DYB Commissioner's March 12, 1998 Letter To NEP



The following letter was written by Wes Skelton, DYB Commissioner in response to a letter from Rob Doss, NEP President regarding DYB's Official Ruling 98-01.


Dear Mr. Doss:

I feel you have totally misinterpreted the purpose of official ruling 98-01, possibly, because the background on this issue was not properly explained to you. I have the utmost respect for YANEP and its contribution to its community and to Dixie Youth Baseball, Inc.

I am aware that nearly all leagues have options for sons of managers but I believe your player selection process violates the "equal opportunity" provisions of our rules for the following reasons:

1) It does not specifically limit the option player to being the son of a manager;

2) It provides for up to four (4) players to be "recruited" by the managers without having the benefit of trying out or selected in a draft system;

3) It does not provide for the teams selecting "recruits" to give up draft picks in the league-wide draft;

4) Under your player selection system, up to eight (8) players on any one team (four (4) twelve year old players and four (4) eleven year old players) in any given year would be subject to being "recruited" and not made availabe to all managers on a "equal opportunity" basis. That is up to 48 players in each league.

5) Most leagues which offer option players to managers and coaches would work this way:

The team Manager recruits two coaches. Assuming the most liberal use of options, the team manager and both coaches have sons that are selected as option players at the time of the league draft for 11 year olds. Each of these three players would cost the team a draft pick in the league draft as a cost for the option. I have absolutely no problem with this use of option players. These three (3) players would play for two years as option players as 11s and 12s. Under YANEPs system, a manager, without regard to whether the players were sons of coaches or not, could "recruit" up to twelve (12) players over a two year period.

6) Equal opportunity does not mean that all teams will have equal talent but in a multi-league draft the system must reasonably distribute the players between the leagues.

7) As far as a just outcome, I communicated to State Director Charles Kirkland that I would be happy to discuss any reasonable alternative to the ones I outlined in my ruling. I assume that you do not wish to discuss any such alternative. Its unfortunate that you cannot be open-minded about this matter and attempt to understand my position but I believe that you really have no interest in finding an acceptable alternative to the one I have proposed.

8) I categorically deny that I or Dixie Youth Baseball has declared YANEP to be cheaters. I am only ruling that "as written" your player selection system does not meet the criteria for "equal opportunity".

9) The reason I have taken this action now is because league officials in North Carolina had seen your player selection rules published on the "internet" and had asked the North Carolina Dixie Youth officials if they could use such rules to select their players. They were told they could not and I was contacted to make a ruling. This was all explained to Charles Kirkland who was suppose to explain this to you.

As I explained above, I have no problem with "option" players as described in paragraph 5 above. I believe my ruling is consistent with allowing for "option" players under that scenario. But your system of player selection goes well beyond that method of selecting players and is "technically" in violation of the DYB rules.

I can tell by the tone of your letter that you have no interest in pursing this issue with me but I can assure you my office is open to any suggestion which would fairly resolve this issue with your league. I have no control over whether you wish to exercise this option.

In closing, whatever direction YANEP follows, I want to wish you and your league well and hope your organization has many successful seasons in the future. The most important people are the youngsters who play in your program....not the adults.

Sincerely,
Wes Skelton
Commissioner

Next Page

Return to Main Page | Florida DYB March 2, 1998 Letter
Notification of Rule Violation | Official Ruling 98-01 | NEP President March 12, 1998 Letter to DYB Commissioner
DYB Commissioner Response to NEP President | NEP President March 12, 1998 2nd Response to DYB
DYB Commissioner's March 13th Letter | NEP President's March 21st Response
DYB Commissioner's March 22nd Letter | NEP President's Response to DYB's March 22nd Letter
DYB Commissioner's March 22nd (#2) Letter | NEP President's Final Response to DYB