This forum is mostly for the owners of 7Mickey7 to discuss a problem within our league.  I just decided to post it here to save our World Chat from becoming littered with debate.

Before I say anything, I want everyone to know that I am loathe to creating drama in what should be a stressfree GAME.  I rarely engage in the childish debates that seem to pop up from time to time on this site, and I do not particularly care for the forums because of the drama that exists on these pages.  However, as the commissioner of 7Mickey7, I felt compelled to engage in what will, unfortunately, most likely become way overly dramatic.  Furthermore, I like to think that, through all my time on this site, I have treated everyone with fairness and respect, and I will continue to do so as long as I am a part of this online community.  Anyway...

Last season, several of the owners of 7Mickey7 came to me with complaints about a current owner in the league (ericwoody) and his possible cheating (specifically involving another owner, uk24189703).  So, I took it upon myself to do a cursory glance at his history vis a vis this other owner.  Honestly, I was fully expecting (and hoping) to find nothing of the sort and that I could report back to the league that it was just a case of one good owner and one bad owner.  But, unfortunately, that was not the case (I will attach my findings at the bottom of this post).

Before attaching the findings, I wanted to ask a question of my fellow league members:  What do we do now?  I have been in contact with both ericwoody and Customer Service throughout this whole process.  When CS received my full research, they acted by saying that they had banned uk24189703 from the site and had placed ericwoody on "high alert."

Upon finding out that WIS had taken action on this case, I contacted ericwoody to ask if he would gracefully leave the league, to which he angrily refused, continuing to claim innocence from any wrongdoing.  So, that is what brings us to where we are now.  The league (a great, long-time, drama-free league, by the way) is currently in the rollover process, and I do not feel right acting as the sole decision-maker on this process.  Throughout this all, I have not given my personal opinion and, for the time being, will continue to hold back on doing so because I really want the decision to be as democratic as possible.  I put it to my fellow owners in this league. 

QUESTION FOR CURRENT OWNERS:  After reading the information I have gathered below, how would you like to proceed?

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Here is what I submitted to CS:

Several people in 7Mickey7 have complained to me about a possible cheater (ericwoody, who by the way, has already been kicked out of one league for breaking site rules). The issue is that he and another user (uk24189703) made several rather one-sided trades in favor of ericwoody and then left the league. So, I looked into this and here is what I have discovered:

UK has only been in 7 leagues. One of them (Ripken Jr), he was only in for 1 year, did nothing and then left.

The other six (ALL of them) were leagues in which ericwoody was currently. UK stayed for 1 or 2 unsuccessful years and then left (with the exception of Maris, where he is in his 3rd season there).

In five of those six worlds, a vast majority  of uk's trades were only with ericwoody and, in my opinion, every one of them favored ericwoody. what is not opinion is that, between then all, there was upwards of $40 mil that changed hands and every single dollar went from UK to ericwoody.

The trades were (again, this is all just my opinion) the types of trades that will pass through the league's veto process, but, are clearly one-sided to anyone who knows the game. For example, there were a couple stud relievers with low STA (therefore low OVRs) being exchanged for minor-leaguers. or, there are STUD players being traded in 3-for-1's, with the 3 guys in return being "okay" enough to pass through. That and the fact that a lot of money transferred from UK to EW throughout the process.

While circumstantial, it appears somewhat blatant.  Here are some more, world-specific details:

7MICKEY7:
-EW started in season 14
-UK came in '17 and left in '18
-UK made 7 trades in total - 4 of them with EW
-all 4 favored EW - 2 of them were, in fact, VETOED BY THE LEAGUE, but they just kept doing the same deal, until it finally passed
-$15 mil went from UK to EW

7JERRY7:
-EW started in '15
-UK came in '18
-UK has made 5 total trades - 3 of them with EW
-all 3 favored EW
-in total, $7 mil went from UK to EW in these deals

BOGGS:
-EW started in '12
-UK came in '13
-UK only made 1 insignificant trade in '13 and then left the league
-while i have no proof of this because i'm not in the league, i wouldn't be surprised if the league was smart enough to veto the deals and that's why UK left

SATCHEL PAIGE:
-EW started in '08
-UK came in '10
-EW only made one trade in '10 and it was with UK
-it was very one-sided
-both owners left after that season

AROMANO:
-EW started in '06
-UK came in '11
-UK only made 1 trade all year - it was with EW and was VERY, VERY, VERY lopsided (in my opinion) AND included $4 mil going from UK to EW
-UK left after that 1 season

MARIS:
-EW started in '16
-UK came in '18
-in '18, UK made 5 total trades
-in '18, EW made 5 total trade
-ALL FIVE of each's trades were with each other
-all 5 favored (in my opinion) EW
-between the five, close to $9 mil went from UK to EW
-THEN...UK left that team after 1 season and joined ANOTHER ORGANIZATION in '19
-in '19, UK's new team made 2 more lopsided deals with EW over the next 2 years, including EW's ONLY trade in '19

As a fellow commish, and a pretty fair one at that if I say so myself, give him the boot. There's enough doubt there that your world would be better serviced by the removal of ericwoody. Simply refuse to approve owners until he leaves. You may have to apply pressure to CS to get him gone, but it'll get done if you can line up an owner ready to take the franchise immediately once ericwoody is removed. Set it up before-hand, with a trusted owner, to take that squad before he can come back with an alias.

Wow!  I certainly hate seeing all this.  I have gone back and reviewed trades in 7Mickey7 and I believe you're right; they do seem to favor ericwoody.  The only thing that really stood out with me (and I did notice this during the trades) is that he's generally making trades that involve cash coming to him.  It certainly doesn't look good to me; it's a damn shame but it looks to me like ericwoody and uk are the same.  He should be gone in my opinion.

Jerry's legacy of fair play and sportsmanship is extremely important to the long term, original owners in his leagues.  There is very strong circumstantial evidence of collusion between eric and uk, and I recall very specifically trying to reason with him about continuing to submit one of the trades after it was vetoed twice.  My own reaction is that it is more likely than not that he has cheated, and that he should voluntarily resign from the league.

I have been informed by CS that ericwoody has been banned from the site.  It is unfortunate that it had to come to this and I do recognize that he has put a lot of time and money into building his teams.  That being said, the only thing I hate more than drama is cheating.  And, while the evidence is admittedly circumstantial, it is rather convincing.  I sympathize with him for losing a committed hobby, but believe that the league is better for it.  This whole thing sucked, and I do feel bad about the end result.  I hope nothing like this happens again.  Thank you to CS and the other owners for their support on this

Sadly, he just needs to create an alias and he's back.

I have to wonder if a person feels compelled to cheat in a fantasy game how low they may stoop in real life.  Seems like a perfect example of good riddance.

Just looking at the trades he made with uk over the past 2 seasons - well, you've been remarkably patient for a commish. They range from lopsided to outright absurd.

They may have banned him but frozen his teams until they can transfer ownership; they did that with another cheater, empiire, when they booted him.