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Legacy’s dramatic win clouded by coach’s suspension
Published Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009 | 12:36 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009 | 7:33 p.m.
Will Lester / SAN BERNARDINO SUN
Legacy Little League manager Todd Slusher (left), standing with coach T.J. Johnson, has been suspended by for an undetermined number of games following actions he took during Wednesday nights win over Arizona. Johnson will coach the team Friday in the Western Regional semifinals
Legacy Little League’s quest to reach the Little League World Series will continue without manager Todd Slusher in the Western Regional semifinals Friday in San Bernardino, Calif.
Slusher was suspended indefinitely by tournament officials, who claim he ordered his players to allow a run to intentionally score Wednesday night in Legacy’s 12-9 extra-inning victory against Arizona. That run tied the game and gave Legacy another turn to hit, which allowed Slusher to insert a player from his bench who hadn't received an at bat as guaranteed by the league's minimum participation requirement.
With Legacy leading 7-6 in the top of the sixth and final inning, officials accuse Slusher of coordinating with his pitcher to throw a series of passed balls to advance Arizona’s would-be tying baserunner from first base. Once the game was tied, Slusher inserted Legacy’s lone player who had yet to have a plate appearance.
League rules dictate all players must play three outs in the field and bat once. If not, the manager would be suspended for two games. In Slusher’s case, that would have been the semifinals and possibly finals of the regional with his team two games away for the Williamsport, Pa., and the series.
“It is clear on the video that (Slusher) instructed his kids to play poorly to allow a run to score,” said Lance Van Auken, a representative for Little League’s media relations department.
There was speculation Thursday that Legacy would have to forfeit its victory, a dramatic come-from-behind win where it scored five runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to advance. But officials say the team’s spot in the semifinals was never in question.
Slusher claims he didn’t instruct players to allow the run to score. Pitcher Dylan Pletsch’s two passed balls were both fastballs clocked at more than 70 mph from 46-feet away and Legacy’s backup catcher struggled adjusting to the velocity, Slusher said.
“For them to say I engineered this is absolutely ridiculous,” Slusher said. “I hadn’t even finished celebrating with my son and the (tournament director) was over there saying we cheated. Nobody from the other team protested, but the tournament director decided he was going to enforce the rule.”
Slusher was told by officials that he had until 1 p.m. Thursday to submit an incident report and his score book from the game. He said the meeting got postponed until 3:30 p.m., and when he arrived, he was greeted with the news. There was no review process, just a decision, he said.
“It’s up to the umpire during the game to evoke the penalty and in our case the umpire said nothing,” Slusher said. “There are no grounds to kick me out of the tournament.”
Slusher said he has contacted his attorney but didn’t seem optimistic. “They say the decision is final and won’t be reviewed,” he said.
Assistant T.J. Johnson will coach the remainder of the summer, which Slusher hopes includes his team becoming the first Nevada squad to qualify for the series. Legacy plays Southern California in the semifinals.
“I’ve put in endless hours over the years coaching my son and the other kids,” Slusher said. “This is not right.”
The controversy took away from Legacy's memorable comeback. Arizona scored twice in its half of the seventh for a 9-7 lead before Legacy rallied.
Noah Slusher, the coach’s son, had a RBI single to cut Legacy’s deficit to 9-8. With the bases loaded, Jarod Penniman followed by advancing on a fielder’s choice — he beat out a throw to first base after an error by Arizona’s third baseman — to even the game at nine and set the table for Matt Almodovar.
Almodovar hit a curve ball over the fence in the left field for a three-run, game-ending home run to ignite a celebration for the ages. All five of Legacy's runs came with two outs.
“I had people coming up to me after the game — people who have worked the tournament for years — saying it was the most amazing comeback they have seen,” Slusher said.
Almodovar admits he was nervous as he walked to the plate. But the 12-year-old soon became the toast of the tournament.
“Everyone was yelling and screaming for me. They were happy,” Almodovar said. “I knew I could get a hit if I tried my hardest.”
Almodovar wasn’t Legacy’s lone hero.
Pletsch had a pair of home runs — Pletsch and Almodovar hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning for a 2-0 lead — and Jarrett Perns hit a grand slam in the fifth inning to erase a 6-3 deficit.
Now Legacy will have to continue without its coach and its top pitchers. Pletsch and Ryan Jackson, the team’s aces, both exceeded the league’s 85 pitch maximum against Arizona and won’t be eligible to pitch in the semifinals.
Legacy is playing with an us against the world mentality.
“Someone has an agenda against us,” Slusher said. “They were calling us cheaters and trying to escalate the situation. Here we all are, celebrating with our kids after this great game, and they ruined the moment. This is supposed to be Little League baseball.”
Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com.
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This is tough... I was at the game and I thought something weird was going on. The lead off walk and the two wild pitches to get the AZ runner to third was nothing unusual with Little League baseball being played by 12 year olds. But what this article fails to mention is how that tying run scored and that did seem sort of fishy.
First some context. The people I was with and also people I didn't know in the crowd were under the assumption that the winner of the NV vs AZ game would have to face the #2 seeded team from SoCal in the semi's (who have completely dominated their games like non of us had ever seen at one of these tournaments) and the loser of the game would get to face the #1 seeded team from NoCal (whose games have almost all been very close). Both SoCal and NoCal were undefeated but NoCal won the tiebreaker, and the #1 seed, by allowing less runs during the tourney. We were all joking during the game, before any of this ever came up, that both of these teams would be much better off if they lost.
So after the lead off walk to AZ and the subsequent wild pitches to get him to third the fishiness started. The NV catcher couldn't seem to be able to get the ball back to the pitcher...... twice..... The first time the errant throw from the catcher to the pitcher seemed to catch the AZ runner at third off guard and, with the throw going past the pitcher and kicked around by the infielders backing up the throw, he didn't score but the second time it happened, with the same AZ batter at the plate, the throw got by the pitcher again and was, again kicked around by the infielders letting the AZ runner at third score the tying run.
So, again, the lead off walk and the wild pitches aren't unusual but the catcher not being able to throw the ball back to the pitcher, twice in a span of three pitches, would lead someone to believe, especially considering the circumstances of it benefiting the NV team to have the game go extra innings, that something uncouth could have definitely been up.
But to suspend someone who has given so much of his own time and money coaching, travelling out of state, taking time away from work and his family...... You better be 1000% percent sure that you're right. Even after all I saw I just don't know how the Little League officials can be THAT sure absent an admission from one of his players or something that he did tell them to let the run score.
Tough call...
I cannot believe with all the filming and documents that these politics are involved in a Little League baseball game. For someone to do this to this team, these boys, is outrageous. Todd Slusher has coached for many, many years and never ever would instruct his boys or even himself to "fix" a game or break any rules.
This is just wrong and someone needs to step up to the plate and do something about this.
Does it really matter if the Coached did this? Last time I checked: baseball is a game. There are rules. He didn't cheat. So what's the hubbub bub?
ALTHOUGH, if a picture speaks a thousand words, the look on this kid's face says "you want me to do what?" (anyone know if this was the kid on the mound during the inning in question?)....
http://sbsun.mycapture.com/PHOTOS/SANB/8...
I coached little league for 11 years while my son was growing up. I've seen up close the politics that unfortunately goes into a lot of leagues and these allstar teams. My teams usually won slightly more than they lost but the kids learned and repected the game of baseball and they also learned sportmanship - I believe that is what LL(Little League) was suppose to be about. Do your best, respect the game, respect your opponents, respect the umpires - good life lessons for kids 8-12 years of age.
Unfortunately for more and more coaches, LL seems now to be all about winning and getting to the LL World Series - I believe the extended TV coverage from ESPN has helped fuel some of this.
From all I have read and heard of this incident, there is little doubt in my mind what the manager was doing and how he instructed his kids. Look and see how many times that catcher has overthrown the pitcher in previous games...bet the answer is zero and now 2 times during the same at bat (Respect the game?). Shame on the manager for the message he is sending to these young impressionable kids. He is willing to risk losing a game and more importantly sending the wrong message to his kids because he failed to manage the game properly and get all of his kids an at bat. If the game would have ended as it should have with a win after 6 innings, I believe the rule is the coach would be suspended for 2 games while the team's win would still stand. I think the player who didn't get an at bat would then have to start the next game and I believe get 2 at bats. So Mr. Johnson(a former UNLV star) would have had to manage the team and I'm sure would have done a fine job.
I appreciate the hours/years of volunteer work the manager has put in for little league, I just wish the time was spent with teaching the kids the positive attributes from the whole little league experience and less about winning. So I am not disappointed that this team will not be going to Williamsport as I do not think it would be good for the image of Las Vegas for this story to get more publicity and it may have been even worse if it ever really got out how this team was "put together".
I believe the game of baseball can be used to teach our kids so many valuable lessons. It is up to the adults to make sure the lessons are positive.
I was at the game also. The article fails to mention a coach was caught with a cell phone in his pocket which is not allowed during the game, and there was suspicion that someone in the stands was stealing Arizona's signs and texting them to the coaches. They had key words such as "contact" when the coaches knew Arizona called a curve ball. Arizona finally got smart and changed their signals in the 3rd inning when they figured out what was going on and the coach told his son that a curve ball was coming and Arizona fooled them both by throwing a fast ball. We also heard from a few umpires that the team was put together far before the date all stars is supposed to be picked. There are lots of rumors surrounding this team and that is unfortunate for the kids.
Here is the reason the coach was suspended. If you don't think any rules were broken, they were. In the Little League rules all kids must play all the kids on the team for 3 defensive outs and one at bat. A member in the stands went and talked to the coaches by the dug out (which is not allowed and security should have kept this from happening several times during the whole tournament with various teams) to inform them that one kid had not been subbed in for all his required time. That is why Legacy had to allow Arizona to score so that the game could go into extra innings and they could get that kid in the game officially. If they wouldn't have done that, the coach would have been suspended for 2 games if Arizona protested. If you watched the games leading up to this, there was NO WAY that all those errors were accidental. They were clearly orchestrated...but even if you don't believe that, the coach broke a little league rule about not playing all the players when he was supposed to. It happens. He should have won the game and taken the 2 game suspension if Arizona protested. Instead the choice was to alter the integrity of the game. It was poor sportsmanship and a disgrace that he is teaching/coaching children when he has such a lack of ethics.
To add to this story and to further the poor sportsmanship award, Legacy opted out of participating in the closing ceremonies. They lost to Southern California and then left. Every other team participated and was there...even teams that were knocked out after 4 games of pool play and didn't have a semi-final. They stood there proudly representing their state.
Kudos to Wyoming who volunteered to help out with this years challenger game. It is for kids that have special needs and their team helped the kids pitch, hit, and run. THAT is the kind of life lessons coaches should be teaching their kids.
Everyone wants a 1000% assurance that it was cheating? Just ask any player in the dugout. Slusher told them to do it, then told them they didn't need to say anything to anyone. The suspension was completely appropriate. Sslusher wants someone to "step up to the plate"? Well they finally have. After two years of manipulation of a baseball team, bought and paid for players and families, this man has finally gotten what he deserves. Unfortunately the kids pay the price, but he doesn't care, and never has, it's all about him. As well, district officials have known about this for several years and continued to let him cheat and manipulate. Las Vegas district officials should be ashamed of themselves! And anyone else who knew about his antics and let it continue to happen. The theory that "every All Star Team does it" doesn't fly. Two wrongs don't make a right. And the fact that this man got away with this for so long means that every other Little League will continue to do it too, knowing full well that no one will investigate forged documents and people lying about where they leave. Half of this team was bought and paid for, the other 1/4 lied about where they lived, and the other 1/4 were legitimate players. It's disgusting that this man could use his money to pay for people to move into his zone to further his selfish agenda for himself and his son. His family, and the families that took his money to be on this team, should be completely ashamed of themselves. How do they look themselves in the mirror everyday. It's a kids game and those who knew about this and did nothing are all responsible for this outcome. It's not surprising. He got away with lying and cheating for years in this Little League environment. Why would it be any different during the regional finals? Nevada is an embarrassment to this event. So sad. It's 1000% accurate people. And disgusting!
Also, real classy move by Legacy being the only team ditching out on the closing ceremonies. Even the Utah team that got crushed stuck around.
For those who think this coach did nothing wrong, you were either not there or clueless about little league. As a coach of 25 years and a parent of a child in the tournament, there is no doubt of cheating. Too bad as their team was a good team without it. If NV lost they were out as the tiebreaker with Hawaii would have put Hawaii in the 4th seed. They had to win, AZ was in either way. Stealing signs is not always tough but to be so blatant as to have a cell phone in your pocket and recieve messages during the game. That should cause a suspension without the antics of the phony passed balls. Anyone at the game knew something was wrong when no one tried to get to the second passed ball to stop the runner at 3rd from tying the game. We just did not know why at the time. There is no way that all kids stop caring about a passed ball without the coach telling them. The NV parent that went to talk to the coach during the game is another violation. The league saw all of it as did many people in the stands. We were all instructed not to talk to kids or coaches during games. The NV parents stayed on the hotel computers for hours when hundreds were sharing two computers. The team with their fancy bus did not stay for the closing ceremony and a parent from NV was 2ft from me screaming at league officials and being so rude I was hoping the cops would have been called. Real class act NV. Yes we also heard all the stories of moving kids into the district just to stack a team, yes your kids were less than friendly to the other teams, I hope the next NV team makes up for this year. The kids deserve a good experience like all the other teams had.
I have coached at all levels in the Little League format in Nevada for 5 years and even coached the major level all stars a number of years back. I went to the Western Regional games this year I got to witness the game between Legacy and Arizona. Plain and simple, it was the manager's fault for not getting all his players into the game, as required. The manager has coached at all levels for many years in the little league system, even other all star teams. Getting all his players into the game is nothing new (actually, the rules have soften over the last several years, from all kids playing 6 defensive down to 3 defensive outs). The coach played 14 regular season games, 5 district games, 4 state games, and then you forget the rules 4 games into the Western Regional? What I witnessed, the manager must have told his players to allow the run to score. I was watching his kids play and 12/13 year old kids are not very good actors and it was obvious that something was going on in the 6th inning! What a lesson for the kids, cheat for me to cover up my mistake. Five other western teams that did not advance to the finals can go home saying they tried their best and probably had the time of their lives. Not Nevada's, thanks for the black eye for the kids and Nevada's Little League Program.
I have coached at all levels in the Little League format in Nevada for 5 years and even coached the major level all stars a number of years back. I went to the Western Regional games this year I got to witness the game between Legacy and Arizona. Plain and simple, it was the manager's fault for not getting all his players into the game, as required. The manager has coached at all levels for many years in the little league system, even other all star teams. Getting all his players into the game is nothing new (actually, the rules have soften over the last several years, from all kids playing 6 defensive down to 3 defensive outs). The coach played 14 regular season games, 5 district games, 4 state games, and then you forget the rules 4 games into the Western Regional? What I witnessed, the manager must have told his players to allow the run to score. I was watching his kids play and 12/13 year old kids are not very good actors and it was obvious that something was going on in the 6th inning! What a lesson for the kids, cheat for me to cover up my mistake. Five other western teams that did not advance to the finals can go home saying they tried their best and probably had the time of their lives. Not Nevada's, thanks for the black eye for the kids and Nevada's Little League Program.
I too was at the game. I was one of those who knew that Nevada had two players who had not met minimum play requirements when they got the home run in the bottom of the fifth inninig to put them ahead 7-6. One player was inserted at that point but he made the last out. So the second player would not have batted if Arizona had not tied the game. Nevada still would have advanced to the semi-finals but Mr. Shusher would have been suspended for two games. That's why he had to extend the game even if it meant his team might lose and be eliminated. Also, the fact that these two players were not inserted earlier was no 'mistake'. If the Nevada player who hit the go-ahead home run had made the third out instead, there would have been no penalty for Mr. Shusher. Just for the two 12-year olds who might not have gotten a chance to play.
And here's a question for Mr. Shusher, if the sixth inning farce was not orchestrated, why did one of the Nevada parents apologize to the Arizona manager for what his son had been 'instructed' to do? One other comment, I had a number of conversations with Nevada coach, T.J. Johnson during the week and he was a class act throughout.
Finally I need to correct a comment made by others above. The Utah team did not attend the closing ceremonies. They left after their final pool play game on Tuesday. Their players were already back in school.
I was a player for Mr. Slusher, as was my 2 other brothers. A move like this doesn't surprise me, and I'm appalled that people even argue that this was unintentional. Or perhaps, in his own words, "engineered". Hopefully, this suspension will not be lifted, and finally gives Mr. Slusher a chance to be put in his place, so to speak. It was not uncommon for coach to bench players in order to play more "capable" players in order to win. Winning was everything to this coach, not sportsmanship or teaching players the game. This was standard policy on a Slusher coached team. Needless to say, his son was never a "benchwarmer".