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(Photo: AP)
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Almonte moved to the Bronx borough of New York in 2000 from Moca, Dominican Republic, to join his father Felipe Almonte, who had moved to the U.S. six years earlier. Danny began playing Little League baseball for the Rolando Paulino All Stars.
Almonte, at 5 feet 8 inches tall and possessing a wicked fastball, soon became a sensation. He threw a no-hitter in the 2001 Mid-Atlantic Regional finals against State College, Pa., earning his team a berth in the Little League World Series.
Four days later, Almonte threw the first perfect game in the Little League World Series since 1957, against the team from Apopka, Fla. However, his team was defeated by the same Florida team in the U.S. championship game (a game he could not pitch in under Little League rules, as he had pitched a complete game the day before). He finished the 2001 tournament, with 62 strikeouts out of 72 batters faced, giving up only three hits in three starts, and only one unearned run. His team, nicknamed "the Baby Bombers" because they played in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, was the feel-good story of the Little League World Series, and were honored before a New York Yankees game shortly after the series. They also received the key to the city from Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Danny's imposing appearance and command on the mound led to rumors that he was more than 12 years old. A team from Staten Island, N.Y., hired a private investigator to look into the ages of the entire team. A similar investigation was conducted by a team from Pequannock Township, N.J. Neither turned up any evidence that the players were too old. Rolando Paulino insisted that Danny had in fact been born on April 7, 1989. Paulino was initially backed by Little League and Dominican officials, who said the Baby Bombers had followed all proper procedures regarding age verification. Officials at Little League headquarters even took the unusual step of checking each of the players' documents due to the rumors surrounding the team.
Two Sports Illustrated reporters went to the civil records building in Moca after the end of the Little League World Series. They discovered a notation in the birth ledger showing that in 1994, Felipe Almonte had registered his son's birth date as April 7, 1987, at Dr. Toribio Bencosme Hospital. It is very common for Dominican parents to wait years before registering the birth of a child. Their report triggered a full investigation by Little League officials, even as Almonte and his teammates were being feted in the Bronx. His mother, Sonia Rojas Breton, produced a handwritten birth certificate saying that he had been born at home in Jamao with the help of a midwife in 1989. She'd registered Danny's 1989 birth date in 2000.
Both of Almonte's parents, though separated, unilaterally insisted their son was born in 1989, condemning the other documents as false.
Dominican officials, after conducting an investigation, announced that Danny had in fact been born in 1987.
As a result, Danny was retroactively declared ineligible, and the Baby Bombers had to forfeit all their wins in tournament play. All of their records were wiped from the books, and the team was required to demonstrate compliance with all regulations before entering the 2002 tournament. Felipe Almonte and Rolando Paulino were banned from Little League for life. Dominican prosecutors filed criminal charges against Felipe Almonte for falsifying a birth certificate. Danny, who did not speak English at the time, apparently knew nothing about the falsified documentations, and was cleared of wrongdoing. Little League president Stephen Keener said that Danny and his teammates had been "used ... in a most contemptible and despicable way" and that "millions of Little Leaguers around the world were deceived." Danny's godmother later begged forgiveness, saying that "we had to commit this little fraud" to give Danny a chance at a better life.
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