Today starts the Thoroughbred League playoffs… although I doubt anyone knows that except the players, coaches, and maybe some of their 750 followers on the Facebook page where it was announced.

How are teams ranked for the playoffs?
What is the playoff format?

Well… none of that is really clear.

What happened during the regular season?

Well… stats aren’t updated on Pointstreak either.

And even if they were, you’d see that many games got rained out or canceled due to poor field conditions.

There have also been reports of players not getting paid what they were promised. From the information I’ve gathered, they’ve only been paid once and their tryout money hasn’t been returned. But at least the league does put players up in a hotel, so the guys aren’t living out of their cars.

Hardly any fan support, basically no stats, poor field conditions, little pay, broken promises, but yet… the league continues.

I’m sure the players are happy to be playing, but for what?

There are no stats to show higher leagues or affiliated organizations. No one except yourself and your coaches  know how you’re doing… at least I assume the players and the coaches know something we don’t.

Players don’t seem to be (publicly) complaining either unlike startup failures in the past.

So… the question there is why?

Have they been told not to speak out? Do they fear losing out on the promised pay that they have yet to see? Or is it something else? Are they just enjoying it for what it is now?

It seems like every year, the same thing occurs: There’s a startup league, conditions are poor, there’s no pay, and then it fails or barely survives.

This has become the norm in low level indy ball.

And that has to stop.

To the players who are grinding it out just to play SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE to keep the dream alive, I respect you more than you know. You don’t deserve everything that you have to go through.