The local Dublin softball league starts in just a few days from now. Do you think the league’s schedule would be published? How about publishing the byelaws, with rule changes for the upcoming season? Would they publish a monthly newsletter, perhaps, even a “special edition” to generate some excitement in advance of the new season?

No. And if you thought this was in any way out of the ordinary, you’ve never played softball in Ireland.

Teams are supposed to have uniforms, but that rule is never enforced. Games are supposed to start at a specific time, but they rarely do. Quite often, games go ahead without an umpire, either because the umpire forgot, they couldn’t find the game, or… well, you can insert just about any old excuse you want here (“dog ate my flat tyre”), as little as umpires are paid and the inconvenience and hassle it is, as games are all over the city and (as mentioned before) nothing is scheduled very far in advance.

At least, that’s the appearance from the outside. There are certainly a few inside the system who must have some idea exactly how it will all come together. Certainly, there are people involved who know what the rules will be for the upcoming season, when and where games will be played, who is on which teams, what divisions those teams will be divided into, what events will be held throughout the season, and so forth.

Why then, aren’t these things more widely known — that is, published — and why is this information only kept among a select few people?

Softball in Ireland has been a “minority” sport, a specialized recreational pastime for mostly foreign players who are familiar with the game from childhood, since its beginnings. It has always had a difficult time in making itself widely known, and teams and players who are interested in the sport have always had a difficult time to maintain and recruit new players to the game.

Is this a surprise, given that the organizers of the sport can’t even seem to market the sport to those who are interested in it? If they cannot even keep current and long-time players informed of events, is there any hope of increasing wider interest?

“Go ask your team captain” is a line I’ve heard repeatedly from league organizers over the years. It is a frustrating, lazy cop-out. It gives the very thin appearance of doing something and of being helpful; in reality, it is a contemptuous, cynical, even elitist and snide remark, to remind you that you’re not in the clique of special people with inside information. It’s as if, by design, the entire institution wishes to remain small, disorganized, and dysfunctional, in service to a select few.

How does this continue? A great question, but with a less-than-great answer: no one cares. No one cares that everything seems held together by a thread, with a smattering of insincere “good will” and hope. There is also the real chance that, if you ask for information, an attempt will be made to burden you to do the work to provide it. “If you care so much about these things, why don’t you put yourself forward for the committee?”

No one cares. Not about whether or not rules and policies are known in advance, let alone published or even adhered to. If they did care, these things would happen.

Meanwhile, nothing changes. The only logical reason? This suits a select few, who enjoy the feeling and perception of power over others, in “knowing something you don’t”, and in controlling the “when and where” of what happens. To change this would mean being accountable, being transparent; but most importantly, to lose that power over others.

It’s a set of tactics any large institutional order would be proud of: zero accountability, zero transparency, and without a hint of honesty, all with the purpose of maintaining control over those who would willingly follow along. Unsurprisingly, like many large institutional orders with ridiculously outdated belief systems, people aren’t standing in line to sign up.

It’s a shame, as the game of softball is really quite fun. All the game needs are open, honest, and interested people to support it. Instead, the sport is controlled by those who would rather support only their own interests, a special clique of the status quo, all to run their cute little “secret society”.

I wonder if they have a secret handshake as well? “Go ask your team captain.”