Part 1. Original letter to H. Wedemejer, M. Stovelaar and Baseball.It web site (June 29)

Gentlemen,

This message is from Sergei Borisov, independent baseball statistician from Moscow, Russia, author of the Russian League Baseball web site. So much talk recently in Europe about Russian corruption, crime, fraud, etc. Our baseball has been a victim of all that too. It's time to actually do something.

I am very sad to announce that the defending Russian champion VVIA (currently known as CSC VVS Balashikha) has comitted a gross violation of eligibility rules, as I understood them, during the ongoing European Cup 2002 (Pool A) in Viladecans, Spain.

Two of the team's players - Valentin Alexandrov and Valeri Platonov - never played for the VVIA ballclub and are actually employed by the MGU Tornado Moscow. I mean these two guys play for a different team in Russian domestic competition.

Both players have already taken part in the EuroCup action according to the www.baseballeurope.com (No surprise VVIA is the only one without a team web site among the Cup's participants!).

This is the second such misconduct by Russian teams in Eurocup competition that I know about. The first one was in 1998 during CEB Cup Pool A in Moscow by the same club VVIA, when they used at least three players from MGU-78 Moscow. I was the official scorer during the tournament and let the technical commisioners - G.P.Reiter and a Swede whose name I can't recall - know the fact.

To my amazement, the commishes let fool themselves as the Russian Baseball Federation officials fabricated player contracts in just a few days to play the incident down. The trio, of course, resumed playing with MGU after the tourny.

But this time I've got some VVIA and MGU Tornado games taped on video, no less!

This is why I'm writing directly to you - Harry Wedemeijer, Marco Stoovelaar and the folks at Baseball.It - people who have been advancing the game of baseball on our continent for a long time. On behalf of Russian baseball I ask for YOUR HELP.

Look, currently I'm having problems with internet access, so "spreading the word" is not easy. Maybe you can forward this message or simly relay the info to the participating clubs or whoever else you deem necessary. I'd also welcome any advice or suggestion.

Sincerely yours,

Sergei Borisov