07/06/2026
Just a disclaimer, I'm the whistleblower guy from MPB. I've helped run this page and the EVB website since it started out back in 2014. I missed that zoom meeting a few weeks ago so I'm not really sure what was covered, but I do feel like they could do better in clarifying what they're about, and what their relationship with BRG is about, and what BRG is about. From what I've researched, it seems positive, like a very promising organization though, so I thought I'd share what info I had.
BTW, posting this because I'm seeing a lot of questions about it, and registrations for fall.
First, it seems that Lakeland Village Pony is essentially becoming this new Elsinore Valley Regional Pony. From what I can tell, Lakeland never had their own 501c3, it seemed to be under the umbrella of BRG.
BRG is a 501c3. From what I've researched, there are no salaries with BRG. Salaries are a way for a non-profit to sort of hide the "profit" part, because someone can start up a non-profit, make it 501c3 even, but pay themselves a ton of money as an employee of it. That doesn't appear to be the case here. You can find tax records, and from what I've seen their income and expenses support what they say. It seems very in line with a regular non-profit youth league of that size.
BRG was founded in 2017 by a group of former Major League Baseball (MLB) players, coaches, and scouts (including Mishael Israel, Reggie Smith, Tarrik Brock, and Gary Patchett).
Reggie Smith was what even this Dodger hater (sorry, can't not say it 😉) considers one of the 70's Dodger greats, and has been involved in youth baseball for quite a while.
Don't know much about Brock other than long minor league ball career, very brief time playing in MLB, and coached with the MLB Pirates.
Patchett also had a long career in the minors, playing and coaching.
Israel was involved with the Seattle Mariners in scouting. I found something saying "In 2017, Baseball Resource Group (BRG) was launched as a foundation to support the Seattle Mariners Scout Team, focusing on player development and training." So apparently they had some ties with the Mariners, at least early on.
Haven't found anything negative on any of them, and they've been at it for a while.
EVR Pony *seems to be* essentially a merging and rebranding of Lakeland Village Pony and EVB. It appears they will have a travel division similar to what MPB plays in with SIBA, but probably playing with leagues north, not south. I think they're actually joining something already established, though I'm not sure. I'm not sure if or how much that league is tied with BRG either. I'm not sure if they will have their own business name, 501c3, all that stuff, or be under the BRG umbrella still. I do know the names involved have been associated with BRG/Lakeland though. Not saying anything wrong with that either, that might be a very good thing even.
I really don't know, but it feels like this EVR Pony will be a more community/rec focused league than Lakeland appeared to be. My guess is they won't be big enough, at least initially, to avoid having to interleague. I could be wrong, this is entirely based on gut feeling, but my guess is they'll end up interleaguing with Menifee Pony still. As a high ranking BM of MPB in the past, there were too many questions with Lakeland for us to agree to interleague with them. They seemed to be much more focused on the travel ball side, but we really didn't have much info on them. This new league really feels like it's going to be a legit rec league, though still having that travel ball part of it.
For what it's worth, if I had young kids and lived in the area I'd sign them up there for sure. I've coached and been on the boards for 20 years, including MVLL and MPB. This looks like it will be better than MVLL, and the recent corruption at MPB makes them pretty questionable. Don't know much about LELL, but it's never impressed me much. EVR might end up having some really good baseball camp type of events. The guys who started it out seem legit, in it for a good reasons. It is an unusual setup, but who knows, maybe this is the league of the future. This fall would be an ideal time to check it out, IMHO.
https://evrpony.org
