{"id":3011,"date":"2022-02-15T23:12:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T04:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sweatsoxbaseball.com\/blog\/?p=3011"},"modified":"2022-02-17T01:15:34","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T06:15:34","slug":"a-firsthand-account-of-the-2022-ncbl-winter-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sweatsoxbaseball.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/15\/a-firsthand-account-of-the-2022-ncbl-winter-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"A Firsthand Account of the 2022 NCBL Winter Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2022 pre-season officially kicked off this past Sunday, when the best & brightest of the NCBL gathered over Zoom to start planning the upcoming year. Since league meetings are still being conducted virtually, I, Shaun Keay, had little to no issues logging in under an alias so I could watch this Winter Meeting, take notes, and then relay them to you, unfiltered.\u00a0 How am I not the NCBL Secretary yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the \u201cKeay Takeaways<\/strong>\u201d, noted as they happened:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The \u201creply-all\u201d of video conferencing is not pressing the mute button the second you log-in. It was good to hear from Whittakers family though.<\/li>
  2. Bill Beelen\u2019s video quality was the greatest it\u2019s ever been, likely because Joe Beelen wasn\u2019t there to clog up all the bandwidth.<\/li>
  3. Craig Cornell, Consultant to the SweatSox, Treasurer of the NCBL, husband, father, friend, will be here in about 25 minutes.<\/li>
  4. Brett Stott got the 1st Bill Beelen shoutout of the year, for allowing us to use his personal Zoom license, which I have to assume is against their Terms & Conditions.<\/li>
  5. The league did not acknowledge the Minutes from whenever the last meeting was.\u00a0 They probably were never done, or just sucked. I’m thinking sucked.<\/li>
  6. The reigning, defending, undisputed Umpire-in-Chief Mark Keeping, who moonlights as the Umpire Assignor, was up for re-election.\u00a0 He was the only candidate for both positions, or so he says… How would we actually know?\u00a0 Conspiracy!<\/li>
  7. Craig will be here in 20 minutes.<\/li>
  8. Neal Phadnis has quit the Coyotes. He feels he can help them win more games as a full-time umpire rather than a part-time player. Does anyone want to buy his bats? They\u2019re barely used.<\/li>
  9. After a heartfelt vote of confidence from Mike Whittaker (Red Sox), Neal Phadnis and Daniel Miner were named the new Deputy Umpire-in-Chiefs, or is it Umpires-in-Chief?<\/li>
  10. And so ends the Ian Ianiero era.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
    1. Mark Keeping does not seem to like Neal Phadnis.<\/li>
    2. Neal Phadnis does not seem to like Mark Keeping.<\/li>
    3. Everyone seems to like Daniel Miner though.<\/li>
    4. Craig will be here in 15 minutes.<\/li>
    5. We\u2019re done with the \u201ceverybody bats\u201d and \u201cunlimited defensive substitutions\u201d horseshit, although the SweatSox did use both those rules on multiple occasions last year.<\/li>
    6. The 24-game season is back. Hopefully the SweatSox play at least 26.<\/li>
    7. Marc Sports and the Expos have folded. R.I.P.<\/strong><\/li>
    8. Prediction: The Red Sox will pick up all the Marc Sports free agents, and the Lumberjacks will snag the remaining Expos.<\/li>
    9. The Black Sox are thinking about dropping to Tier 3. That will get rejected.<\/li>
    10. The Braves are thinking about dropping to Tier 3. We like the Braves, so that’s fine.<\/li>
    11. The Misfits are thinking about dropping to Tier 3. They can fuck right off.<\/li>
    12. Does nobody want to stay in Tier 2 and play the Red Sox?<\/li>
    13. Craig will be here in 10 minutes.<\/li>
    14. The Capitals are thinking about dropping to Tier 4. I’m guessing Hurtubise is out. So that’s probably fine.<\/li>
    15. The Rideau Valley Reapers are thinking about coming up to Tier 3. A team wanting to move up is rare, but it’s been known to happen on occasion. Welcome.<\/li>
    16. The Dukes claim they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing this year, but we already broke the news last fall: they’re folding<\/mark><\/a>.<\/li>
    17. We don\u2019t know what the Ponies, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Barons want to do because they no-showed to the meeting.\u00a0 I bet 3 of the 4 fold.<\/li>
    18. Commissioner Bill let it slip that the league pays the NCBL Secretary $250 to do the minutes every meeting. I, Shaun Keay, would do it for free.<\/li>
    19. Craig will be here in 5 minutes.<\/li>
    20. There will be no new teams joining the league this year.\u00a0 Sorry Pat & Tamara.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \n

      The @NCBL<\/a> Winter Meeting is taking place tomorrow morning.

      It is expected that representatives of       #FreedomConvoy2022<\/a> will be there, and make a pitch to join our league.

      Or they will just crash the Zoom and attempt to overthrow the Beelen Regime.

      Their intentions are unclear.<\/p>— SweatSox (@SweatSox)       February 13, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>