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Little League wants all your information

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Re: Little League wants all your information

#171

Post by hef19898 »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #28
kjakm wrote: post #10

Is “Little League” a national organisation? I always assumed it just meant a kids baseball game and that would be something run by the local community. If it’s the former...why does such an organisation even need to exist?

There are a lot of local kids' baseball leagues that aren't Little League, it's worth mentioning. The one I played in when I was a kid was called "(Local Area Name) Baseball for Boys" (yeah, it was a while ago). Probably the people running Little League have all kinds of lucrative deals going on, as is the norm with "non-profits". According to the article linked below, in 2012 Little League had revenue of almost $25…

One f the reasons I hate sports that rely on governing bodies so much. it is not about the sport or the athletes, i is just about the functionaries ego, power and influence. Worst are, of course, the olympic sports and commiees, immediately followed by soccer.

Inever understood why I need a national olympic association to do wrestling, or the FIFA to play soccer. On the other hand, in martial arts (competitive, not traditional), you see the same thing all the time. Kickboxing assoiations springing up because one guy doesn't like the other guy. And because he wants to be able to regulate equipment, that he sells himself. Luckily, you get away ignoring that. Nobody cares if you are part of various associations. They just look at you strangely when you show up with other assiciation's ID cards.

In the semi-pro segment it gets ugly so. With the assiciation setting, and judging, fights you have to play ball or you will loose. Luckily, kids are treated very kindly.

Re: Little League wants all your information

#172

Post by Ichthypresbyter »

neolog wrote: post #113
Retric wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not cover the safety aspect with simple height and or weight ranges like boxing etc? That seems like it would work better and is much easier to check.

There is probably some risk of incentivizing kids to mess with their weight.

Yeah, weight classes in kids' sports are a terrible idea.

The only exception is in individual combat sports (wrestling or judo, for instance). In those cases, not only is it a safety issue, but the 'penalty' for failing to make weight is just that you have to compete in the next weight class up, not that you or your team are ejected from the competition.

European rowers (and I include British people here) are kind of shocked that the US has lightweight categories at high-school level. I suppose, though, that if people are chasing lucrative scholarships to college lightweight teams that might be an incentive...

Re: Little League wants all your information

#173

Post by spacemanmatt »

I did not think that simple municipal sports would be taken in by data collection contracts. But it does sound like that is what happened.

Having been a victim of "sports dad turned coach" while growing up, pretty much every team and league, I cannot be surprised that a group of them decided your data was fair game.

Re: Little League wants all your information

#174

Post by fergie »

Was forced to install and register for the Spond app for my kid's basketball team. Was very uncomfortable with the amount of personal information it forced me to enter.

I dont really understand the angle with the "kids sport apps" thing. Is there some reason why they need all of this information on us, or are they using kids sport as a lever to force us to share more than we otherwise would?

Re: Little League wants all your information

#175

Post by pessimizer »

hammock wrote: post #35
throwawaygulf wrote: post #4

I'm just starting to forge documents for this garbage. School records? Easy, download them, change my address to one a few miles away in the same city, change a few numbers of my SSN, etc. Same goes for utility bills, financial records, etc. Fuck the data miners. The isn't even criminal to do because I'm not defrauding anyone. The address is still one in my city. They never do any actual verification so it always wor…

An alternative is to redact any unnecessary information. More people should know/do this. Proof of residency should only require state or zip code. Send in a DL with everything but your name and state blacked out. If they push back, then they will be forced to justify why they need the other info. Remember they rely on your league fees to exist. Much better to push back directly than to cry foul/play a victim/complai…

Much better to not push back directly and to cry foul/play a victim/complain anonymously unless you want to draw attention to yourself, get banned, and make getting unbanned a second part-time job.

> they will be forced to justify why they need the other info.

This is a fantasy. Pushing to this extent is not putting your kid into Little League, it's making arguing with Little League a lifestyle and personality. You really have to desire the warm glow of finding out that they've changed their policies long after your kid had to find something else to do because he/she never spent a second in Little League.

Re: Little League wants all your information

#176

Post by throw10123213 »

krumpet wrote: post #19

This type of crap makes me so, so mad. I don't have specific examples right now, but I find it increasingly common to be asked for personal information from the most obscure sources. Ordinarily, I can choose to either not sign up or choose a different option. But with something like the only sports league in town, what's a parents supposed to do? So frustrating. Love the comment from throwawaygulf to submit fake data…

I was asked for my email while paying at a sports store. I declined. The sales person was confused as to what to do next since "the system" wanted an email address. I asked her if she wants to sell me those products or not? Turns out the system works without an email address too. Who would have though?

Re: Little League wants all your information

#177

Post by throw10123213 »

danShumway wrote: post #152
Spooky23 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is just poorly written, or written to fit all use cases. There is a lot behind little league, and it’s not obvious until you get into it. I was on a little league board. In my state, we had pretty strict background check requirements, and those providers were the “trusted partners” that were given sensitive information. Now, little league volunteers are mandated reporters in New York, so the government g…

> I think this is just poorly written, or written to fit all use cases. You're almost certainly right, but I still think for legal documents this kind of argument needs to die. I'm really, really sick of being asked to be OK with agreements that give organizations significant, unnecessary levels of power simply because they say they won't misuse it. What are the consequences in place if Little League decides to misus…

> It's OK for you to acknowledge that the agreement probably doesn't have malicious intent. It's not OK for someone to argue that not having malicious intent makes the agreement acceptable.

Indeed. And attorneys and "template documents" are the biggest culprit here. Every legal person gets a thrill writing the most evil one-sided legal document then pushes it to the company which uses it since "it comes from legal". 99% of the people just sign it since "legal" doesn't agree to changes.

I've had multiple companies/people utterly confused as to how I wouldn't sign their one-sided "standard" agreement contract.

Re: Little League wants all your information

#178

Post by throw10123213 »

sdan wrote: post #7

I was in Little League around 10 years ago and my parents are certain it was them who sold our info (SSN included) to advertisers since we got all sorts of junk mail and email all the time right after I joined. I'm surprised they're still doing it nowadays.

Little League whistleblower coming in 3... 2... 1.

Re: Little League wants all your information

#179

Post by newsclues »

posguy wrote: post #155
newsclues wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was taking a university computer studies course and the cengage curriculum had a project that required setting up a LinkedIn account. I wrote a letter saying this sort of data mining for marks was stupid and abhorrent. I received no comment on my objection, just a zero.

Did you talk to your classmates and organize your classmates to take this to the Dean? Even just 5 people getting up in the middle of the class, heading straight to the dean's office and demanding to know why we are being forced to give our information to Microsoft needlessly would have likely remedied your situation that same day. If there is serious discontent in the class, forcing the dean to meet with you/your cl…

It was this past year (and I don’t like zoom) so I’ve had zero interaction with classmates.

If this situation wasn’t so stupid and anger inducing, I think I’d be much more depressed about it.

Re: Little League wants all your information

#180

Post by alistairSH »

Ichthypresbyter wrote: post #172
neolog wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is probably some risk of incentivizing kids to mess with their weight.

Yeah, weight classes in kids' sports are a terrible idea. The only exception is in individual combat sports (wrestling or judo, for instance). In those cases, not only is it a safety issue, but the 'penalty' for failing to make weight is just that you have to compete in the next weight class up, not that you or your team are ejected from the competition. European rowers (and I include British people here) are kind of…

* I suppose, though, that if people are chasing lucrative scholarships to college lightweight teams that might be an incentive...*

Scholarships for men's rowing largely don't exist. There are a few schools with full varsity programs, but not many.

Women's rowing, as a scholarship activity, is a largely new thing - there was a massive increase in women's rowing in the 1990s in order to comply with federal regulations. The men's football (American, not soccer) team has 85 scholarships available - rowing is an easy way to add 20+ women's scholarships.

As for lightweights in high school, I was one. If there was no lightweight program, I likely would have stuck to XC running. No way I could compete against the typical 180lb+ heavyweight at 140lbs.

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