ABOUT THIS EPISODE
We Have Lost the Plot: Inside the Little League Cheating Scandal - with Maren Angus of Sports Illustrated
A ten-year-old. A division built for kids with disabilities. That's the loophole, and it isn't the worst thing in this story.
For the first time in roughly 20 episodes, host Deven Morgan brings a guest onto the world's most dangerous youth baseball podcast: Maren Angus of Softball On SI, whose reporting drove the Tulsa National scandal from a single softball protest to disqualifications on both the softball and baseball sides, court filings, and two of Oklahoma's five charters demanding the removal of state and regional leadership.
Angus walks through the paper trail: falsified affidavits, altered GameChanger books, a hand-drawn state bracket, teams in travel uniforms, a $150 entry fee for a tournament that cannot charge one, a for-profit entity running USSSA events on the same fields, and a restraining order that lasted 48 hours. Morgan brings 11 years of coaching and board service to the structural read.
Angus expects class action. Neither of them thinks Tulsa is the outlier.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro & housekeeping04:32 Maren Angus, Softball On SI05:35 How it started: 2025 softball protests07:06 Volunteer org, brutal all-star paperwork10:27 Boundaries & the sibling choice loophole16:17 Rec ball on ESPN22:38 The Challenger division workaround30:22 Superteams & falsified affidavits39:26 Pay-to-play, unpaid bills, USSSA fields45:09 Altered GameChanger books, fake games50:42 TRO, court docs, admissions1:04:05 NCAA playbook & PEDs in kids1:09:19 Structure over hope1:15:16 Where to find Maren's work
Links:
New Driveline youth memberships (for players 9–14) are live in Washington NOW, with Arizona and Florida coming soon!
- Assessments
- Group training
- 1-on-1 hitter and pitcher development sessions
Get on the waitlist: support@drivelinebaseball.com or (425) 523-4030. Tell them Deven sent you!
