Truth And Consequences: <br>Foul Play

Last summer, one of the brightest stars in baseball wasn't a Major Leaguer. He was a little leaguer from the Bronx named Danny Almonte.

He pitched his team into the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. They didn't win the trophy, but the team was the toast of the town. It got a parade and rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

The Cinderella story turned into a morality tale amid accusations that Almonte's father falsified his birth certificate, and that Danny was older than he claimed to be. The Dominican Republic confirmed that Almonte was actually 14, two years over the Little League age limit of 12. Harold Dow reports on this battle over ages.

The team was stripped of its victories, and their coach, Rolando Paulino, went from hero to villain overnight. Even President Bush weighed in: "I was extremely disappointed to learn that adults would try to fudge the boy's age," Bush said.

Banned from Little League, Coach Paulino remained defiant, insisting he was duped by the false birth certificate.

"We were given the documents and we have to believe the documents given by the relatives," he says.

Danny's father, Felipe, denies he falsified his son's birth certificate and dismisses it as a clerical error.

"I don't feel I need to give any apologies," he says. "I was very proud of Danny, and to this moment I'm still very proud of him

Paulino has worked with youth baseball for 25 years in Almonte's home town of Moca, in the Dominican Republic. Paulino visits there every year, looking for new talent. In a place where kids practice with bottlecaps and broomsticks, baseball is their ticket out of poverty.

Today, with his family a world away, Danny Almonte is a New York teen-ager. He just finished eighth grade and is living with Paulino, who remains his coach.

"Rolando, to me, is like a second father," Almonte says, "and he is a great person."

As for the future, he says, "My dream is to finish high school and then go into the major leagues."

Almonte is getting lessons from former San Diego Padre pitcher Fred Cambria. "If he works hard, in the next couple of years, good things are going to happen to him," Cambria says. "I'd put my money on Danny any day."

Almonte even has caught the eye of a Yankee scout, who predicts he's going to be "something great."

Ultimately, the scandal seems to have done Almonte more good than harm. So who did pay the price?

Some say it's the other teams, everyone who played by the rules.

"These kids were cheated out of their chance," says Bob Laterza who coached one of the eliminated teams. "Every team along the way was cheated."

Paulino says comments like that are an "an excuse to justify a loss."

Last month on Almonte's 15th birthday, Paulino threw him a party. He says he wants Danny to accept his real age.

"Now that I know his other age, I'm not going to lie to him," Paulino says. "I have to teach him that he has to do everything legal."

But Paulino has not started yet: there were only 13 candles on the cake.