NWLL baseball scandal

[Anonymous]

why would playing in a rockville league count as playing in NWLL? It makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea why the board is so afraid to act. Because of this inaction, they look weak and ineffective. This could have been dealt with very simply in one of two ways:

1. recognize there are issues and set up a meeting to review the complaints (without those named initially at least)

2. deny there are issues and get rid of the whistleblowers

If the board had acted quickly in either respect I would have applauded them.

By not doing number 2 it suggests there was some stone left unturned from earlier efforts to address this issue. Effectively, they didn't trust the decisions they had made earlier on these issues.

By not doing either it led to useless back and forth legalistic discussions that accomplished nothing. They appointed a group to review the allegations that has already discounted them. They claimed to have, but failed to produce, key evidence that could have settled some of the key points raised in the complaint.

The fact this simple thing wasn't done is fanning the flames of the idea of a larger conspiracy, which is insane because this is baseball for kids not a Federal RICO trial.

Maybe someone gave out some favors or showed favoritism or got a kid who was ineligible - these are not high crimes. They are common issues found with locally run groups like this. Identify the issues, take corrective action and move on.

Of course all of this should have already been addressed.

Which raises even larger concerns that it hasn't. That + the fact that the board of NWLL is led by folks who don't have kids involved raises a larger question. What is going on with the money?

Where are the audits nonprofits are required to have annually. Who is getting paid, as a vendor, or for some other reason? Hopefully DC govt or IRS or whoever oversees nonprofits takes a glance at this component. Something seems off. There is no way volunteers with nothing real to hide would be doing what the current NWLL leadership group is doing. Why waste their time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NWLL is like a banana republic

Most LLs are. Especially the successful ones.

[Anonymous]

There's a person on the board for the last 12 years who never lived in DC, but kid(s) went to a school in-boundary so they were legit NWLL players. I'm assuming they aged out years ago.

Do the rules allow this person to be an officer on the board? Absolutely.

Have they been generous in giving up their time to the community in the last 12 years. Yes. 100%.

Is it time to get new people in to replace them? I think that might make sense. I'm not sure about this person's specific situation, but...

There are no term-limits for the league, and maybe that's why the board seems so insular and immovable to the recent complainants.

Generally speaking, people should feel pressure to move on after serving on a community-based board for a while. Maybe after a few years of giving back if they do not have kids active in the league. Or, if they don't live in-boundary and once their kids leave the in-boundary school.

[Anonymous]

I agree that the two board members who wrote the letter have demonstrated terrible judgment in the way that they have handled this, dragging in people who would prefer not to be involved. The overall approach they are taking seems to be hurting their cause more than it is helping. And, particularly, they should have been smart enough to know that no one wants their kid's name to be prominently featured in any of these legal documents.

But it would be really unfortunate if their poor tactical choices are interfering an investigation into the merits of the allegations which, if true, are extremely problematic and should be concerning to anyone with kids in the league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a person on the board for the last 12 years who never lived in DC, but kid(s) went to a school in-boundary so they were legit NWLL players. I'm assuming they aged out years ago.

Do the rules allow this person to be an officer on the board? Absolutely.

Have they been generous in giving up their time to the community in the last 12 years. Yes. 100%.

Is it time to get new people in to replace them? I think that might make sense. I'm not sure about this person's specific situation, but...

There are no term-limits for the league, and maybe that's why the board seems so insular and immovable to the recent complainants.

Generally speaking, people should feel pressure to move on after serving on a community-based board for a while. Maybe after a few years of giving back if they do not have kids active in the league. Or, if they don't live in-boundary and once their kids leave the in-boundary school.

Here's another metric: is the organization being best served by this board?

I'm not sure how you can read the allegations and not find extensive merit in them—sure, some of the fringe things might be questionable—but the fact the current league has such shocking levels of player/parent discontent, such lopsided scores, such universal anger over the umpires and a failure to have any success in the LLWS (which a cynic might point out is because the city is not putting its best team forward), and now a horrendous and very credible accusation of widespread cheating and draft-rigging... if I were a board member I would look at the situation and think, "well this isn't working, maybe it's time for someone else to try!"

If an outside firm clears Ricky (and I don't see how they can) all those problems—tense, unhappy games, players feeling disillusioned and burned out by age 11, terrible umping, parents shouting "cheater", most games resulting in routs, etc. suggests a poorly administered operation. Cheating or not, this organization is broken and for the sake of the parents like that one who has an eager six-year-old, please clean house!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the two board members who wrote the letter have demonstrated terrible judgment in the way that they have handled this, dragging in people who would prefer not to be involved. The overall approach they are taking seems to be hurting their cause more than it is helping. And, particularly, they should have been smart enough to know that no one wants their kid's name to be prominently featured in any of these legal documents.

But it would be really unfortunate if their poor tactical choices are interfering an investigation into the merits of the allegations which, if true, are extremely problematic and should be concerning to anyone with kids in the league.

I don't think they sound like nice people, but I found it a reasonable letter... everyone knew this stuff was happening anyway and knew which kids weren't supposed to be there. Also, if they HADN'T included names, it would've been easier to brush off.

Maybe I would've written a different letter, but I don't think it hurts their cause the way they did it. I mean, if you read that letter and you thought, "Well, all this cheating stuff should probably be given a pass because they mentioned a kid's name in the letter!" you're part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Rico,

D.C. is one-party consent. Nobody needs your permission/authorization to record a board meeting.

https://www.justia.com/50-state-surveys/recording-phone-calls-and-conversations/#dc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a person on the board for the last 12 years who never lived in DC, but kid(s) went to a school in-boundary so they were legit NWLL players. I'm assuming they aged out years ago.

Do the rules allow this person to be an officer on the board? Absolutely.

Have they been generous in giving up their time to the community in the last 12 years. Yes. 100%.

Is it time to get new people in to replace them? I think that might make sense. I'm not sure about this person's specific situation, but...

There are no term-limits for the league, and maybe that's why the board seems so insular and immovable to the recent complainants.

Generally speaking, people should feel pressure to move on after serving on a community-based board for a while. Maybe after a few years of giving back if they do not have kids active in the league. Or, if they don't live in-boundary and once their kids leave the in-boundary school.

Here's another metric: is the organization being best served by this board?

I'm not sure how you can read the allegations and not find extensive merit in them—sure, some of the fringe things might be questionable—but the fact the current league has such shocking levels of player/parent discontent, such lopsided scores, such universal anger over the umpires and a failure to have any success in the LLWS (which a cynic might point out is because the city is not putting its best team forward), and now a horrendous and very credible accusation of widespread cheating and draft-rigging... if I were a board member I would look at the situation and think, "well this isn't working, maybe it's time for someone else to try!"

If an outside firm clears Ricky (and I don't see how they can) all those problems—tense, unhappy games, players feeling disillusioned and burned out by age 11, terrible umping, parents shouting "cheater", most games resulting in routs, etc. suggests a poorly administered operation. Cheating or not, this organization is broken and for the sake of the parents like that one who has an eager six-year-old, please clean house!

I would argue that "success in the LLWS" is a very different goal from the other ones listed. Except that talent development is very much a numbers game, and that the way to develop a lot of talented players is to keep a lot of players engaged from the beginning.

[Anonymous]

Is there a recording of last night's Board meeting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a person on the board for the last 12 years who never lived in DC, but kid(s) went to a school in-boundary so they were legit NWLL players. I'm assuming they aged out years ago.

Do the rules allow this person to be an officer on the board? Absolutely.

Have they been generous in giving up their time to the community in the last 12 years. Yes. 100%.

Is it time to get new people in to replace them? I think that might make sense. I'm not sure about this person's specific situation, but...

There are no term-limits for the league, and maybe that's why the board seems so insular and immovable to the recent complainants.

Generally speaking, people should feel pressure to move on after serving on a community-based board for a while. Maybe after a few years of giving back if they do not have kids active in the league. Or, if they don't live in-boundary and once their kids leave the in-boundary school.

Here's another metric: is the organization being best served by this board?

I'm not sure how you can read the allegations and not find extensive merit in them—sure, some of the fringe things might be questionable—but the fact the current league has such shocking levels of player/parent discontent, such lopsided scores, such universal anger over the umpires and a failure to have any success in the LLWS (which a cynic might point out is because the city is not putting its best team forward), and now a horrendous and very credible accusation of widespread cheating and draft-rigging... if I were a board member I would look at the situation and think, "well this isn't working, maybe it's time for someone else to try!"

If an outside firm clears Ricky (and I don't see how they can) all those problems—tense, unhappy games, players feeling disillusioned and burned out by age 11, terrible umping, parents shouting "cheater", most games resulting in routs, etc. suggests a poorly administered operation. Cheating or not, this organization is broken and for the sake of the parents like that one who has an eager six-year-old, please clean house!

I would argue that "success in the LLWS" is a very different goal from the other ones listed. Except that talent development is very much a numbers game, and that the way to develop a lot of talented players is to keep a lot of players engaged from the beginning.

well, ultimately you play the game to win, and if, after all this draft-rigging and eligibility games, and disillusionment for so many other kids who are not the chosen ones, they're not even winning, what's the point? They're doing all this cheating and it's not even getting them anywhere!

I suppose that's why people keep bringing up the money thing. Maybe that's the motive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the two board members who wrote the letter have demonstrated terrible judgment in the way that they have handled this, dragging in people who would prefer not to be involved. The overall approach they are taking seems to be hurting their cause more than it is helping. And, particularly, they should have been smart enough to know that no one wants their kid's name to be prominently featured in any of these legal documents.

But it would be really unfortunate if their poor tactical choices are interfering an investigation into the merits of the allegations which, if true, are extremely problematic and should be concerning to anyone with kids in the league.

I don't think they sound like nice people, but I found it a reasonable letter... everyone knew this stuff was happening anyway and knew which kids weren't supposed to be there. Also, if they HADN'T included names, it would've been easier to brush off.

Maybe I would've written a different letter, but I don't think it hurts their cause the way they did it. I mean, if you read that letter and you thought, "Well, all this cheating stuff should probably be given a pass because they mentioned a kid's name in the letter!" you're part of the problem.

I'm PP and I happen to agree with you. But I am also a parent who has a lot of friends in this community and I think it is fair to say that most parents are suspicious of M and E's motives, and are not inclined to want to learn more because they don't want to get involved in an issue that has been so divisive. I'm not defending people who want to keep their heads in the sand but I also would have expected highly paid lawyers to understand that issue-avoidance is human nature, and to have taken a different approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the two board members who wrote the letter have demonstrated terrible judgment in the way that they have handled this, dragging in people who would prefer not to be involved. The overall approach they are taking seems to be hurting their cause more than it is helping. And, particularly, they should have been smart enough to know that no one wants their kid's name to be prominently featured in any of these legal documents.

But it would be really unfortunate if their poor tactical choices are interfering an investigation into the merits of the allegations which, if true, are extremely problematic and should be concerning to anyone with kids in the league.

I don't think they sound like nice people, but I found it a reasonable letter... everyone knew this stuff was happening anyway and knew which kids weren't supposed to be there. Also, if they HADN'T included names, it would've been easier to brush off.

Maybe I would've written a different letter, but I don't think it hurts their cause the way they did it. I mean, if you read that letter and you thought, "Well, all this cheating stuff should probably be given a pass because they mentioned a kid's name in the letter!" you're part of the problem.

I'm PP and I happen to agree with you. But I am also a parent who has a lot of friends in this community and I think it is fair to say that most parents are suspicious of M and E's motives, and are not inclined to want to learn more because they don't want to get involved in an issue that has been so divisive. I'm not defending people who want to keep their heads in the sand but I also would have expected highly paid lawyers to understand that issue-avoidance is human nature, and to have taken a different approach.

Well, like I said, if they hadn't been specific, everyone would have stuck their heads in the sand claiming that they were being too vague. Let's face it, most people don't want to hear that they've been flushing money down the toilet to a corrupt children's youth league that is ruining their kid's experience. Damned either way.

But, the form doesn't take away from the fact that the accusations were very, very credible. Sounds like you've got some work to do convincing your friends that pretending that they aren't paying good money to have people discourage their children from playing sports is NOT a rational way to think. And that doesn't mean they have to be some crusading activist—but it seriously makes no sense to pretend it's not happening. They probably already knew it was happening. Everyone did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best answer may be that klisch and Sweeney move to another league as there is no remedy otherwise. Even if another adjudicator acts it will be deemed harmless error if anything. So they need to quash this issue.

Regarding the irregularities in the All-Star team selections, it might be true that an adjudicator would deem these "harmless errors" if anything to be quashed and moved on from. But those in the know, just as those willing to actually take in the facts, know what's there is habitual attempts at cheating and gaming the system. Adjudicating it as harmless and quashing dissent just allows it to continue. And it's not harmless. It hurts the other leagues that NWLL illegally poaches or tries to poach players from. It hurts the honest teams and leagues that compete above board when they lose to illegitimately composed NWLL teams. It hurts the kids that are legitimately part of NWLL that get left off the team in favor of players that are out of boundary that are not entitled to waivers. It hurts the league experience for NWLL Majors division players that aren't part of the all-star team. It hurts the experience of the aforementioned six-year-olds and parents that don't want to deal with this stuff. So it's disheartening to hear some say: let's just move on and play ball.

In the Washington Post article, Davenport says "Anyone who thinks a single player in each of the last two seasons was the secret to our success hasn't been out to see our games." Exactly! The NWLL teams can compete without trying to add illegal players. So do that! But do it with players you're entitled to. Not with those you aren't. Or if the errors are deemed as harmless, I guess that's a signal to just keep on accidentally making them.

Now if I were trying to survive this, I might keep doing what Davenport and NWLL are doing. Deny. Withold. Say I'm the most honest person/league ever. And that strategy might just work out for them.

The NWLL prez also says he has a "long-standing reputation for honesty" and has "never cheated or gamed the system." HA! He has a reputation for using every loophole to his advantage and more. Loopholes may be dirty, but are one thing. Cutting your own hole in the loop is another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:well, ultimately you play the game to win, and if, after all this draft-rigging and eligibility games, and disillusionment for so many other kids who are not the chosen ones, they're not even winning, what's the point? They're doing all this cheating and it's not even getting them anywhere!

I suppose that's why people keep bringing up the money thing. Maybe that's the motive?

Winning a state championship and getting to go to the LLB Regionals is a big deal. NWLL has gone there two years in a row. This year they won two games and were one run away from going to the LLWS. Winning a regional and going to Williamsport would be amazing for any team. But not right to say any league that is going to regionals and representing your state and being on ESPN is not getting anywhere. That is a huge prize, and why so many people care about this.

Also, it's a very recent thing that DC's sole district is treated as a state with a direct path to regionals. The DC winner used to go to the Maryland state tournament with the winner of that tourney going to the Regional. I guess representing Maryland? That happened sometimes but entailed winning your way through a whole extra and tough round to make it to regionals and ESPN. The DC state recognition has only been a thing for the last three years or so.