrifice playing by the rules in order to "win".

Why can't the black players from the south suburbs of Chicago be allowed to learn that same rule early in life, instead of having to impersonate underprivileged inner-city kids, because it allows sports writers like Zirin to peddle a better (but false) narrative?

Why compromise their character and young codes of ethics in order to achieve something outward on the field, by ultimately cheating?  Ignoring the rules you don't like, in order to field a regional all-star team by simply disregarding the boundary rules and thinking no one will call you on it, because your team is all-black?

Let them play, indeed.
All of them, not just those selectively recruited, like in the elite leagues.