Uganda Little League Team Photo at Kutno Poland - July 2008

Middle East/Africa Regional Tournament, July 2010
Failure of Little League Officials in Poland and Williamsport to understand And Communicate Tie Breaker Rule costs Uganda trip to Little League World Series

All the people involved in baseball in Kutno Poland recognized that Uganda was the best baseball team they had seen in years and had the best chance of competing, and possibly winning the Little League World Series this August. Unfortunately, they will be home instead of being in Williamsport. The story of how this happens is as follows.

The Uganda Little League Team left Entebbe Airport on the evening of Friday, July 16, 2010. It arrived in Warsaw at 3:30PM on July 17 and proceeded to Kutno, arriving at about 6:30PM. The team practices on Sunday and Monday and submits the passports and birth certificates to the Kutno Administration upon its arrival. On Monday morning, it is discovered that two of the 12 players are considered 10 year olds and will not be allowed to play. This is an error on Uganda's part as based upon our 2008 experience when 6 of the 12 players that came to Poland that year were considered 10 year olds. At that time, Uganda thought players had to be 12 or under. They were allowed to play in 2008, but not in this year. Unfortunately, when the passports for the players were obtained in late June, the players were 11 years old, but on April 30, they were 10. Uganda's mistake. Since they were already in Kutno, Uganda was told that they could not play. Uganda was down to 10 players and all the teams in Kutno knew what happened. To keep the players with the team, the two 10 year olds were used as third base coaches during the games. This will come into play shortly.

The tournament begins with a coaches, umpires and league administrators meeting on Tuesday evening. Schedule, times, rules and administration procedures are discussed in some detail. Uganda asks that the tie breaker rule be reviewed. The Chief Umpire and Regional Administrator say it is clearly covered in the rule book on page T28. This will also come into play shortly.
Uganda plays its first game against South Africa on Wednesday. They give up a bottom of the first inning home run to fall behind 1-0 and then win the game 12-4, hitting 5 home runs from 5 different players. Everyone is surprised at the fielding and throwing ability of the team as all teams are scouting everyone else. The second game is against Dubai and Uganda wins by a score of 13-3 on Wednesday morning. That evening, they play the second game of the day at 6:30PM.

This is necessary as the schedule calls for everyone to play 4 games in 3 days. This game is against Saudi Arabia, a team that is arrogant and nasty to everyone and a team that hasn't lost in Poland in over 25 years. Uganda wins by a score of 9-3 and ends the game with a pitcher to home to first to third triple play, after they had walked the bases loaded and forced in a run. This shocks everyone in the skill in which it was done. Everyone is cheering the victory. People drive out from town upon hearing the results. Hotel people are happy, and everyone is congratulating the Uganda kids. The nasty part of this game is that the Saudi Team, in the 6th inning, protests the game because we had a 10 year old coaching third base. In their opinion, he had so much skill he influenced the outcome of the came. Because it is Saudi Arabia, Little League entertains the protest even though its own rules on page T11, say that the protest must be made to the umpire in chief at once. Saudi Arabia knew, as did everyone playing in the games, that the 10 year olds had been coaching 3rd base from our first game on. Therefore, the protest should have been made as soon as the 10 year old showed up in the coaching box, at the start of the bottom of the first inning. The result is the 10 year olds are not allowed anywhere on the field or in the dugout, and one of our two coaches is suspended for our next and final game, and cannot even watch the game from the stands.

On Friday, Uganda plays the very last game of pool play against our last opponent, Kuwait, who had lost to Saudi Arabia on Thursday morning after holding the lead throughout the game until very poor play handed the game to Saudi Arabia. They have saved their best player and pitcher, a young lady, to pitch against us. She is very good. The 3PM game starts in very cool, about 57 degrees, damp and windy conditions. Our team does not play well and we are using our number 9 pitcher as most of our normal pitchers are not able to pitch this game due to the strict pitching rules of Little League. A pitcher can only pitch in one game per day, and if they throw from 21 to 35 pitches, they cannot pitch the next day, 36-50, they cannot pitch for 2 days, 51-65 they cannot pitch for 3 days, and no pitcher can pitch more than 85 pitches on any day. Uganda has used several pitches for 21-35 pitches because they do not want any pitcher to pitch every day, and thus, have no pitcher available for this game other than our 9th pitcher.

Uganda is the home team and falls behind in the 3rd inning by 8-0 due to a grand slam home run after an error and 3 walks. Lightening halts the game for 30 minutes. The team is very flat, swinging at bad pitches and letting good pitches go for called 3rd strikes. We have struck out more times in three innings than in the prior three games. In the middle of the 4th inning, the game is held up for another 35 minutes due to a thunder storm. We are now losing 9-0. In the 5th inning, we hit a home run and shortly thereafter, Kuwait's pitcher reaches the 85 pitch maximum and needs to be replaced.

Several people ask the head umpire and Administrator about the tie breaker rule. They are told it is total runs allowed divided by innings played. The two lowest numbers will go to the championship game. When the game started, Uganda had allowed 10 runs, Kuwait 14 runs, and Saudi Arabia 17 runs in 4 games. As the 6th inning is being played, Uganda has now given up 9 more runs, or is up to 19 in 4 games, higher than Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. If it wants to make it to the championship game, it needs to score at least 4 more runs because Kuwait will have only played 22 innings and Uganda will have played 23 innings due to having been involved in mercy rule games. With 2 out in the bottom of the 6th inning, Uganda scores 5 runs. Loses the game by 9-6, but is told they will be playing in the championship game on Saturday. Kuwait is unhappy, but still congratulates Uganda because Uganda has an excellent chance of winning as they are the best team and Kuwait has no one to pitch in the championship game on Saturday.

A barbeque and singing and dancing contests are held after the game and everyone comes and has a good time except Saudi Arabia, as they consider this party as beneath them. Everyone else is anticipating the championship game to be played between Uganda and Saudi Arabia on Saturday and are wishing Uganda their best, including the umpires and regional administrators.

At about 9 PM, as the party is winding down, Uganda is told they have to come to a special meeting. The Regional Administrator and the Head Umpire notify Uganda and Kuwait that Williamsport has corrected a mistake that Poland has made. Poland sends Williamsport the results of every game and also notified them about Uganda playing Saudi Arabia for the championship on Saturday. Williamsport says that the tie breaker was misunderstood in Poland and that because Uganda scored 2 or more runs with two out in the last inning, they eliminated themselves from the championship game. They say the runs per inning played number only applies to the first team into the championship game. The second team will be determined by head to head play. As a result of the Uganda Kuwait game, Saudi Arabia has the lowest run per inning ratio and Kuwait beat Uganda. If Uganda had scored no runs in the last inning, they would be playing Kuwait for the championship, but by scoring two or more runs, Kuwait will play Saudi Arabia for the championship, and the team that everyone thought was the best team, will be going home.

In summary, in doing what they were told to do to get into the championship game (score runs) by the Kutno Little League Officials, Uganda eliminated themselves from the championship, and a team that never should have been in the championship game will represent the Middle East/Africa region in Williamsport. You cannot make this stuff up.
 

The Trenton Thunder supplied the hats and shirts that the team wore in Poland.  The Trenton team was rooting for them to win so that they could come to the U.S. and visit the Trenton stadium and be introduced to the media and the crowd at a Trenton Thunder ball game.   Uganda would have been the first African Little League team to make it to the Little League World Series in its almost 80 year history.