Pirates' Andrew McCutchen: Baseball 'Freezes Out' Lower-Income Families

When Jackie Robinson West was stripped of its national Little League World Series title for violating residency rules Wednesday, shocked fans were left wondering how adults could destroy the dreams of preteens just to win.

But Andrew McCutchen doesn’t see it that way.

The Pittsburgh Pirates star wrote a thoughtful piece for The Players’ Tribune on Friday about how the institution of baseball, rather than the coaches, prevents kids from reaching their goals. He reflected on his own experience growing up in Fort Meade, Fla., and how his parents couldn’t afford to put the future National League MVP on travel teams.

“But the thing is, nobody outside of Fort Meade knew who I was, even when I was 12 years old, the same age as those kids playing in the Little League World Series,” McCutchen wrote. “When you’re a kid from a low-income family who has talent, how do you get recognized? Now, you have to pay thousands of dollars for the chance to be noticed in showcase tournaments in big cities.

“My parents loved me, but they had to work hard to put food on the table, and there wasn’t much left over. They didn’t have the option of skipping a shift to take me to a tournament over the weekend. The hard choices started when I was very young. ‘Do you want that video game system for Christmas, or do you want a new baseball bat?'”

So while most people see coaches who took advantage of 12-year-olds for fame, McCutchen sees people who paid to put underprivileged kids on the national stage.

“For all the backlash around the Jackie Robinson West team ‘cheating,’ most people are ignoring the truth of how these 12-year-old kids make it out of their towns and onto a national stage,” McCutchen wrote. “Individuals step in and fill that financial gap.

“Hopefully those people are trustworthy and have their hearts in the right place. I was fortunate in that respect. Other kids might not be. When you talk to players around Major League Baseball, almost every single one of them has a story about a person who stepped in and took care of their expenses. You hear it all the time: ‘If it wasn’t for this guy, I wouldn’t be in the league.'”