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Infamous New York Little League - Danny Almonte - The Rolando Paulino Little League All-Stars -- which was led by pitcher Danny Almonte and stunned the sports world in the Little League World Series two years -- will be making a local appearance. Sort of. Much of the remnants of that Rolando Paulino team, which rode the arm of Almonte, who was actually two years older than the rest of the field, are still playing together for the Bronx, N.Y.-based FNHA team that will compete in the PONY League World Series starting Friday and continuing through Aug. 16 at Lew Hays Field in Washington. FNHA will play Davenport-West, Iowa, in the opening game of the PONY League World Series at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. While Almonte is not part of the FNHA team and Paulino is not the manager, nor has any association with the team, 10 of the 15 players on the FNHA roster were part of that infamous squad that marched their way to a third-place finish in Williamsport two years ago, only to have their victories stripped as a result of findings that showed Almonte, who was 14 at the time, used a falsified birth certificate claiming to be 12 years old. Two years removed from the incident, the doubters still follow. Rosy Perdomo, the sports coordinator for the FNHA Pony League team, has become quite conditioned to opposing players, coaches and tournament directors questioning the age of the kids on her team. "It get a little annoying," Perdomo said. "Danny (Almonte) was the only kid that was overage. Every tournament we go to it seems like, again and again, people question how old these kids are and I think it gets to the kids a little sometimes. I have all the paperwork and have proven that these kids are the right age." While there might be some doubt that still lingers around the FNHA team, Abraham Key, president and CEO of PONY Baseball, Inc., is satisfied that the playing field is, indeed, level. "We have checked the birth documentation, the scorebooks and all of their literature," Key said. "We have been able to verify that these players are exactly who they say they are and fall within the age limitations. There is no skepticism on our part. This team has been checked thoroughly." North Allegheny manager Jamie Howell, whose team could face FNHA on Monday in the second round, is worried more about getting his team ready to compete than the potential for another team to use a player that is too old. "I am absolutely not worried about this team having kids that overage," Howell said. "They earned their spot here in the field and the people at PONY baseball, I know, have looked into everyone's age and everything is alright with them. I don't worry about their age." While Howell is not worried about FNHA, or any other team for that matter, using a player who is older than allowed by rules, he admits that the FNHA team carries a certain stigma. "When we found out that they (FNHA) made the field, we said 'Oh, that's the Almonte team'," Howell said. "So, I guess it kind of takes away a little from what they do on the field because everyone still remembers what happened when they were in Little League." By Colin Dunlap FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, August 6, 2003