Butler and Hondras reflect on a championship, a controversy and why baseball saves Black youth
They were 12-year-old boys from Chicago’s South Side when they helped carry the Jackie Robinson West Little League team to one of the most electrifying championships in the city’s history. The Little League World Series title sent a wave of pride through their community that rivaled the city’s greatest professional sports moments — Bulls dynasties, White Sox clinchers and Cubs celebrations. But what followed was a devastating controversy that stripped the team of its title and left young boys processing a very public kind of pain that no child should ever have to carry. Years later, the documentary “One Golden Summer” finally gives their story the complete and honest telling it has always deserved. DJ Butler and Tré Hondras sat down with rolling out to reflect on the glory, the confusion, the heartbreak and the enduring power of baseball in the lives of Black youth on Chicago‘s South Side.
How does it feel to have the JRW story documented in this way?
DJ Butler: It’s an honor to get our story out. Also, for people to know what’s actually going on. It’s been a long time. A lot of people had questions. A lot of people had considerations, what’s going on, how’s everybody doing. And I’m just blessed that everybody can now see what’s going on, and yeah, so it’s here. So I’m grateful for that.
What did winning the Little League World Series championship actually feel like?
Tré Hondras: I mean, I think it was just as equivalent to any other feeling like the 90s with the Chicago Bulls, or 05 with the White Sox, or even 2019 with the Cubs. It gave off that same feeling, especially from the love from the city. I think that was the biggest thing. I think that’s what made it so important and big was the city treated it like it was a world series win, or championship, or a clinching win. Because of how they reacted towards it, like it was the NBA, or the MLB, or the NHL with the Blackhawks. That’s how they approached it. And I think when we started, when we were in Pennsylvania, and we started seeing what the city was doing just a little bit, and we could tell we was making such an impact. Obviously, we didn’t know how much of an impact we were making until we got back home. But just hearing from what families were saying back home, and how much of an impact we were making back home, I think that was just such the… That was kind of just the cherry on top for me, man, and just having the support of a whole city that I lived in my whole life back us, and be proud of us for what we did.
DJ Butler: It was incredible. The whole experience from the parades, from just everything. It was just speechless. At the time, like you 12, you don’t really feel like… it’s just kind of like you’re in the moment, and it’s like, man, like all these people came out to see us. That’s pretty cool. But when you look back on it, you’re like, wow, you made the city proud. Being from here, on the South Side, and everything, and it’s just like, you’re happy that you made not only yourself proud, but everybody in a community, in an environment is proud. And so that’s just something that, to me, that felt good, not only to accomplish winning, but also just to make others proud and make others believe that they can possibly do the same thing one day. Just making an impact in various ways. It was just an amazing feeling overall.
When the cheating allegations emerged, what were you feeling in that moment?
DJ Butler: Well, I’ll tell you, I feel like when I was just a kid when all this stuff happened, so I was very confused as to far as like what was going on. You know, we came out there, we won, we dominated our competition, and we did everything that we had to do. And I didn’t know what people were saying. It went from, you know, we go from town top, and then you look up the next day, it’s like you get straight from the bottom of people’s shoe. And it was just like, it was a confusing let down experience as to far as like what’s going on, all because of what somebody said or what somebody believed. And we’ve been through all of this, you know, not only trial and tribulation, because we were going through stuff when we were down there and the whole process into being champions. And it was just like, for me, and a lot of us too, it was just like, what was going on — it was just confusing even to this day. It’s like, wow, you wake up the next day and everything’s just people just turning on you, people just ask you questions you don’t have any answers, you wonder what’s going on. And that feeling, you know, that’s something that I don’t wish on nobody, to be honest.
What do you want viewers to take away from watching ‘One Golden Summer’?
Tré Hondras: Yeah, I think everyone should just take away the positive moments into it. I think you can look at the positive moments and see how happy we were as 12-year-old kids playing the game that we love. And just appreciate an African American story with just a bunch of kids that are just all Black men from the same place and playing baseball and having fun. I think if you take that perspective and you take out the negative, I think that’s what you see. But also you need to see the negative as well because that tells you the story and tells you the trials and tribulations that 12-year-old kids have to go through as well. And I think the story, the documentary, gives you a funny feeling, it gives you a happy feeling and it gives you a sad feeling. And some people might be a little bit angry. But I love how the documentary gives you everything you want in a documentary and a movie or anything. You want to be happy, you want to laugh, you want to cry a little bit and you want to be happy too. And I think that’s what that story showed is all through those things. And that sounds like life to me. So I think that’s the biggest thing that Kevin tried to do was make this piece as relatable and as human as possible.
DJ Butler: I love the documentary. I think it is perfect. Just watching it, it just gave me my whole, like, the full perspective of how I felt during that time, during the ups, the downs and the now. So just watching it, I always have the same feelings. You remember the great times of winning the championship. You remember the difficult times of the whole situation. And now you’re looking at it until the modern day time. So overall, while looking at it, it makes you really look in the lenses of us. And so I think that’s just very, it’s very well executed when you watch it. And that’s something that I love to watch because it gives me a new perspective every time I’m able to see it. And it gives me those same emotions — I remember how it was feeling during this time. I remember what we were feeling like during this time. And just overall, when people watch it, that’s exactly how you’re feeling when you watch it. It’s probably exactly how I’m feeling. And so that’s why I like watching it and just having a whole, like being open minded and a real perspective. That’s why I enjoy it the most.
What does youth baseball mean to the lives of Black youth on the South Side of Chicago?
DJ Butler: For me personally, I grew up going to Chicago public schools, Chicago public high school, everything was very just inner city. So I had to — my parents felt like they had to put me in stuff to get away from the possible distractions or a negative direction that might take a dip in my life or my mental or my health. And so baseball was something I love to the point where I’m looking forward to after school, I want to kick it with my friends and stuff like that. And it plays a huge role and it’s a big character developing thing as well. Being around coaches, if it’s my dad or it’s Tré’s dad or anybody, we’re learning, we’re picking up stuff from them. And overall we becoming better kids, we becoming better young men. And it just takes away the distraction of trying to figure out who we are or what we want to do or who’s the people that is close to us. So having baseball, especially in the inner city, I feel like it’s not talked about enough as far as like a real outlet into just being a better individual. Not saying that everybody’s going to make it to MLB and everything like that. But it just opens up so many outlets to the point where you look back on it and you’d be like, wow, I remember when my coach told me this story, now I know how to get through it. And I don’t have to feel like I got to do something that maybe my parents or maybe my friends or family wouldn’t be proud of me doing. I think it’s, for me personally, and I know for sure a lot of my brothers as well, it was a big outlet for us as far as like developing who we are as young men and discovering what we like to do. So very important.
ONE GOLDEN SUMMER will premiere as an OWN SPOTLIGHT on Thursday, May 7, 2026
