A Softball Team Was Disqualified From The Junior League World Series For Flipping Some Birds On Snapchat

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Wow in Kirkland WA today. Junior League Softball pic.twitter.com/PSO5CwomsB

— Vin (@Vin99272529) August 5, 2017

TheComeback- The Junior League World Series softball tournament, an annual tournament featuring the best teams of girls aged 12 to 15 from around the world, overturned the results of a semifinal game this weekend thanks to players on the winning team extending their middle fingers in a Snapchat post. The Atlee Little League team from Virginia beat the host team from Kirkland, Washington 1-0 Friday in a controversial semifinal, which saw a Kirkland player and coach ejected for stealing signals. An Atlee player then posted a team picture to Snapchat with six players extending their middle fingers and a “watch out host” caption, and the Little League International Tournament Committee then removed them from the championship game Saturday, promoting Kirkland instead (who promptly lost 7-1 to the Central region team from Poland, Ohio, in a game televised on ESPN2). Here’s the statement on their decision, via The Richmond Times-Dispatch:

In response to a request from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Little League spokesman Kevin Fountain issued the following statement:

​“After discovering a recent inappropriate social media post involving members of Atlee Little League’s Junior League Softball tournament team, the Little League® International Tournament Committee has removed the Southeast Region from the 2017 Junior League Softball World Series for violation of Little League’s policies regarding unsportsmanlike conduct, inappropriate use of social media, and the high standard that Little League International holds for all its participants.”

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For as mind-numbingly stupid and astonishingly hypocritical as it is of adults to retroactively reverse the result of a youth playoff game due to nothing that took place during said youth playoff game, it's also quite refreshing to see a sport governed with consistency throughout all the levels it's played. Say what you want about overreacting to a hand gesture that everyone with a driver's license uses at least 2-3 times per week, but don't say that the self-important values of those supervising a baseball diamond of any size aren't persistently ass backwards from Little League Softball to Major League Baseball.

When I think of out-of-whack priorities I think of the sport whose record books were rewritten by steroid users that could hit 70 home runs without suspicion, but couldn't show any emotion after those home runs without having a fastball thrown at their jugular. That's why it's good to see the Junior League place the losing, undeserving team that stole signs in it's World Series ahead of girls that won fair, but whose harmlessly explicit celebration was far from square. What better way to send the message that it's okay to cheat as long as you don't hurt your opponent's delicate wittle feelings in the process? This misguided decision would reek of sanctimonious bullshit in any other form of athletic competition, but somehow it seems like a fitting form of discipline for a sport that historically takes itself far too seriously.

In all seriousness, it's absolutely befuddling that someone could be hired to supervise today's youth while having such an obvious disconnect with today's youth. Giving the finger on SnapChat is probably the least punishable thing those girls have done (on or off social media) in 2017. I know this might be a tough concept for Kevin Fountain to understand, but the 12-15 year olds of today need to be treated like the 17-19 year olds of yesteryear. He's genuinely lucky they still participate in youth sports, because it means they somehow shook off the allure of recreational drugs and sexual experimentation. If the worst thing my hypothetical daughter has done halfway through high school is whoop some hometown ass before rubbing her opponent's noses in shit by throwing up some "fuck y'all" fingers on the internet then I'd buy her whole squad booze and tell them to hit the basement while I started my campaign for 'Father Of The Year'. So maybe - just maybe - it might be time to lower that inexplicably "high standard" for pubescent, teenage athletes Kev, because there's some more satisfying bases to round if they end up quitting softball because they got fucked out of their chance to win a championship.