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NWLL baseball scandal
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Anonymous
It's to promote parity. Yes, there will be pockets of better-resourced families (NWLL is a decent example) who can afford high-end training, however the tradition of Little League is that it is a community-based program, where kids living close to one another or attending the same schools form teams together for purposes of competing outside their home league. Open it up to free agent players, and the thought is that you'll end up with some leagues buying their way to wins, rather than organically growing the skill of community players. If one would like a travel experience, that's out there--it just hasn't been the little league model. The change is one that's been pushed by administrators who don't want to be involved in refereeing situations exactly like we've seen here in DCLL. This entire inquiry began when a few coaches noticed that one team had a higher than normal proportion of the top-tier players, and that then rolled into "where did this kid come from," and then all hell broke loose--ultimately ending with LLI's statement on his ineligibility. Along the way, the Board didn't produce documents to Mike/Erin for whatever reason--but had Ricky just said "I screwed up, made a mistake" early on, it likely would have ended with an internal punishment of some sort. A meager internal punishment. When it didn't, and a closer look revealed the $$, then all hell that hadn't broken loose was unleashed. Now that the former Board is a minority on the next Board, will be interesting to see where it all heads--the far greater issue internally is the $ and the tax filings. . .if those are flawed to a degree that it invites IRS or DC scrutiny, then look out, NWLL. And yes, not filing 1099s is a big deal if that's what's been happening over years. . .those forms are created to identify income subject to taxes--and to cut down on "under the table" payments that escape taxation by federal and local bodies. There is no reason why NWLL shouldn't have reported those payments to the IRS--anything over $600 needs to be reported, so the recipient, in turn, accounts for them on his/her personal tax returns. Unless the recipients of the $ have expense receipts showing the payments reimbursed them for purchases on behalf of NWLL, then it's a bigger uh-oh than merely not reporting anything. Mistakes were made. DC OTR may be fine with that excuse. Problem is that the IRS doesn't care. |
Anonymous
WRONG. —aNonyMous |
Anonymous
Why state this? NWLL is for the kids. As long as there are kids who want to play, they will be supported through a league. |
Anonymous
DP: I dunno. Some kids who want to play are no longer supported when the 11u and 12u seasons roll around. The coaches' focus concentrates on the star players, and then you have things like Ricky waivering in kids (even kids who were happy in their rightful league), which bumps other kids out of the lineup. |
Anonymous
How many kids are actually waivered in outside of existing League rules? |
Anonymous
At least 1, and another gamed the system. So that's at least 2 too many. |
Anonymous
|
DP: I dunno. Some kids who want to play are no longer supported when the 11u and 12u seasons roll around. The coaches' focus concentrates on the star players and then you have things like Ricky waivering in kids (even kids who were happy in their rightful league), which bumps other kids out of the lineup. I fundamentally disagree with this statement. As a former coach (in rec, not summer), and knowing my fellow coaches around the league pretty well at the time, this was absolutely not the case at all. It’s rec! Our focus was on ensuring every child had fun and enjoyed playing the game (and would want to continue playing in the future), and learned and hopefully improved on fundamentals. Winning was nice, but certainly not the priority. Summer tourney teams may be drastically different, but for the fall/spring rec little league, it was about fun and development. |
Anonymous
I think the poster was referring to the 11U and 12U all-star teams, and the influence those teams can have on their managers/coaches incentives/actions outside of the summer All-Star team itself. To take Ricky's conflicts as an example, he was repeatedly the manager of the 12U summer team that advances to the Bristol regional if it wins DC, and then on to the LL World Series in Williamsport if it wins in Bristol. While the Majors managers generally are focused on the development and fun that you mention, the 12U Manager's focus is on preparing the 12U team to perform to the best of its ability in the DC tournament. It is the one corner of LL where hyper-competitiveness is broadly accepted and expected to be a high--if not the highest--priority. The conflict comes when a 12U manager is also the President of the LL, and the competitive drive that is desirable in a tournament manager bumps up against the responsibilities of the NWLL President, such as the implementation of LL boundary rules and player eligibility determinations. In Ricky's case, there were three identified cases of problematic waivers being granted to players who lived and attended school outside NWLL. After gathering information on the players, as the NWLL President, Ricky signed all three waivers and forwarded them on to his friend Rico Bailey, who is the head of DCLL. Rico rubber-stamped the waivers without any independent inquiry, then forcefully defended them when other parties challenged their propriety--some challenges from within NWLL, some from other leagues that lost the players. (those of you who attended the September 10 Board meeting got a taste of Rico's aggressive defense of Ricky when he declared about the waivers "It is over. Little League has given you the answer." Turns out, they actually did not--they accepted NWLL's and DCLL's signed forms as being accurate and in good faith, and had not investigated or ruled on the substance of the forms.) In the end, one of the waivers survived because the player had played one (1) NWLL game over the course of a year, which was determined to be "continuity of play." A second player got caught up in an eligibility battle between CCLL and NWLL, and was ultimately declared ineligible for both leagues summer teams (after the parents tried to withdraw him from NWLL based on an invalid waiver). And the third player was recently recognized as ineligible by LLI (the parent Little League org), to which the Special Committee responded with a finding of "mistake" on Ricky's part, not one of a pattern of intentionally inaccurate waiver applications that had been drafted, verified, and signed by Ricky. Ricky benefitted by adding an ineligible player with higher-level skills to his league, his Majors team, and the 2022 summer all-star team that won DC and advanced to Bristol. He also benefitted by refusing to release the waiver to those challenging its basis--it would have been facially invalid to CHLL, the league in which the player participated in 2021. And his refusal to produce the paperwork drove additional suspicions by Klisch and Erin, who dug into the financial data available and found the $ that appeared to have been improperly paid to board members. It was the refusal to produce documents that should have been innocent--waivers and financial records--that led to the lawsuit being filed to compel Ricky to open the books to the Board, at least. It will be interesting to see what happens with the lawsuit now that there are only four members of the 2023 Board continuing on the 2024 Board--the new board could open the books and undercut the bulk of the claims, or it could maintain the same posture and fight (either as a Board, or as individual members--Ricky and Rossi, primarily--who are in actual possession of the documents that are being sought.). It's all a huge mess and creates uncertainty for the community in 2024, but at least it appears to be moving toward resolution--especially with 14 of the 18 individuals that served on the 2023 board either withdrawing from or being voted off the 2024 board. |
Anonymous
I fundamentally disagree with this statement. As a former coach (in rec, not summer), and knowing my fellow coaches around the league pretty well at the time, this was absolutely not the case at all. It’s rec! Our focus was on ensuring every child had fun and enjoyed playing the game (and would want to continue playing in the future), and learned and hopefully improved on fundamentals. Winning was nice, but certainly not the priority. Summer tourney teams may be drastically different, but for the fall/spring rec little league, it was about fun and development. I'm not sure how you can "disagree" with our experience. What you describe was what we experienced u until 11u. At that point, the rec league became less 'rec'. |
Anonymous
I fundamentally disagree with this statement. As a former coach (in rec, not summer), and knowing my fellow coaches around the league pretty well at the time, this was absolutely not the case at all. It’s rec! Our focus was on ensuring every child had fun and enjoyed playing the game (and would want to continue playing in the future), and learned and hopefully improved on fundamentals. Winning was nice, but certainly not the priority. Summer tourney teams may be drastically different, but for the fall/spring rec little league, it was about fun and development. Fun? With ricky drafting all star caliber rec teams, by obfuscating draft scores, hiring his friends as umps, and running up scores by 20+ runs? Maybe fun for his team (tho a terrible lesson for them). But definitely not fun for other teams/kids nor their parents who complained earlier in this post. Grow up nw rec coach, it's not all about winning. And if it was, you also need to switch out ricky because he can't do that against real competition either. |
Anonymous
| Mike’s ultimate goal, during this entire process, is to be the summer 12U all star coach so he can make it to Bristol with his kid and be the coach on record. He disagreed with Ricky originally about umpires and then decided he had to take him down, because, as many might have seen, he must win at all costs, no matter who he destroys in the process. Mike represents probably half the posts on this thread, so this will be answered with one of his canned - oh blame the whistle blowers responses, but it’s a pretty apparent truth. Maybe he needs to stand up and say he’s not interested in the job and he won’t continue trying to wield his power everywhere, but if you know Mike, you know he needs to have his way. |
Anonymous
| Is Ricky still the President? Will he continue to be the 12u All-Star coach? |
Anonymous
That’s the question - lot of self congrats on here with some (emphasis on some) turnover on board. But main player(s) still there? After 59 pages of sordid details? |
Anonymous
| Hopefully the new board has a chance and works well together for the sake of the kids. I wonder if Sweeney and Klisch will leave them alone and let them do their jobs or they will try to run the board from the sidelines. |
Anonymous
| A bit off topic but regarding the umpires, I liked many of the umps that some are complaining about. It was good for my son to experience more of the old school style umpires. I think they were mostly fair, but on occasion, a bit strict and old fashioned, which I was good for my son. In baseball, calls are imperfect. So are umpires. Good training for baseball later in life. |