The Island Trees 13-year-old youth baseball team are champions. Undersized and under powered Island Trees playing against local travel teams prevailed in the Plainedge 13-year-old Youth Baseball League under the Babe Ruth League banner.

The story would end there. Work hard, overcome all the odds, become champions, receive your trophies and on to next year. But, there were no trophies, and no sign at all of what they accomplished on the Plainedge Youth Baseball website, www.eteamz.active.com/pybl.

A nice letter of congratulations? No. A small two-paragraph story of what the team accomplished on the website? No. A blurb anywhere saying Island Trees won? No. A trophy? A medal? No.

My team, in fact, all teams, champions or not, deserve better than what we have now.

Each child pays over $100 to join these leagues and what do they get? Weed-filled fields, uniforms I would not dress my dog in, 12 baseballs to last the whole season-like no one has ever heard of practice?

Most leagues have eight teams with 14 kids on each team paying on average $100 each to play. So each league receives over $11,000 per division. Where does this money go to? In this town we have roughly six divisions. Add in concession sales, raffles, team fund-raising, league sponsors and you have the makings of corruption.

These leagues will say they spend the money on improving fields. Dropping a big pile a dirt does not count as an improvement. Go to any local field after a small rainstorm and you'll see a lake with Canadian geese enjoying their newly formed vacation spot.

Year after year no league official has been able to show me evidence of any improvement to their local fields. Plywood that could be used to cover the dugouts; that is, if your town has a dugout and not that silly little metal bench that makes a better hot plate than a place to rest between innings.

The league will say they have to buy uniforms each year. Yes, they do. One size fits all. You're 4‚ 8..., here's a large shirt and pants. I get kids each year who are either tripping over their uniform or screaming that their legs are numb.

Insurance? Yes, they pay for it but in most cases we're talking about a supplementary insurance policy. So the cost is not what they make it out to be. The biggest expense is umpires. A normal umpire gets $40 for the games. Over a 12-game season with eight teams that comes out to less than $2,000 of the $11,000 they took in.

This story should have been about my team and what they accomplished; instead, it is about a bunch of middle-aged men's quest for power that has ruined the game I love. I am sure every manager and every parent can tell their story about the politics of baseball.

So I will take my team to the local Pizza Hut and we will celebrate. I will spend my money and buy them trophies because in 20 years when they watch with pride as their son or daughter puts on their baseball uniform for the first time they can dust off that trophy and tell the tale of how for one moment in time he was a champion as much as any professional baseball player. How for one moment in the span of his lifetime he felt what Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle or Tom Seaver did.

This was supposed to be a story about 14 kids who became champions and, like youth baseball today, it was swallowed up and spit out by a bunch of crooks who only care that they receive your $100 check on time. Cash is preferable.

Dominick Mezapesa

Island Trees 13-year-old Baseball Coach