FARMINGTON – For a few hours last Friday evening, the future of the Connie Mack World Series, as well as for several local and area teams was in some doubt.

As teams from across the country, as well as San Juan County, were making plans to compete in next month’s series, a dispute between the Farmington Amateur Baseball Congress and the American Amateur Baseball Congress arose that nearly put the prospect of a host team in peril.

In the end, and at least for the time being, the city of Farmington will be represented in the Connie Mack World Series by a team primarily made up of athletes from the city and surrounding region.

A qualifying tournament, run by the World Series committee and composed of the same six teams playing in Connie Mack’s city league, will take place in the first week of July at Ricketts Park. The winner of that tournament will represent Farmington in the series, which opens July 21.

According to Farmington Amateur Baseball Congress President Philana Thompson, who wrote a letter last week to the American Amateur Baseball Congress detailing the myriad issues between the two parties, a dispute arose this year when the organization reportedly failed to register local teams from different age groups as mandated by the AABC.

Failure to register these teams had voided the six Connie Mack city league teams from playing for a spot as the host team in the 2023 CMWS under the current city league format.

In the letter addressed to AABC President Richard Neely, Thompson addressed the reason for failure to register certain teams.

“When we did our annual financial review in January of 2023, we had to evaluate every process and purchase and what it provided by way of value to our membership. We determined that the only two divisions that received a direct benefit being registered with AABC was the Mickey Mantle (16 and under) and Connie Mack (18 and under) divisions.”

The letter went on to explain that many other local teams within lower age divisions would not generate enough revenue to participate in qualifying postseason tournaments that required a great deal more travel.

“The lower divisions do not appear to have any nearby qualifying events or AABC sanctioned tournaments to participate in, apart from Pee Wee Reese (12 and under) in Irvine, Calif. (over 737 miles from Farmington). Benefits provided by AABC to its members did not provide any additional cost savings to our league and its members.”

Thompson went on to express frustration about the lack of transparency from the AABC.

“Communication from AABC has been minimal and little guidance has been shared apart from placing strict criteria upon FABC that the representative host team must be of quality and competitive nature to be approved as a host team.”

The AABC, according to its bylaws, allows local organizations to have autonomy during regular season competition. However, according to a statement on its website, postseason competition must conform to national rules.

According to AABC bylaws, Article III, Section 4 states: “Failure of a league to file team registrations and dues prior to the annual deadline without an adequate excuse, acceptable to the President, shall disqualify teams in that league from Regional and World Series Tournaments.”

The AABC reached out to the FABC to attempt a resolution which would dramatically reduce the fees for team registration. That resolution failed within the FABC by a vote of seven to two.

The current Connie Mack city league schedule will play out according to plan. However, instead of the city league tournament being seeded according to the regular season records of those teams, a qualifying tournament will be held at Ricketts Park in the first week of July. Those teams will be seeded and bracketed randomly with no emphasis on the city league schedule.

The qualifying tournament, according to Connie Mack World Series chairman Mark Varley, will conform to local rules regarding eligibility of players as well as import players, who can live outside that general vicinity.

“The qualifying tournament is confined to teams from within the Four Corners,” Varley said. “And all the teams must adhere to local Connie Mack rules as far as player eligibility.”

Player eligibility rules specify that players on teams within a local league must reside within a 70-mile radius of that league, with the only exception being made for three so-called import players from outside that radius.

In a statement released on social media Friday evening by the Connie Mack World Series, “All AABC registered teams/players within a 70-mile radius of Farmington are eligible to participate in this qualifying tournament.”

The dispute caused confusion and anger with local coaches, as well as with administrators from all sides.

“The CMWS committee met with both sides, they talked back and forth for three hours and concessions were made by the AABC but there was still no resolution,” Varley said. “The AABC came back and said they wouldn’t accept a host team from the city tournament.”

Needing a solution to resolve the issue, the Connie Mack World Series committee opted to host a qualifying tournament in Farmington, independent from the current city league, which would allow a local team to participate in the series.

“They’re all local teams,” Varley said. “The teams will play under current local Connie Mack rules for player eligibility.”

The 505 Panthers, who will be in action this week for a qualifying tournament in Denver are coached by John Kuhn, will be one of the six teams that which will participate in the local qualifying tournament next month.

“I’m just happy the local kids get the opportunity to represent their hometown,” Kuhn said. “Who runs the qualifying tournament makes no difference to me.”

What this decision means for the future of the Connie Mack World Series reportedly is still up in the air. In the letter addressed to the AABC, one of the possible ramifications for not registering all FABC teams under the AABC organization included, but was not limited to, a potential loss of the Connie Mack World Series.

It is unclear if and when a new contract or agreement will be reached between the two sides.