Part 2. Open letter continued (July 30): CSK VVS Balashikha not the only offender; CEB's G. Reiter: "Nothing we can do."

Dear Sirs,

As you probably remember I've contacted you in late June with the subject being CEB club tournament eligibility rule violation by CSK VVS Balashikha.

I would like to share with you what's happenened on that front since then.

First of all, it turned out the CSK VVS was not the only Russian club at fault. MGFSO Moscow, winners of CEB Cupwinners Cup Pool B in Hungary employed two players from other Russian teams: SKV Moscow outfielder Sergei Iljin and National team ace pitcher Anton Shiroky from the same MGU Tornado club, who delegated two players to CSK VVS. Shiroky won the key semifinal game against Sweden's Trands (or whatever it is spelled). Poor, poor Swedes.

I had a face-to-face talk on all of the above with CEB technical commisioner Giampaolo Reiter when he briefly visited Moscow right after the European tournaments ended. According to his words, "the poor CEB" has to believe whatever national federations say to them. In other words even if he, Reiter, sees the evidence personally, the CEB still must rely upon the piece of paper with national federation signature. "It's a domestic (Russian) problem", he added. "You have to resolve it internally. Nothing we (CEB) can do."

I would really like to hear your comments on this.

On to the next thing. The Russian Baseball Federation (RBF) has finally put something together online - a "pilot version" of a Russian language Official website. It is located at baseball.by.ru [now it's www.rusbaseball.com].

Great, now you can see it all yourself. Direct links to speed up navigation:

List of the best pitchers: baseball.by.ru/bestpitchers.htm

Best hitters: baseball.by.ru/besthitters.htm

MGU Tornado batting "stats": baseball.by.ru/battornado.htm

An interesting note for you. RBF Technical director Alexander Chumakov, who also acts as an umpire and league statistician (BTW, his wife and daughter are scorekeepers and are in charge of the site) was officiating the tournament in Hungary as a CEB umpire, while Mikhail Larkin, who also doubles as umpire/rfb organizer, worked the Champions Cup where CSK VVS played. What I'm trying to say here is that RBF knows and uphelds the whole practice.

Final note. I asked CSK VVS manager Dmitri Shliapnikov why he did this (invited Platonov and Alexandrov from Tornado). The answer was simply "to make our club stronger." Ouch.

I want to reiterate my point. Chumakovs, Larkins and Kopylovs (RBF president) make a travesty of the great game of baseball on both international and domestic front. The credibilty of CEB competitions also now in question.

Look forward for you take on this,

Sincerely yours,

Sergei Borisov, independent RL statistician.