PROVIDENCE – A Cumberland man, Jack Ranallo, also called Jack Norris, who tricked 10 families into paying him a total of $31,500 with promises their teenage sons would play major league baseball has been sentenced to 15 years in prison with two and a half to serve with the remainder suspended with probation.

He was immediately transferred to the ACI in Cranston upon sentencing.

Ranallo plead no contest on Dec. 6 to obtaining money under false pretenses, bad checks and filing false documents.

The Rhode Island State Police Financial Crimes Unit led the investigation, which revealed Ranallo was also arrested in Maryland in 1999 in a similar case, which he posed as a former Major League Baseball player with the Arizona Diamondbacks.