'Newsday' Investigates Harlem Little League

By: Joe Strupp Updated at 10:15 a.m. EST

For veteran reporter Stephanie Saul of Newsday in Melville, N.Y., investigative reporting has usually meant tracking down sexual abuse by Catholic priests or exposing police fraud, not finding out where a Little League pitcher lives.

But when rumors began spreading last week that some members of the World Series-bound Harlem Little League team in New York did not live in Harlem -- a clear violation of Little League rules -- Saul set out to track down the truth.

Still fresh in her mind, and those of her editors, was last year's scandal involving a Bronx team that was exposed for letting over-aged pitcher Danny Almonte take the mound during the series.

Using a list of Harlem players and their parents, Saul matched the names with voting rolls, public records, and other database sources to confirm their home addresses. The research revealed that two of the youngsters live in the Bronx and one resides in another area of Manhattan outside Harlem.

After visiting the non-Harlem addresses and talking with neighbors and relatives, Saul felt she'd gained enough evidence that the three youngsters did not live in Harlem to warrant a story, which ran Wednesday. "It was just basic reporting," said Saul, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for exposing police disability fraud.

Four New York daily papers based far closer to Harlem -- the Daily News, the New York Post, The New York Sun, and The New York Times -- had to piggyback on the Newsday story the following day.

Citing the Newsday story, the Little League International Tournament Committee launched an investigation, but ruled Thursday that the team is eligible for its first World Series game on Saturday in Williamsport, Pa.

"I don't think it's the type of story most reporters aspire to when they get into the business," Saul admitted. "But I've gotten a lot of calls from parents who say this is a big deal for their kids and they need to have everyone play by the rules."