Report: Little League Star Sat Out School
Aug. 30, 2001 -- Danny Almonte never attended school during the 18 months he lived in the United States, according to a report today, adding to the controversy surrounding whether the boy was young enough to play Little League baseball when he led his team to the national championship.
The boy's father, Felipe Almonte, told the New York Daily News that he never enrolled his son in PS 70 in the Bronx section of New York City, the public elementary school he told Little League officials that Danny attended.
When asked what the boy did with his time, Felipe Almonte told the newspaper: "He has been eating — and he has been playing ball."
The left-hander used his 75-mile-per-hour fastball to lead the Rolando Paulino All Stars to the U.S. championship of the Little League World Series. They lost the U.S. championship game to the Apopka All Stars from Florida, but Danny did not pitch that game.
The Daily News report is the latest revelation in a controversy that threatens to tarnish the youngster's phenomenal season. He hurled the first perfect game in the Little League World Series since 1957, and allowed only one run all year — in the final inning of the final game he pitched.
But questions have whirled around the 5-foot-8 youngster from the Dominican Republic all season, as opposing coaches questioned whether he was too old to be on the field.
Both National Little League officials and the Dominican Republic government have launched investigations. Initially, Dominican Republic investigators were expected to announce their findings today but government officials said the president of the registrar's office never showed up. The results of the Dominican Republic's investigation are now expected to be released Friday.
The Little League Baseball today announced it would accept the decision of the government of the Dominican Republic regarding Almonte's date of birth.
In a statement released to the press today, Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball, said the organization had been in contact with U.S. State Department officials as well as Dominican Republic officials. "We are confident that the matter is being handled appropriately by the Dominican Republic, and we have every reason to abide by its determination," he said.
Questions That Won’t Go Away
Danny's parents, who are separated, have both denied the charge and presented their own documents show the boy was not too old.
The controversy about the boy began long before the World Series. Coaches of teams from Staten Island, N.Y., and Pequannock, N.J., hired private detectives to investigate the fireballing pitcher.
Those investigations turned up nothing, but on Monday Sports Illustrated reported it had found a document, filed in 1994, registering Almonte as being born in 1987. According to the magazine, the document was filed by Felipe Almonte, the boy's father.
Sealed Documents
Felipe Almonte denied the magazine's allegations Wednesday on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America, speaking about the controversy for the first time. He said that he doesn't understand where the document came from and said he only registered his son's birth once, in 2000.
Speaking through a translator, Felipe Almonte said he was not trying to cheat anyone.
He also said that his son, who does not speak English, has been kept in the dark about the controversy.
It is not uncommon in rural parts of the Dominican Republic, such as the village where Danny was born, for births to be registered years after they occur.
Keener said on Good Morning America that he met with Felipe Almonte and Paulino, who runs the Bronx league where the boy played, and that they showed him a document with a government seal on the back and questioned whether the document Sports Illustrated found had a seal.
"I've not seen that document, so I don't know," Keener said.
Who’s to Blame?
The coach of Apopka said he was saddened by the allegations.
"If this boy is 12 years old, and they can't prove he's no older than that, and that team's legal, then what they've done is a big injustice to that boy and that team by doing all the stuff they done, the media has," Apopka coach Bobby Brewer said. "But if he's not, well then I don't know who you point the finger at. The only people you can point your finger at obviously would be the people who knew.
"If that's his coaches, they ought to be banned from the league. If that's his dad or his mom, then they ought to be ashamed of themselves for doing that," he added.
Adding to the confusion, the Daily News reported Wednesday that hospital records in Almonte's hometown of Moca state that Sonia Margarita Rojas Breton — Danny's mother — gave birth to a boy on April 7, 1987, exactly two years earlier than the boy's father says he was born.
But in her home there is a photocopy of a birth certificate showing that the boy was born on April 7, 1989, and she says that the boy is 12, according to The Associated Press.
"I don't know why those people are lying," Rojas said. "They must envy Danny. He's always wanted to play, ever since he started batting a bottle cap with a broom stick.
"I gave birth to him in my own house," she said. "I know where and when he was born, regardless of what people say."
Rojas was 15 when Danny was born, and since he has a brother who is one year older than him and already has a light mustache, she would have had to be pregnant at 12 if the allegations were true.
Danny lived in Moca until last year when he moved to the Bronx with his father and began playing Little League. He finished the World Series with 46 strikeouts and allowed only three hits in three starts.