A baseball team is crying foul after being told they couldn’t enter a national baseball tournament.
The Canterbury team wanted to enter the under 16 division of the National Baseball Festival in Nelson in April this year – but were told they were too late for registration.
That was in February, weeks out from the tournament, but Baseball New Zealand (Baseball NZ) said the players needed to have registered for the season by late November 2022.
“We received an email saying not enough of us were registered late last year,” says baseball mum Lesley Stoliker.
“We offered to register them at the time but they said 'no'.”
She says the problem is there are no other teams in Christchurch for the players to compete against.
“As there are no other playing teams, lots of parents didn't see the point of getting registered.”
That doesn’t signal a lack of commitment or experience by the team though. Most have played for years, and several have trialled for national teams. Four were registered this year, five in previous years and just three were new registrations.
Plus, the team continues to practice twice a week. It's what they live for.
“I grew up with it. My great grandpa played, so did my grandpa,” says Liam Stoliker.
The tournament was promoted as a great platform to “participate and compete" and “the chance to be "national age group champions”.
“We were really excited,” says Liam. “It would give us an opportunity to play, as we don't really have any other teams to play against.”
Canterbury Baseball were keen to enter a team, but accepted Baseball NZ’s rule that late registrations weren't possible. Not the parents though. Lesley told Fair Go she emailed Basketball NZ, World Baseball, Oceania Baseball and her local MP.
“I got no response apart from yours (Fair Go’s) so thank you,” she says.
She hoped Baseball NZ would step up to the plate.
“It's about children, They want to play, so let them play.”
But Baseball NZ wasn’t budging. CEO Megan Crockett says rules are rules.
“Other regions abide by process registered members start at season just like everybody else has to."
Sport policy expert Mike Sam is baffled by Baseball NZ’s decision.
“For every sport there are two objectives - getting more people to play and getting more people to play better. That’s what they should be trying to do,” says the assistant professor at the University of Otago.
“I’m thinking about why registrations need to be by a certain date and I really can't think of a reason.”
So Fair Go tried again to get more clarity, asking Baseball NZ what the harm was in letting the team register to playing in the tournament.
“The harm comes in that it's unfair on those players who have played the whole season,” Megan says. “The national tournament is a pinnacle event not something casual teams can do.”
The team haven't even got to first base on this one. The under 16 division of the tournament was cancelled, due to not enough teams being available to compete.
A mediation is now planned between Baseball NZ and the parents, something they hope will help with future tournaments.
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