Nearly three weeks after I wrote about the disputed game between the Heritage Foundation and the National Democratic Institute, tensions remain high between the two softball clubs. At issue is whether the NDI squad would play the final two innings of the June 13 game. I learned over the weekend that NDI manager Peter Komives has declined to do so, citing my blog post as the reason!

A quick recap: As I wrote on the night of June 13, after traveling home soaked from a rain storm, the NDI team brought the game to an abrupt halt in the bottom of the fifth inning after scoring what it believed was the winning run and what we said was the tying run. Regardless, NDI’s players declared the game over because of a rain storm — a storm we played through beginning in the top half of the fifth inning. Despite a protest from Heritage manager Brian Darling, NDI players refused to continue.

Since my post that night, Heritage and NDI have worked with Think Tank Softball commissioner Tom Firey of the Cato Institute to come to a resolution. Last week, Firey concluded that the game ended with NDI ahead, 15-14. In his ruling, however, Firey offered this proposal to address Heritage’s concerns about the undemocratic ending to the game:

If NDI wishes to continue the game, with a 15-14 lead, two on, and two out in the fifth, they may choose to do so. If not, then they are the 15-14 victors of a rain-shortened game.

During this course of events, my manager asked me to refrain from writing about the controversy. That’s because on June 15, he received a lengthy e-mail from NDI’s Komives, which basically said his team wouldn’t finish the game until I retracted my June 13 blog post. Here’s Komives e-mail to Darling:

At the end of yesterday, the blog posting remained the main sticking point to NDI reaching a decision about whether to resume the game. My teammates would have liked to have seen some sort of retraction or correction to the accusations that Bluey (and by extension Heritage) made against NDI. My team believed that Heritage was at once publicly attacking our integrity, credibility, and sportsmanship and at the same time appealing to our sportsmanship to agree to have the game be recorded as incomplete and not a victory. We would have liked to have seen that your team appreciated our perspective before agreeing to short-circuit the appeals process.

Bluey’s post says: “the National Democratic Institute may preach expanding democracy worldwide, but apparently that doesn’t extend to the softball fields of Washington, D.C. Tonight’s game against the Heritage No. 2 squad was cut short after the NDI team called the game because of a rain storm, then falsely claimed it had won.”

This is untrue: I stand by our record keeping – NDI scored 15 runs. To say that NDI falsely claimed to have won is to say that we lied or cheated.

Bluey also wrote that “the game should have been called by NDI once the heavy rain started to fall, but their manager pressed forward.”

This is wrong. The onus was not on NDI alone. You and I needed to make a joint decision to end or suspend the game in the middle of an inning. We both pressed forward. It was perfectly reasonable for both of us to want to finish out what was a very close and compelling game. By staying on the field and pitching the ball, your team also indicated its wish to continue the inning to its conclusion.

Given the fact that the blog posting remains up without retraction or correction, my teammates won‚Äôt agree to resume the game. The Commissioner’s preliminary ruling indicates that NDI acted properly throughout. Yet, Heritage has made no public apology for subjecting NDI to groundless insults and impugning the Institute’s integrity and credibility. If the blog had not remained up throughout yesterday and today, we would have considered resuming the game on the grounds that the contest was too fun and too competitive to have been truncated after 5 innings. As it is, NDI cannot agree to resume the game because to do so could be construed as an admission to one or more of the accusations that Heritage has made.

I look forward to what promises to be a great rematch in August. In that game, I agree that Heritage should be the home team because it was our mutual mistake that had NDI as the home team last Wednesday.

I corresponded with Komives also on June 15 with this note:

For the record, I operate my own personal blog at RobertBluey.com. I consulted no one from Heritage about what I posted on the softball game. It was my personal opinion. If you don’t like it, take it up with me, but don’t use it as an excuse for not resuming the game.

Komives responded with a similar note to the one he sent to Darling. I told him I’d be glad to do an update with his response — a promise I’m fulfilling with this post. The only reason I chose to hold off making any comment until now is that Darling requested I wait until the commissioner made his ruling (which happened on June 19) and the managers came to an agreement about resuming the game.

Finally, late last night, Komives responded to Darling with this tersely worded note:

I don’t think you missed an email. We had a team discussion following our game last Tuesday. There remained a very strong majority of my teammates who would like to take the win since your team had about a week to retract or correct the blog posting. I wanted to hold off on making it official until the end the week to see if there would be new posting following your team’s game last week.

Since he hasn’t, and since his posting remains up at this time, NDI will not agree to resume the game.

I am looking forward to the rematch in August.

I often speak about the power of blogs and their influential role in politics, but apparently I need to broaden that scope to include the Think Tank Softball League. I find Komives’ excuse lame. The fact that my post was dripping with sarcasm — the title, “An Undemocratic End to Softball,” is a pun on NDI’s name — makes the whole situation even more absurd. Darling had this to say:

It is unfortunate that NDI chose the easy way out of one of the biggest controversies to hit the D.C. Think Tank league in years by taking a cheap win. I consider my team to be the real winners, because they stood in a torrential downpour to finish the game and were, to a man and woman, committed to finishing the game under the extreme conditions. I stand by the RobertBluey.com blog posting and it is unfortunate that the thin-skinned players for NDI left the field of battle because of the rain. We will see you in August with our A game and a fresh copy of the rules.

The rematch is slatted for August 8.