To: The Berkeley Albany Little League Board and the Greater Berkeley Albany Community 

This summer, 14 Berkeley Albany Little League (“BALL”) players 13 years old and younger earned the chance to represent Berkeley and Albany in the Intermediate All-Star Tournament after a full season of practices and games. Similar teams from neighboring communities, including Alameda, Oakland, and Richmond, are competing in the tournament now. 

But the night before BALL’s first scheduled game, the BALL board abruptly canceled the team’s participation. 

These kids did everything asked of them. They played the season. They were selected. Their families completed paperwork. Coaches volunteered their time. Practices were held. 

Then their own board took that opportunity away. 

This was not an isolated decision. BALL has also failed to field a younger 12U/Majors All-Star team for several years, steadily stripping away meaningful postseason opportunities for its own players. 

The public deserves to know why. 

An influential BALL board director, Eddy Kleinhans, also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of a travel baseball organization that directly competes with BALL for players, coaches, volunteers, and resources. 

Little League rules and nonprofit governance principles prohibit directors from serving in roles that create a direct conflict with the league’s interests, including simultaneous operational involvement with a competing baseball organization.  

But this petition is about more than a brazen governance failure: it is about protecting local, affordable youth sports for every child who wants to play. 

Little League is not simply a cheaper version of club baseball. It gives kids the chance to play with classmates and neighbors, be coached by local parents, bike to practice, and proudly represent the place they call home. It is one of the few remaining local pathways where families can access meaningful competitive sports without having to pay thousands of dollars in club fees, travel, hotels, and year-round commitments. (In contrast, Little League costs $150 to register.) 

And the Little League All-Star Tournament is not just another tournament. It is an earned opportunity for kids to represent their league, town, and region, and potentially advance through the same community-based pathway that leads to the televised Little League World Series. It’s the kind of hope that brings a community together.  

Travel ball, a commercial enterprise, may be a good choice for some families. But it should never displace affordable local options or become the only option for families whose children want to play competitively. Families who cannot afford club sports – or cannot manage its travel and time demands – deserve a meaningful, aspirational local option.

We call on the BALL Board to immediately: 

(1) Restore the 2026 Intermediate All-Star opportunity for the players who earned it; 

(2) Commit to fielding both Intermediate and 12U All-Star teams going forward whenever eligible players, coaches, and volunteers are available; 

(3) Remove Mr. Kleinhans, the CEO of a competing travel ball program, from the BALL Board, and follow all applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest, including disclosure and recusal requirements; and

(4) Recommit BALL to its purpose: expanding – not restricting – affordable, community-based baseball opportunities for local kids who want to play.

Please sign and share this petition.

Do not let local youth sports disappear. Protect affordable access. Protect every child’s chance to play.

With gratitude,

BALL players, families and coaches