A Friendly Farewell to my Friends

This has been bothering me for awhile now. I always thought those who gave it up, were just being silly. Please understand I have no hard feelings towards anyone. I just felt it important to let people know. Some might read this, most probably won’t. It doesn’t make much difference either way. Just know that this is by far the toughest post I've ever written here.

I was going to send out a PM to all those people I know on this site. Then realized I would surely forget someone important if I did that, so I decided to post this. I hope some can understand.

Anyone who is deeply involved in baseball will always have some enemies. It’s impossible to avoid and many of those enemies may have never even met you or know anything about you. Some may actually have legitimate reasons while most are simply jealous, unreasonable, unfamiliar, or in competition or a combination of all that. I understand there is nothing that can be done about any of it.

I have always enjoyed trying to help people and I quickly caught on (years ago) that this was a great place for that. In fact, Bob Howdeshell started this site for just that purpose. I posted anonymously back at the beginning. Bob was the only one who knew who I was. Never was it about PG, but I could answer questions and didn’t have to worry about being diplomatic. Later it was decided I would post as PGStaff. That turned out to be a bad decision IMO, but at least there was nothing hidden from anyone.

Over the years there have been some very disturbing (untrue) things said about Perfect Game. Almost always people who knew us would straighten things out in a hurry. This support has continued for a long time and it has made me feel like part of some kind of a cyber family. There have been so many wonderful people who have spent time here. So many people who want to help others! Some I’ve actually met and others I’d like to meet.

In that time spent here I’ve been in a fairly unique position. Not just because of knowing my input had a certain amount of credibility, but listening to others became a valuable resource of sorts to PG. Some of the suggestions made by posters we actually implemented. Still, sometimes things would trouble me (we all have weaknesses). While I understood that everyone had different experiences, it surprised me how many thought what worked for their son should work for anyone. You know… “This is what we did, so you don’t need to do anything differently because of our experience”. I always wondered just how many did things exactly the same way without getting the same results. Of course, we have seen things accomplished in just about everyway imaginable over the years.

I could understand all that because surely I felt the same way at times earlier in my life. However once again we were in a unique position when it came to experience (not brains!). We have been in a position to experience things from many sides. We have been involved in a large way with many important things in baseball that affect many people. This would include the draft, college recruiting, coaching and running events. It also includes dealing with people like sports agents, highest level scouts, college coaches, many parents and players and just about everyone that is involved in baseball in some way. (Thousands of young players and parents) and they are all different with different circumstances, abilities, goals and dreams. Good students, bad students, great athletes, not so great athletes, good kids, bad kids, rich kids, poor kids, you name it. We have had meetings with compliance officers, the commissioners office, top executives in baseball and many others who have lives revolving around baseball. I could go on and on about the things we have experienced in baseball.

Our staff includes over 50 people whose experience ranges from being a Major League Manager, Major League players, minor league players, college players, former scouts and college coaches to former agents and baseball writers. We didn’t just show up out of the clear blue and become experts. Personally my experience includes recruiting and coaching in college for 7 years, scouting for 9 years, coaching at other youth and amateur levels, running clinics, writing manuals, speaking at baseball functions, and many other things that I can’t remember. I have also been a parent who saw two of his son’s play college and professional baseball. One son who pitched briefly with three different Major League Teams (Yankees, Diamondbacks and Brewers) saw both sons get injured, one with two surgeries that included Tommy John surgery. I have seen and learned a lot in my 62 years of which some 40+ years were dominated by baseball. You know what… There is still much more I DON’T know than what I DO know! Most people with the most experience would say the same exact thing.

What is missing from all the above is my experience with business and sales! That is because I never had any interest or experience in those things. That is probably why we should have gone bankrupt every day during our first 6 years as Perfect Game. What kept us going is simple… We loved the game, we were very competitive, we knew we were helping a lot of young players, and it was baseball!!! Since then we have received help from some real business people and things worked out OK. I once had a sales job. It lasted about a week. I couldn’t and didn’t want to sell anything. There has been a book published, it’s titled “Perfect Game USA” it tells some of the story. I never thought we would be anywhere near as big as we are now. I never even wanted to be that big, it just happened! We gained a great deal of credibility.

So here I set today writing on what has become the greatest message board in baseball IMO. I can’t tell you how much it bothers me to read about us being involved with something that is only interested in taking money from poor unsuspecting people. I look at the 226 pages of posts that I’ve made here, some of 4,000-5,000 posts that are very long, probably too long. Knowing that every post that dealt with baseball was as truthful as it could be. Knowing the purpose was to lend a helping hand to others who might be far more intelligent than myself, but simply lacked the experience or knowledge about certain things. Not once was the goal to promote or sell anyone anything. Always treating people who spent money the same as those who didn’t spend money on us. Never once reading a post from a kid looking for a showcase and asking him to PM me. Not once telling someone they needed to attend our stuff. When I mentioned our stuff it is because some of it is hard to believe (even to us) and we are proud of certain things.

When I hear words like “Targeting people”, all anyone needs is a credit card, all they care about is your money, or other business related talk, I wonder what I’m doing here. I fully understand that there are people who operate differently. The ads at the top of the page were NOT my idea. I never came here to advertise I came here to support something great and it had nothing to do with marketing or PG. I read the negative comments on other sites and don’t even bother to reply. I thought here I could give an honest reply that might mean something. That people might see it as an honest reply. I think everyone has been polite, but yet with some also getting the wrong impression.

Those 226 pages if anyone cares to read them will say a lot. Almost all the posts were meant to help someone. I doubt if there is more than a few posts that even mention Perfect Game unless it was to reply to a direct question or topic. I look back and think about the amount of time spent doing all of that and it is truthfully mind boggling. I did it because I wanted to, so no complaints, but the amount of time could have been put to much better use from a more selfish standpoint. Maybe something like trying harder to “profit”! I really believe it was all worth it because it made me feel good most of the time. Even threads like “American Idol” seemed to be simply a fun escape from my every day life involving baseball and having some fun. Odd that someone would go to a baseball website to get away from baseball. I just really enjoyed all the people. Not once did I ever feel like I was “TARGETING” anyone or doing anything related to business. Least of all taking advantage of people.

I could go on forever, but recently certain developments have kind of soured me. Competitors come on posting negative and untrue stuff about us. A clear agenda! He gets discovered, thanks to Julie. I never asked Julie to investigate but she did. I never even complained! In fact, I can honestly say that I have never, not once, asked any favors or asked for any post to be deleted at any time on this site. Later I notice certain posters still lump us with all the others without bothering to write a single post in that very long thread. That thread slowly sank down the list. Then within days I read where we as the largest have to expect to be mentioned (lumped) with the others because we too are in that business. Guess we are all the same and only want your money. Some even claim there’s nothing wrong with that. I haven’t got the time to fight this stuff.

I truly respect Julie very much and the job she has done here. She is a great person with a gigantic heart and I plan to help her for as long as possible. I have some friends who post here. I even have friends here who I’ve never met. There are lots of wonderful people around here. That said, I’m going to ask Julie to take down our banner ads, I never asked for them or wanted them anyway. All it does is make us look like we are here for the wrong reasons. That has become very clear as of late. We will still support the site just as we did before there were any advertisements. We are in a prime spot so hopefully someone who really does want to sell something will pay prime dollars for that spot and it will help pay the bills here. For sure people are not donating enough the way it is. I encourage all those who really care about this site to make a donation if you can afford it. If the economy hurts us as some seem to think, we might not be in a position to help support this site. I think individuals should help if they really enjoy this “the best message board in amateur baseball”.

I really appreciate many of the kind messages some of you have sent me. It means a lot. I’m just getting tired of trying to explain everything. I can take it when things are posted at other sites, just not here. I don’t blame anyone for anything or feel angry in the least. It’s just that if after all this time, I haven’t clearly represented my beliefs, I doubt it’s ever going to happen. If that is thin skinned, so be it! I don’t do anything based on it being just good for business. We quit our relationship with Baseball America because of our ideals not because it was a good business decision. We refused to be associated with others. Then I get to read on message boards (maybe even here) that Baseball America dumped us. PGCrosschecker was up and running within two weeks with Baseball America’s founder and former editor in charge of it. Does that sound like we got dumped. Within three months we had more subscribers than Prospects Plus. Yet, until now, I never brought that up.

Anyway, I still plan on looking in often as a viewer. Reckon I’ll see some posts that I don’t like at times. I’m just not going to reply to them anymore. Anyone who wants to reach me, feel free to email… jerry@perfectgame.org

I’m very sorry, but can’t help the way I feel. Some might actually be happy. That bothers me! I just wish people would have the chance to know ALL of what we did and why we do it. Even the naysayers would have a hard time with that.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Thanks, it has mostly been a lot of fun. If I ever do get back on here it will be some strange username with no connection to any thing. Maybe that will be a lot more fun.