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  Don Van Natta Jr.

  ESPN Senior Writer

  • Host and co-executive producer of the new ESPN series, “Backstory”
  • Member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning teams for national, explanatory and public service journalism
  • Author of three books, including New York Times best-selling “First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush”
  • 24-year newspaper career at The New York Times and Miami Herald

Oct 30, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

Federal law officers are investigating a youth baseball company owned by the Major League Baseball Players Association that spent at least $3.9 million while holding few sparsely attended live events for kids, sources familiar with the inquiry told ESPN.

The Florida-based business, Players Way, has generated barely six figures in revenue since its founding in 2019. While the union said it has put $3.9 million into the company, two sources with knowledge of union finances and who have talked with investigators told ESPN that the amount is closer to $10 million.

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The former officials said Players Way funds largely paid the six-figure annual salaries of its executives and consultants. They include a handful of former major leaguers, some of whom were simultaneously working other full-time jobs outside the union.

One of the former senior union officials described Players Way finances as a “black box.”

Players Way was cited in an anonymous whistleblower complaint last November that triggered an ongoing criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, the same office that last week brought criminal indictments against two NBA coaches, a current player and nearly two dozen Mafia-connected figures.

The complaint accused MLBPA executive director Tony Clark of self-dealing, misuse of resources and abuse of power at the union. It also alleged nepotism in his dealings with Players Way, which he helped launch with lofty aspirations to transform youth baseball across America. At the time of the complaint, the MLBPA denied all the allegations as “entirely without merit.”

Tony Clark statement

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark released the following statement to ESPN:

“From its creation in 2019, the mission of Players Way has been clear: To empower tomorrow’s generation of players by providing access to the knowledge, experience, and talents of the best our game has to offer – our current and former members – and to serve as an oasis for young athletes and families who too often get exploited in today’s billion-dollar ‘youth sports’ machinery.

“Any suggestion that Players Way has not been supported by our elected Player representatives and broader membership is patently false. Players Way has been front and center at every annual meeting of the MLBPA Executive Board in recent memory, and our dialogue with Players regarding youth development continues throughout the calendar. The goal – informed by Players themselves – isn’t to become just another cog in the youth sports machinery, putting profits over players. It aims higher: to meet players where they are, teach the game the right way, and to foster lifelong lessons creating lifelong fans. Future generations deserve nothing less.”

Clark, who has not been charged with any crime, and other union officials have dismissed the whistleblower allegations as “baseless.” He declined to be interviewed for this story. In a written statement to ESPN this week, Clark said he created Players Way “as an oasis for young athletes and families who too often get exploited in today’s billion-dollar ‘youth sports’ machinery.”

Union officials declined to say how Players Way spent millions of dollars. The union told ESPN it has three budgets — one for operations ($27.5 million this year); another for MLB Players Inc., its for-profit licensing firm ($7.1 million this year); and a third players-approved “discretionary” budget for Clark to spend as he sees fit.

The union declined to say how much cash was in the discretionary pot this year, whether Players Way was ever funded from discretionary funds or whether players specifically approved spending by the company.

“Any suggestion that Players Way has not been supported by our elected Player representatives and broader membership is patently false,” Clark said in his statement. “Players Way has been front and center at every annual meeting of the MLBPA Executive Board in recent memory, and our dialogue with Players regarding youth development continues throughout the calendar.”

Federal investigators declined to comment, citing the ongoing inquiry. Union revenues have grown significantly in recent years through the creation of OneTeam Partners, a group-licensing firm the MLBPA co-founded with the National Football League Players Association in 2019.

In May, ESPN reported that investigators from the Justice Department were looking into the unions’ financial dealings with OneTeam, which three years ago had a valuation of nearly $2 billion.

Sources interviewed by ESPN said the investigation widened this summer to include Players Way. Investigators also have asked witnesses about whistleblower allegations of excessive union spending on international and domestic trips for Clark and other senior union executives, the sources said.

One player leader, when asked about the Players Way expenditures, told ESPN, “It doesn’t matter how much we’ve made. Waste is waste.”

“And given the level of frustration we’ve had with [union leadership] about this sort of stuff, it’s going to come up,” the player said. “Whenever Players Way is mentioned, we all just nod along. But I don’t think any of us realized it cost as much as it did.”

ESPN interviewed nearly 30 current and former union officials, lawyers, players and people with knowledge of the federal inquiry, most of whom spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

Multiple former union officials said Players Way has operated without standard accounting practices and with no annual budgets circulated among senior finance officials.

An MLBPA official, in a written statement, acknowledged to ESPN that Players Way did not have its own budget but was operated as “part of the overall org budget.” “But the folks working on it were tracking and projecting expenses the way any department at the PA does,” the official said.

While public union filings show the MLBPA committed a total of only $83,550 to Players Way, nearly all the $3,891,249 the union said Players Way has spent came from Players Inc. Like Players Way, the finances of Players Inc. are not disclosed to the Department of Labor.

The union provided ESPN with an annual breakdown of money it says it spent on Players Way. In 2018, according to the MLBPA, Players Way spent $181,054, a figure that grew annually and peaked in 2024 at $1,127,656. This year, as of Oct. 6, the union said $647,058 has been spent on Players Way.

The sources familiar with the MLBPA’s financials, though, told ESPN the company received far more cash from Players Inc., including more than $2 million over one 18-month period to fund payroll and other activities. At several other times when Players Way needed to cover shortfalls, roughly $1 million of Players Inc. money was transferred to the company, the sources said.

The money spent, the former officials told ESPN, included $1.2 million from 2022 to 2024 provided by Fanatics Inc., an MLBPA licensing partner.

When the MLBPA struck a deal with Fanatics in 2021 for the exclusive license to produce baseball cards, the company agreed to pay the union $400,000 annually from 2022 to 2024 to support the union’s youth baseball initiatives, including Players Way, the sources told ESPN.

“We were and continue to be excited to invest with MLBPA in Players Way as part of our multibillion-dollar long-term partnership,” a Fanatics spokesperson said. “Youth baseball development is critical to the success of the sport, and we have complete confidence that the MLBPA will invest the funds in a way that creates long-term value for all parties involved.”

Both former finance officials said that they raised concerns about the Players Inc. transfers with senior leadership but that the transactions continued. One of the finance officials said Clark personally approved the transfers to Players Way, usually in six-figure chunks. “It was just money going out the door,” the source told ESPN.

Another former official called Players Way a “total waste of money.”

Players Way lists its company headquarters at 13506 Summerport Village Parkway, Suite 226, in Windermere, Florida, about 20 miles west of Orlando. The “suite” is actually Box 226 in a UPS Store. Don Van Natta Jr./ESPN

ON ITS WEBSITE, Players Way lists its company headquarters at 13506 Summerport Village Parkway, Suite 226, in Windermere, Florida, about 20 miles west of Orlando. It’s in a strip mall, flanked by a liquor store and a chain hair salon. But the “suite” is not a suite at all. It’s a mailbox at a UPS Store where an employee confirmed to ESPN that Box 226 is registered to Players Way LLC.

The MLBPA partnered with the United States Specialty Sports Association in 2018 to provide an alternative to existing youth baseball organizations that dominate the market. Players Way was officially founded a year later, with Clark saying he wanted to fix what many in baseball see as a broken youth baseball system. His son was involved in travel baseball at the time, and Clark said he believed the sport deserved better than the high costs, long weekends and lack of regard for young pitchers’ arms that existed.

“The goal — informed by players themselves — isn’t to become just another cog in the youth sports machinery, putting profits over players,” Clark said in his statement to ESPN. “It aims higher: to meet players where they are, teach the game the right way, and to foster lifelong lessons creating lifelong fans. Future generations deserve nothing less.”

Standing in a netted indoor practice facility, in front of pitching machines, tees and L-shaped pitching screens, Clark introduced Players Way publicly in June 2020 with a video posted on YouTube. A former official said Clark viewed the initiative as an essential part of his plan to tap retired major leaguers to shape the next generation of baseball players. “Players Way was something he always brought up,” the former official said. “It was very important to Tony. It was not anything anyone paid attention to in how it was operated.”

Inside the MLBPA, employees questioned the company’s purpose and apparent lack of a business plan despite Players Way having “a voracious appetite for cash that seemed to just waste money year after year,” a former employee said.

“We had no events, we had no activities, we are not publicizing, we are not partnering with other youth groups,” one former official said. “There was no clear goal.”

Former union officials interviewed by ESPN said that Players Way appeared to be a landing spot for Clark’s loyalists — and, said one, “Few players knew anything about it.”

The MLBPA’s relationship with USSSA faltered after summer 2023, when two former employees with USSSA filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit alleging that a top association official was running an illegal bookmaking operation. After severing from USSSA, the MLBPA rebooted its marketing effort for Players Way in 2024, including a new YouTube channel that, as of this week, had one subscriber. It features a video of former major league catcher Chris Iannetta that has been viewed about 200 times. The other two videos had a total of 28 views as of this week.

Iannetta is a former MLBPA executive subcommittee member who, along with former USSSA employees D.J. Wabick and Kevin Reynolds, is on the Players Way leadership team, according to union filings. In total, the union said, six employees and contractors work at Players Way.

According to the documents, the MLBPA paid Iannetta $156,000 and Reynolds $167,000 in 2024 as union consultants. Wabick, a former Triple-A outfielder, joined the MLBPA full time as its director of youth baseball and development in December 2024 but was paid $182,623 for his work last year.

While union salaries, including Clark’s $3.4 million in 2024, are made public through annual Labor Department filings, the financial dealings of Players Way and other for-profit companies under the MLB Players Inc. umbrella are opaque. In the complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board last November, the union whistleblower alleged that one of Clark’s daughters was employed by Players Way, identified in the complaint as “an MLBPA-controlled entity.”

The daughter resigned in March 2024, after union employees critical of Clark raised her employment as an issue, multiple sources said. According to union documents, she worked for five months and was paid $13,300 by the union as a consultant to Players Way.

The complaint against Clark also alleged that he had “arranged for another daughter to be hired at another labor union using his influence.” That daughter has worked as membership services coordinator for the NFL Players Association since October 2022.

The whistleblower also alleged that Clark “improperly hired a family member as an MLBPA real estate agent and paid an unnecessary commission.”

Sources with knowledge of the ongoing federal probe said investigators have inquired about circumstances around the union’s securing of a satellite office in Scottsdale, Arizona, that Clark uses regularly and a new office space in midtown Manhattan.

After ESPN reported about the federal investigation in May, multiple empty offices in the New York office had OneTeam placards affixed.

The Players Way headquarters is between a liquor store and a hair salon in Windermere, Florida. Don Van Natta Jr./ESPN

BY ITS OWN accounting, the union spent more than $3 million on Players Way from its founding in 2019 until November 2024. During that time, the union said, the company held six baseball clinics for kids, four “mental skills webinars” and several “panel discussions,” including one attended by Clark. The events could cost up to $499 to attend for a two-day camp, according to the website.

A union official told ESPN the rollout of Players Way was intentionally slow “because to figure out our rightful position within the industry without fragmenting it and without driving up more costs takes time and thoughtfulness.” Six years later, the return on the investment into Players Way has little to show.

This year, Players Way has hosted a handful of sparsely attended events for teenagers. The events, a mix of camps, competitions, showcases for those aspiring to play in college and a tournament organized with Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung, have drawn fewer than 500 attendees in all, according to the company website.

Jung told ESPN that his event, a nine-team tournament last year, would return in 2026 and that he enjoyed the experience of working with Players Way. A union official said no further events supported by individual players are on the schedule, which, according to Players Way’s website, has seven events — with fewer than 25 kids signed up total — scheduled between now and March 21, 2026.

“I’m hoping we can expand it, and I’m hoping that we can get it out early enough,” Jung said. “You want to be able to put it on people’s radar early. And I think that sabotaged us a little bit this year. But also, they kept it pretty small just to make sure that they could run the event correctly.”

In recent months, as former union finance officials answered questions for investigators, MLBPA executives increased the Players Way slate of events and sent out promotional messages about the company’s future to player leaders.

During Labor Day weekend, Clark and Wabick, the leader of Players Way, met in Chicago and hosted a videoconference with other Players Way consultants to discuss strategy, the union told ESPN. On the same September day an ESPN reporter visited the Players Way UPS mailbox in Florida, MLBPA executives sent a lengthy slide deck to players leadership updating them on Players Way.

A former union finance official said he told federal investigators that total company revenues over five years “barely hit six figures.” The company has canceled nearly as many events as it has held. “Players Way was a bad investment,” the former official said. “They just kept throwing money at it.”

A former major league player who worked with Players Way said the executives in charge seemed to do little and were busy working other full-time jobs.

“It was unclear who was in charge, who was running it,” said the former player, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Someone needed to be a CEO, but the people in charge said, ‘I don’t have time.’ But they were all getting paid.”

Reach reporter Don Van Natta Jr. at don.vannatta@espn.com and Jeff Passan at jeffrey.passan@espn.com. ESPN researcher John Mastroberardino contributed to this report.

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Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA guard Damon Jones were arrested Thursday as part of an FBI investigation into illegal sports betting and allegedly rigged poker games.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked Friday night about Thursday’s arrests:

In a press conference on Thursday, FBI director Kash Patel announced the arrests of Rozier, Billups and Jones in relation to an “illegal gambling operation and sports-rigging operation that spanned the course of years.”

Billups and Rozier were placed on immediate leave, the NBA said in a statement. Tiago Splitter will assume coaching duties in Billups’ absence, the Blazers announced.

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said that Rozier is a defendant in the NBA gambling case, which was an investigation the NBA cooperated with, while Billups is a defendant in the poker case. Jones is a defendant in both cases.

In total, six people have been charged in the alleged sports gambling scheme, while there are 31 defendants in the illegal poker case.

Regarding the NBA betting case, Nocella said bets were placed based on “inside, non-public information” such as when players would miss future games or when players would pull themselves out of games early due to injury or illness.

“The non-public information included when specific players would be sitting out future games, or when they would pull themselves out early for purported injuries or illnesses,” Nocella said, per CNN.

“They also misused information obtained through long-standing friendships that they had with NBA players and coaches, and in at least one instance, they got their information by threatening a current player—(Jontay) Porter—because of his preexisting gambling bets. Defendants used this non-public information to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets, mostly in the form of prop bets on individual player performance. The bets were placed through online sports books and also in person at casinos.”

Per CNN’s Mark Morales and Kara Scannell, FBI officials alleged that Rozier provided that type of information to sports bettors and faked an injury nine minutes into one game to benefit the betting ring.

New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch expanded on the allegation, noting that bettors involved with the case wagered more than $200,000 on the under for multiple statistical prop bets involving Rozier for a game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans:

“One example occurred on March 23, 2023, in Charlotte. Terry Rozier, an NBA player now with the Miami Heat, but at the time playing for the Hornets, allegedly let others close to him know that he planned to leave the game early with a supposed injury.

“Using that information, members of the group placed more than $200,000 in wagers on his ‘under’ statistics. Rozier exited the game after just nine minutes, and those bets paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profit. The proceeds were later delivered to his home, where the group counted their cash. As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched, not for injury, but for integrity.”

Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, released a statement to Morales and Scannell regarding his client’s arrest:

“We have represented Terry Rozier for over a year. A long time ago we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication. They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel.

“[Authorities] appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”

Billups’ attorney Chris Heywood also released a statement, stating they will be fighting the FBI’s charges:

With regard to the poker case in which Billups and Jones were named, Nocella said the defendants “orchestrated a scheme to use wireless cheating technology” to run rigged poker games in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami and Manhattan.

Per CNN’s Kyle Feldscher, Nocella further explained the alleged operation, saying Billups was utilized as a “face card,” which is a professional athlete who would sit alongside players and use their star power in order to distract them from the game.

Aside from the alleged victims, Nocella said, everyone was in on the plan, including the dealer, other players and the face cards, resulting in the victims losing “tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game.”

Nocella continued by saying there were other tactics allegedly used by the defendants, such as rigged shuffling machines and other forms of technology:

“For example, they used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relay that information to an off-site operator. The off-site operator sent the information via cellphone back to a co-conspirator at the table, and that person at the table was known as the quarterback.

“The quarterback then signaled secretly the information he had received from others to others at the table, and together, they use that information in order to win their games and to cheat the victims. Defendants used other cheating technologies such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera, special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards and an X-ray table that could read cards face down on the table.”

The NBA has been attempting to crack down on suspicious gambling ever since handing down a lifetime ban to Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter last year.

A league investigation determined that Porter illegally disclosed health information to a bettor before a game, prompting an $80,000 parlay to be placed on Porter’s statistical props.

Porter left the game after only three minutes of action because of illness, but due to the circumstances, the parlay was frozen and not paid out.

Porter later pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in connection to the gambling case.

During an appearance Tuesday on the Pat McAfee Show (h/t ESPN’s Doug Greenberg and David Purdum), NBA commissioner Adam Silver expressed his desire for more regulation of sports betting, particularly from the federal government.

“I think, probably, there should be more regulation, frankly,” Silver said. “I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state. I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”

Rozier, 31, is in his 11th NBA season and his third as a member of the Heat after they acquired him in a trade with the Hornets during the 2023-24 season.

Originally selected 16th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2015 NBA draft out of Louisville, Rozier has appeared in 665 career regular-season games, averaging 13.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per contest.

Per Spotrac, Rozier has earned just over $160 million during his playing career.

In 64 games with the Heat last season, Rozier averaged 10.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists.

Despite dressing for the game, Rozier did not play in the Heat’s 125-121, season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday.

Billups, 49, has been the Blazers’ head coach since 2021, posting a 117-212 record with no playoff appearances.

He is best known for his Hall of Fame playing career with the Celtics, Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers from 1997 to 2014.

Nicknamed “Mr. Big Shot” due to his penchant for coming through in the clutch, Billups was a five-time All-Star, and he was named NBA Finals MVP in 2004 when he led the Pistons to a championship.

Billups earned nearly $107 million during his playing career, according to Spotrac, and he signed a multiyear coaching contract extension with the Blazers in April.

On Wednesday, Billups coached the Blazers to a 118-114, season-opening loss to the T-Wolves.

The 49-year-old Jones was an NBA guard for 11 seasons from 1998 to 2009, playing for the New Jersey Nets, Celtics, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Vancouver Grizzlies, Pistons, Sacramento Kings, Milwaukee Bucks, Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks.

Jones also served as an assistant coach with the Cavs from 2016 to 2018, winning an NBA championship during that tenure. In 657 regular-season games played, Jones averaged 6.6 points, 2.7 assists and 1.6 rebounds per contest.

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