Donald Michael

Introduction

Donald Michael, also known online as “Baseball Fun,” is a 49-year-old man from Queen Creek, Arizona, who was sentenced to 330 months — 27 and a half years — in federal prison for online child sexual exploitation. U.S. District Judge Mark A. Kearney imposed the sentence on November 2, 2026, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, along with 15 years of supervised release and financial penalties including $137,933 in restitution to victims. Michael must also register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, Megan’s Law, and state law. He had spent more than two decades as a baseball coach of minor boys before the catfishing scheme that put him in front of a Philadelphia federal judge.

Background Information

Michael was charged by indictment in July 2024 with one count of conspiracy to manufacture child pornography, one count of conspiracy to receive and distribute child pornography, one count of distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography, and two counts of receipt of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to all the charges against him in April of the following year. The prosecution, announced by U.S. Attorney David Metcalf, described a scheme Michael ran with two co-conspirators who were already convicted and sentenced before him: Andrew Wolf, a former teacher at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, and Kray Strange of Carthage, New York. Michael’s online alias “Baseball Fun” sat alongside his off-line role coaching young boys for more than two decades, a dual life the sentencing record sets out without embellishment. The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly Harrell and Michelle Rotella under Project Safe Childhood.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Michael pleaded guilty to all five child-exploitation counts in an indictment charging conspiracy to manufacture, receive and distribute child pornography; he was sentenced to 330 months in November 2026.

For more than 18 months, Michael conspired with Wolf and Strange to target minor boys who were Wolf’s current and former students at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy and to coerce and induce them into producing sexually explicit images and sending them to the three men over the internet. The method was systematic catfishing: the conspirators created multiple fake online profiles pretending to be teenage girls, drew each victim into sexually explicit and graphic chats, and distributed child pornography to the boys in an effort to get them to reciprocate with images of their own. When boys refused to continue engaging, Michael and his co-conspirators used blackmail and extortion to manipulate them into continuing to produce images.

After Wolf and Strange were arrested and incarcerated, Michael did not stop: he continued the catfishing scheme by targeting and victimizing minor boys who were Little League World Series players, widening the victim pool from a single school’s students to youth athletes nationally. U.S. Attorney Metcalf said the conspirators, “cloaked in the anonymity that the internet provided,” manipulated young boys into taking and sending explicit images of themselves, calling the men “predators, plain and simple, and deserve every day of the lengthy sentences they’ve received.” FBI Philadelphia Special Agent in Charge Wayne A. Jacobs described the sexual exploitation and extortion of children as “one of the most devious crimes” the FBI investigates. Judge Kearney’s sentence — 330 months, 15 years of supervised release, and restitution of $137,933 to victims — closed the prosecution.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentencing announcement paired the 27-and-a-half-year term with an unusually pointed public characterization from the prosecutor’s office — “predators, plain and simple” — and restitution earmarked for the victims. The scheme’s scale was laid out in official language: a school’s current and former students targeted through fake teenage-girl profiles, blackmail applied to keep boys producing images, and, after the other conspirators were imprisoned, a new cohort of Little League World Series players pursued by Michael alone. No public statement from Michael or anyone acting for him appears in the announcement. His guilty plea admitted every count in the July 2024 indictment.

Current Status

Michael is serving a 330-month federal prison sentence imposed November 2, 2026. After release he faces 15 years of supervised release, mandatory sex-offender registration under SORNA, Megan’s Law and state law, and the restitution obligation of $137,933 to his victims. His co-conspirators Wolf and Strange were previously convicted and sentenced, per the announcement, so Michael’s sentencing completes the trio’s prosecution arc. There is no parole in the federal system, and the announcement records no appeal.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Michael’s two decades coaching youth baseball ended in a federal prison cell, and the alias he used online — “Baseball Fun” — now sits in a Justice Department sentencing announcement beside the word predator. At 49, his 330-month term runs past his late 70s, and the supervised-release and registration obligations extend state control over him for the rest of his life. The restitution order makes his victims’ financial claims part of his sentence alongside the prison term. The case’s public record also permanently documents the scheme’s escalation — from a Philadelphia school’s students to Little League World Series players nationwide — as the work of a man who continued victimizing children even after his co-conspirators were behind bars.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania / FBI Philadelphia, “Arizona Man Sentenced to 27½ Years in Prison for Child Exploitation Offenses in Connection With Catfishing Scheme That Targeted Young Boys,” November 2, 2026. source