Perfect Game book is out

Hey folks, this thread took some strange turns the first time, and I hope you will forgive me if I clean it up and see if we can start over.

So...

The author of the new book "Perfect Game USA" (Blue Skies / Les Edgerton) asked my permission to announce his book in our forums, and I happily agreed. I have a copy of the book in front of me, and have found it a very interesting read so far. It gave me an inside look at an organization that many of our members are very interested in, Perfect Game. Personally, my favorite part is that it includes many stories told by and about one of my very favorite people in the baseball world, Jerry Ford. But there is also a lot of educational insight into this scouting/recruiting process that so many parents here are going through.

Some of the unexpected negative comments in this thread earlier related to the high price of the book, $35. That price is set by the publisher, and it is due to the fact that this special-interest book is not expected to sell millions or even tens of thousands of copies. The author receives about $1 for every copy sold, so he's not expecting to get rich either. And I do not need or want him to send his $1 payments to me for the support of this site as someone suggested.

Will you get $35 worth of education and entertainment from the book? Probably, but please feel free to pass on buying it if it doesn't sound like a good value to you! But I am truly enjoying my copy, and think that many of you would find a lot that interests you in this book also.

Julie

Two members asked me about a link to the book that would pay a commission to this site. Let's see if this works...

Perfect Game book

(I think we get a 2% commission = 70 cents per book, so again don't feel obligated to do this!)

i just ordered it from amazon. looking forward to reading it.

quote:

Originally posted by MN-Mom:
Some of the unexpected negative comments in this thread earlier related to the high price of the book, $35. That price is set by the publisher, and it is due to the fact that this special-interest book is not expected to sell millions or even tens of thousands of copies.

Although the price is set by the publisher, it's not true that special interest, or niche books, need to be priced at $35 or they lose money, that's a misnomer. I've published many books for small markets and they generally range from $15 - $25...and make a tidy profit for the publisher and the author. I don't really have an interest in re opening the dialouge, but I do value truth.

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You've got a copy in front of you Mom?

You know me...I just gotta' ask...please, oh please answer yes...does the book have lots of pictures in it?

woody,
what do you mean pictures? i thought this was a really good coloring book. you know i can't read in the daytime.............i went to night school.

.

Let's go shopping 20dad.

Cleaning up threads is fine in most cases, but in this case I found it highly objectionable that an author who comes on to promote a book (which was fine as it was a book many members would be interested in and some contributed to) then goes on long rants in which he calls two posters names and insults Democrats, who would represent half of his potential readership. There is often disagreement on this site, but members typically handle it in a civil manner without resorting to name calling. If the book is available at a library or I can borrow it, I would still like to read it, but I refuse to enrich an author who acts the way this man did on this site. And in the spirit of putting my money where my mouth is, I just donated the price of the book to the site.

So sorry to see posts being deleted. I felt all were acting well except for BS. For me it was not an issue of how much it cost to prodcue the book or how much it sold for and what the author was going to profit. It was that fact that BS resorted to name calling and I was VERY rude in his response to posters on this site. As a consumer it just left a bad taste in my mouth. He should apologize not be defended.

In the economic times we live in if I were going to purchase the book I would look for a way to pay as little as I could. Doing this is not meant to insult or cheat the author but an effort afford an non essential purchase. The same I do with every purchase I make these days.

MnMom, sounds like a little cleaning was exactly in order.

Sheeez, guys it is just a book. Value is relative to the buyer. 35.00 is what it is. Buy it or dont.

Sounds like a good read though.

Playfair - It wasn't about the book or the price of the book, it was about what the author said to other posters which I found disgusting. Perhaps you did not see the original posts before they were deleted.

Hi,
I want to apologize for my earlier posts which casey and gimages are referring to. I was wrong to respond the way I did, and wish that I had not over-reacted. Please accept my apology. This is a great community and the last thing I want to do is to disrupt it.

Sincerely,
Les

quote:

Originally posted by Blue Skies:
Hi,
I want to apologize for my earlier posts which casey and gimages are referring to. I was wrong to respond the way I did, and wish that I had not over-reacted. Please accept my apology. This is a great community and the last thing I want to do is to disrupt it.

Sincerely,
Les

Good enough for me! Always willing to give someone a second chance.

It was nice to see your note above, Blue Skies. I'm sure the book is very interesting and helpful to the baseball community, and I look forward to reading it someday.

Has PG made any comment about this book? Do they endorse it or think that it's okay?

Guess I'm too skeptical. But I'd love to read it if it's a fair representation of PG and what they do.

biggerpapi,

I'm probably not the best person to ask. It would be kind of egotistical to endorse it, because some would say that I am the central figure in this book… Maybe a little too much so IMO. I will be happy if it just doesn’t cause any problems.

Les Edgerton, the author, contacted us for information, a few years ago. He said he was commissioned to write a book about showcase baseball, investigating the good and the bad. Then about a year later, he contacted us again, telling us he had finished his research and he asked if it would be OK if he did his book mostly about PG. He said that it had to be an honest portrayal, but he also said he had talked to enough people and assured us the book would be mostly positive. So we agreed! I really didn’t think it would ever be written.

While there are some things written that I would disagree with, the book is an accurate representation of PG. It is mostly positive, but it also has some of the negative aspects involving PG and the business of showcases, travel baseball and scouting.

I do think it will cause some controversy. It might even give the naysayers some additional ammunition. There are some chapters that have very little to do with PG. To me the best parts of the book include interviews with high level scouting people, parents and others deeply involved in baseball. Some might grow to understand just how difficult things were the first years. The book took a couple years to do and was finished awhile ago, so like everything else some things have changed since the book was done.

I would much rather have someone else, other than me; give their impression of the book. I do think the book is priced too high, but don’t know anything about how that works. Maybe something can be worked out in the future where the price can be lowered.

I do think it is important, that people understand that this book titled Perfect Game USA was not written or published by Perfect Game. There is no royalties or profit involved for PG unless we actually sell the book at a profit. If the time comes where the people in charge allow us to sell it at our cost or a bit more, we will probably do that. If it can be sold through this site somehow at a big discount or where HSBBW can realize some money, that would be great.

FYI, Les Edgerton spent a lot of time and effort on this thing. He has authored many other books and has taught writing at several different colleges. He has gone through a lot during the period of time he and his researchers worked on the book. In fact, not too long ago he was hospitalized because he was having a series of mini strokes. I think TR has mentioned he has had the same experience. I have learned that McFarland, the publisher, in fact does deal mostly with school libraries. Les is a writer, he is far from wealthy and would be the first to say that. I hope he does profit from all the work involved, that would be the best thing to come out of all this.

As for us and the book, I could care less if anyone reads it. I would like to hear what people think, if they do read it… Good or Bad!

.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
...some would say that I am the central figure in this book…

Don't worry about it PG.



Now if you were the central figure in this steamy tome...



...I'd be concerned!

I always wondered what PG Jerry looked like!!!

I've gotten a copy through Barnes & Noble and I started into it last night.

The first thing I'd say is, it could have used another pass-through by a proofreader. And I find it a bit odd to read a long quote from someone, then see the same quote again a few pages later in the next chapter, presented as if I hadn't just read it. It's a deja vu sort of feeling. But 'nuff said on the nitpicky stuff.

After a few chapters, the big thing I disagree with in the book is the premise that the mid-'90's promotion of the Little League World Series fueled the rise of travel baseball. Actually I think the factors that fueled travel ball's rapid growth in that period also aided in the growth of interest in the LLWS, but while both may have been caused by the same factors, one didn't cause the other. And the author really doesn't prove his bald assertion that one did cause the other.

IMHO, here are the big factors that fueled the rise of travel ball:

1. Baseball is addictive. Given the chance, people will become more deeply involved in it.

Remember too that through the '90's, baseball was becoming more and more prevalent on TV, and cable/satellite TV was becoming more and more the norm for households across the country. We went from ESPN to ESPN2, ESPN Classic, etc. All those channels need content to sustain them, and baseball provides countless hours of TV content.

2. Sociologically, we have over the decades become a more self-indulgent society. If like me you did your teenage years in the '70's, then your parents would have had their formative years in the late '30's-to-early-'50's period. You were likely brought up with the attitude that the family as a unit was more important than any one child. In contrast, a few decades later we were into an era when parents increasingly believed they were supposed to sacrifice all to indulge their children's aspirations.

3. Adding fuel to that fire was the fact that in the 1974-82 period, the economy stunk. People didn't have money for expensive bats or nonessential travel. And plane fares were very high (pre-deregulation). By the mid-'90's, the economy had been growing strong for 12+ years, and people were experiencing wild growths in investment portfolios. Travel got cheaper, too. Disposable income exploded. Couple this with the desire to spend specifically on your children, and you have the perfect environment for anything child-focused to explode.

Note that baseball wasn't the only thing to explode in that period. Travel s****r, AAU basketball, etc. all took off in the same period. Did Brent Musburger's gushing over Tommy Frazier at the LLWS cause that, too? I would suggest that the biggest reason the LLWS took off is that it stopped being covered on TV only on championship day, and became a 9-day TV event courtesy of the ESPN-ABC marriage.

4. Specific to baseball, though, another thing that occurred in the mid-'90's was the rapid rise of college costs, while at the same time many college baseball programs were rescued from the brink of extinction by fund raising successes (made possible by the nation's rise in wealth and disposable income again).

At my own alma mater, baseball was on the chopping block when all of a sudden, a major donor stepped up to pay for a new stadium, if only his name would be emblazoned upon it. This scenario repeated all over the country. And, as part of the new money in college baseball, more and more programs had more and more funding towards their scholarship allotment. With scholarship money now an attainable goal, it became easier for parents to reassure themselves that their recreational spending on indulging their child's love for the game was really just "an investment".

Given that the book's author either barely mentions or completely overlooks these phenomena, I have some trepidation about what the rest of the book may hold.

And oh yeah, another thing.

It's one thing to say that travel ball has surpassed HS play in terms of impact on recruiting. And while that seems a no-brainer to many of us here, it is a message that still needs to get out to very many players with high hopes.

And we can all relate horror stories of stick-in-the-mud HS coaches who monkey with players' futures by failing to return college coaches' calls, not passing along contact letters, discouraging participation in showcases or with travel teams, etc.

BUT, to go so far as to say HS ball will become an irrelevancy, or that HS is little more than "rec ball" for older kids, is baloney.

In our HS district, we had probably 120 kids in the Little League program in my son's age group. Maybe 10 of them ever made their HS roster (public and private schools combined). Of those, a few barely got to play. To suggest that the top 6-8% of all rec ball players hit the field and play a caliber of game that is no better than Little League grown older is absurd.

Maybe HS ball is weak where the author's son played. Come to our area some time and take in a game or two. True, the elite travel teams are comprised of the best players off several HS teams, and so yes, they are still a cut above. But HS ball irrelevant? Not in my lifetime.

Also bear in mind that for most of the players, HS ball is as high as they will ever play. They will give their hearts and souls for it. And that makes it special, something the community can get behind in a way travel ball cannot replace.

Too, if I were a college coach, I would run quickly away from any kid who simply gave up HS play because he thought travel ball met all his needs. That would be someone interested only in themselves, and those types make lousy teammates.

quote:

Midlo posted: BUT, to go so far as to say HS ball will become an irrelevancy, or that HS is little more than "rec ball" for older kids, is baloney. BUT, to go so far as to say HS ball will become an irrelevancy, or that HS is little more than "rec ball" for older kids, is baloney.

I agree. That is a bold prediction that dismisses the root cause of travel baseball. The better players start traveling before they get to high school. They have no idea if they will travel,let alone with whom, once they get to high school. Their sole motivation is the "next step". The next level for them is the high school team. It is not a travel team that may or may not exist when the are 16U. Travel baseball is a byproduct of players reaching for the next rung, high school. It suppliments high school, but won't replace it unless schools drop teams.

In recognition of that, no travel program I know of even attempts to play during HS season. If they did, they couldn't get players.

If travel doesn't even try to replace HS, but merely to add more baseball to a kid's plate in the June-November months, then I don't see travel as a threat to HS.

I do agree that many HS coaches resent the influence of travel teams and travel coaches in what they believe should be their fiefdom, the recruiting of "their" players. Many, but not a majority by a long shot. Most HS coaches are happy to see their players succeed, and happy to see kids show up at tryouts already knowing how to play the game right.

High school coaches would like to eat their cake for sure. They would like to control players 12 months, but lay awake at night thinking of having 8 or 10 travel team studs show up in the next freshman class. The most successful coaches on the field leverage their travel team players (support their feeder program) and look around for more. If you put out the welcome mat for travel kids, they will show up.

When I read these threads, it becomes obvious that there are too many poor experiences in HS ball out there. Some are legit (i.e. the perception that it stunk is correct)...others are self-induced (i.e. parent/player looking through rose-colored glasses sees the HS situation as abysmal).

There are others that say their travel ball experience "stunk," but that conversation usually revolves around a particular travel program...and not travel ball as a whole. HS baseball is usually lumped together as one thing. Why the double standard? I suspect because "Dad" can fix the travel ball problem by jumping ship or forming his own team.

Like several others on here, I think both HS and travel ball have been/are very enjoyable if you let them be. Our older son played in two of the very top travel programs in the country and he also played on a HS team with little (make that pretty much "no") previous success and with 3 coaches in 4 years...none of them terribly experienced and with a range of strengths and weaknesses. I do understand the feeling of "lets just get through this" at times.

But looking back, both he and I have very good memories...and a few things we'd like to forget. Perhaps the very best memory was hanging the league championship banner in the school's gym for the first time in 15 years...up from a team without a winning record in most of those years preceding that. You don't get that in a travel program...even the best ones...at best you get a medal/trophy and a year listed on a website...all "good" things, but not nearly as memorable as hanging that banner in your hometown.

My younger son plays at a different HS, in a program that is easily one of the very best in Northern California. He is a sophomore fighting like he!! to make the varsity team. May make it, may not? He also plays for a top travel program. I can honestly say that his HS coach is, to me, the "dream coach" we all wish for our kids. Communication is abundant, continuous and consistent. Tryouts appear fair and balanced. Parental and player support is constant from the senior class all the way down to the freshman class. Travel ball or HS summer program? Do either or both...not a problem as long as its truthfully communicated. The coaching is superb and the team is highly competitive. Many players move on to JC, college and pro baseball. If this particular HS program ever became "irrelevant" or little more than rec. ball, it would indeed be a very sad day for HS sports in general.

My son loves it. My wife and I love it. My older son has gotten to know it and sees exactly why we love it.

Yet I will also tell you there is a parent or two who do not. Why not? Mostly centered around their son didn't make the varsity team or get used in the "right" way (i.e. they don't start) or they didn't make a team at all...over 100 kids try out and over 20 play on the varsity. Just as easily as me, they could come onto any website and tell you the horrors of this program...and they'd be as wrong as anyone could be...but thats the nature of getting to freely write on the internet or say whatever you want in your own book.

HS baseball in my neighborhood is NOT irrelevant nor 'like LL rec. ball' (a phrase very demeaning to LL/youth baseball which I consider possibly the most important level on the baseball landscape in many ways). There are some things you don't mess with, even if you can, because it isn't the right thing to do. Downplaying HS athletics is most definitely one of those "must-not-do's" in my book.

You do see some levels of hypocrisy on the part of some high school coaches as well. I know in Virginia (and probably other states as well, but I'm not familiar with their rules) the high school coaches often bemoan the strict rules against instruction/coaching by the HS coach out of season. However, the same high school coaches often consider travel/showcase coaches their adversaries. What's the alternative? Everyone plays rec ball/daddy ball in the offseason and that's it?

I'd rather work with players and travel coaches to ensure that my guys find a good fit (level of competition suitable to their ability, quality coaching, etc) rather than be standoffish towards travel coaches. Unlike for high school ball (where you're generally stuck with the high school program in your neighborhood) there is discretion with which travel program a player chooses, and the HS coach should do their best to help the player/parents make an informed and appropriate choice. The good coaches, whether at the high school level, travel level, and even the rec level, want what's best for the kids. In my opinion, as in most cases in life, cooperation is the best solution.

In these tough economic times, it's heartwarming to see people who look for ways to supplement their income and take up some of the free time they never knew before. Like Dad04 and Midlo, dabbling in a little social anthropology. It's kind of like a philosophy degree, it proves your smart enough to get it, but not enough foresight to figure out what you're going to do with it once you have it.

Thanks....I ...think?..

well,i got the book in the mail this afternoon. i have to think the author must have had a really bad experience with high school baseball in his area. i think it get's bashed pretty good.


while neither of my son's ever attended a pg event.(that could explain the elder's draft slot ) i was very impressed with perfect game and their inner workings. remarkable really. i have a new respect for pg.


i couldn't help but feel the book was outdated,or maybe it's just stuff i already new. maybe it was written for parent's just starting the process.

i'm glad i read it tonight. i can't read in the daytime, cause i went to night school. once i start reading i hate to put the book down. it was a fairly quick read.



if someone want's i'd be happy to send it to them, maybe start a book chain?

Having finished it, there are two important, positive messages in the book.

1. HSBBW is a great place to get information -- stated many times, and oh, so true!

2. PG's events are the dominant force in the showcase and tournament market, and it's not clear you need others if you've been to them. Jupiter is an event not to be missed. As I've said myself, when you tell folks around home about what goes on at PG National or at Jupiter, and how many scouts are there, they think you are lying to them. Well, now you can show them the pictures!

That being said, I think the book veers off course in pooh-poohing the recreational baseball experience. I haven't read the author's earlier book, but the information I have indicates it read like the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, except directed towards Little League.

As to LL, hey, been there, done that. But let's not go so far as to let the difficult folks who hang around LL ruin the whole experience for us. We did LL for 9 years and loved every minute of it. I coached regular season and all stars and I surely took both spears in the chest and daggers in the back, and truth be told in hingsight maybe I deserved some of them. But for so many kids, this is all the baseball experience they'll ever have. OK, so maybe it's not for everyone. That doesn't mean you have to run it down. It's great that some get to achieve great heights in baseball, but even they ought to "stop and smell the roses", i.e., play for the sake of playing and the pure enjoyment of it, without having dad go on and on about whether someone made some errors or whatever.

The fact is, there are difficult people and difficult relationships to be found where ever you may go, travel or rec ball, in or out of baseball. If you throw every opportunity you have in the trash every time you run into difficult people, you aren't going to have much to show for your life when you meet St. Peter.

The author talks several times about how glad he was to get away from his local LL. I'm betting he wasn't the only one happy to see him go.

The author talks several times about how glad he was to get away from his local LL. I'm betting he wasn't the only one happy to see him go.

I am a little disappointed in reading these responses. I am a HUGE fan of HS baseball and it's importance in a player's life as well as college career. Perhaps the differences are regional as was previously suggested? Here, HS baseball is and hopefully will continue to be very important.

I have purchased the book for a gift for a friend who is a HS coach as well as a travel coach in the summer. I will be interested in hearing his perspective, but I'm sure he would never compare HS ball to LL or downplay it's importance in any way. Neither would I.

lafmom, I agree. I am a huge fan of high school and LL baseball. They are the backbones of the game.

If the future of the draft is, or will become heavily influenced by a private venture versus true area scouting, then minor league baseball will not have all the best prospects.

Midlo Dad .........."PG's events are the dominant force in the showcase and tournament market, and it's not clear you need others if you've been to them. Jupiter is an event not to be missed. As I've said myself, when you tell folks around home about what goes on at PG National or at Jupiter, and how many scouts are there, they think you are lying to them."

OS,

My comment was meant vis a vis other showcase outfits. I do not mean to suggest that pro scouts shouldn't attend HS games, Legion games, etc. Though I do concur with the author on the point that you don't see many scouts just trolling those games. They come to see someone that was already bird-dogged, to build the file.

But then, if they see someone else while there, I'm sure they won't ignore him.