With everything happening on the field at the Canadian Little League Championship in Ancaster these days, the most intriguing goings-on might be taking place off the diamond.

All six teams at the tournament other than Quebec say they have questions about whether the organization behind that team is properly operating as a Little League association and whether all of its coaches and players should be eligible to participate at the nationals.

"We have concerns, definitely," says longtime Glace Bay, N.S., coach Jimmy Wilson, who's here as the Atlantic representative. "We feel ... it isn't a true Little League."

This might have remained background chatter had Ancaster not lodged a formal protest prior to its game against Quebec on Saturday. In the wake of that move, coaches from Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, the Atlantic provinces and the Prairies all echoed some version of the home side's position. Then two additional protests were filed before the weekend was done.

Despite this, the tournament director says Little League International has given its thumbs up to the roster and told him everything is OK based on what's known. And Quebec's coaches and its provincial association say the team is doing nothing wrong and is being improperly accused.

"It's easy to pick on the Frenchmen," says Quebec district administrator Marc St. Pierre.

So what's the issue?

To be eligible to play at this level, a player must live in that league's district and provide proof. Jumping boundaries is not allowed, save for a few heavily vetted exceptions.

Quebec's team is the Diamond Baseball Academy from Mirabel. A number of opposing coaches question whether an "academy" that started just four years ago and is now one of the strongest teams in Canada (at this level and others) is following the same rules as everyone else or importing players to come to school to build a stronger team.

But the Quebec coaches say it's only called an academy because the person who started it — a local businessman whose passion for baseball led him to build a temporary field to host last year's national championship — liked the sound of the word. Their organization is no different than a baseball association like Ancaster Little League.

"It's not a school at all," insists Quebec manager Oliver Brault. "Academy in French doesn't mean the same thing as English. So academy for us is not a school where you go to school. It's not related."

The players don't live there and don't study there, he says. Furthermore, they all live within the district. Tournament director Steve Bagnell says the information he's received supports that. The district administrator in their area says everything is good and that Little League Baseball, headquartered in Williamsport, Pa., has signed off on that.

So end of story?

Not exactly.

Little League teams are defined as all-star squads made up of players selected from a local association's house league. The rule book specifically talks about a draft for house league, presumably to disperse the best players throughout the league.

Though it has an indoor facility where kids play 12 months a year, the organization is small, St. Pierre says. As a result, there are just two house league teams from which to choose the all-stars.

Bagnell says the information he received indicates that 12 of the 14 boys on the Quebec roster are listed as playing on the same house league team. To some, that sounds suspiciously like a pre-selected team playing year-round and dancing on the edges of the rules.

When no other teams showed up to the provincial championship to play Diamond Baseball Academy and fight for the right to come to the nationals and potentially advance to the prestigious Little League World Series in Williamsport — giving the club a free pass to Ancaster — even more antennae went up.

St. Pierre says there's a simple explanation for that: It's expensive to go to that provincial event and even more costly if you win and move on. So the other teams decided to play in a lower-level event at home. It's rare, but it's happened before, he says.

The president of one of the Quebec leagues that took a pass on that tournament has a slightly different perspective.

"People are not going there because they know they cannot beat that team," says Ray Callari, president of NDG Baseball.

At the nationals in Ancaster this week, not everyone's buying it either. That, or the other explanations.

"(The playing field) is not level," Ancaster head coach Adam Strongman says. "I'm going to leave it at that."

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"My understanding is, I think every other team here has the same suspicions," B.C. manager Bruce Dorwart says, adding his side might have protested if Ancaster hadn't.

"I think everybody has the same similar mindset," Prairies coach Tony Dreger notes.

There are other issues cited by the opposing coaches as well, including whether Quebec's coach is eligible to be on the bench and whether district boundaries are being expanded to allow for a bigger player pool. These require more complicated dives into the rule book.

The point of all this, Glace Bay's Wilson says, is if the rules — or the spirit of the rules — are being broken or tweaked in ways that allow for the creation of superteams, what chance do his kids from a community of 19,000 in Cape Breton ever have to compete? Or the kids in a small place like Ancaster? Or any other traditional Little League area?

"We're fearing we're playing against the province of Quebec," he says.

So where does this end?

Good question. There doesn't seem to be an easy solution to this that will satisfy everyone. Ancaster's protest still stands. The rest of the coaches are still skeptical.

"It just comes down to, are we all playing by the same rule?" Strongman asks. "That's honestly it. Are we following the same rule? Are we all abiding by that same rule?"

As for Team Quebec, St. Pierre rejects the suspicions and says his province's team — and his province — are being unfairly picked on. They've done nothing wrong. If people want to start asking questions, he says, someone should begin with teams coming out of B.C. that have won 13 of the last 14 Canadian titles.

Meanwhile, the coach of the 4-0 Diamond Baseball Academy team that's been posting big wins — and trampled Ancaster 21-0 after the protest was filed on Saturday — says there's a simple explanation for why his team is under this cloud of suspicion.

"Jealousy."

sradley@thespec.com

905-526-2440 | @radleyatthespec

Spectator columnist Scott Radley hosts The Scott Radley Show weeknights from 6-8 on 900CHML

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