Thoughts on Blue - Gray in St. Petersburg

Having been to several BG Battle of the States and the one just mentioned.

many teams have college coaches or MLb scouts coaching the teams. Most of the coaches scouting the games stay in an area in th center of all 4 fields. You can radar all the pitchers from there in the shade, which was done during all the games. A little pointer by the 3rd day , most pitchers had thrown many times, MPH were down for everyone. The pitchers MPH were recorded and catchers release times and posted at the games


The facility is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays minor league complex. And all the MLB facilties look about the same for the minor league complex.

My son attended a try-out for Blue-Grey @MTSU. He made the team and is schedule to play Aug.5th, 6th and 7th. We have become curious about the selection process. My son is #1 starting pitcher on his high school team and had to attend a try-out for BG. Two other players are underclassmen little playing time and were PRE-SELECTED? My son's profile still has not been added to the web site. I have tried several times to contact them via phone calls and e-mail with no result.
We have paid ..so we will attend..hoping that a few college scouts from Tennessee will be there.

Run7run, you have a PM.

I too am a parent who just returned from Blue Gray. Here are my observations:
1. The pictures of the hotel and field were not those of the Bilmar nor Namoli Field. When I showed the brochure we recieved in the mail from Blue Gray to the Hotel, they were very upset because Blue Gray had totally misrepresented thier hotel.
2. The hotel staff had no clue where the tranining complex was and they are only 3 miles away. Many other parents had asked prior to our arrival and were told that the hotel had no information on the showcase or the field. When I checked in and was expressing my concern about not knowing where the field was, a maintenance employee happened to hear us as he was walking by and knew of the complex. He gave us directions and was able to give them to the hotel staff so they could inform others.
3. There was not any formal greeting or registration. If you didn't read the Web site before you left you were clueless.
4. There were not any directions to Namoli on the Web site - only from the Hilton where many parents had to stay 30 minutes away.
4. I only saw 1/2 doz. people in the press box - only a couple with guns. No clipboards or briefcases.
5. I asked for a list of coaches and scouts that were there on Friday and they told me it was in the brochure that came to my house. There are only college logos in the brochure. And, the brochure was sent months before the showcase so how did they know those colleges were there - and that other colleges might have attended. How if my son supposed to know who/what college he should send a letter to in hopes that someone might have seen him? They did still not have a list or sign-in sheet on Sunday and I've been told they probably won't.
6. The Namoli facility itself was terrible. Absolutely no cover. The bathrooms were disgusting. One toilet for women with a curtain as a door. The toilet dirty and very hard to flush. The toilet paper in big rolls that were stood on a metal railing that wasn't wide enough to keep the toliet paper from not falling on the muddy floor. The sinks were disgusting. Only one faucet of one sink worked. The garbage was overflowing. Only two of the four fields had bleachers. If your son was playing on the one of the two without, you had to stand, sit on the ground or go to Walmart to buy chairs. This is not was not the facility pictured on the brochure Blue Gray sent to our home.
7. Some teams had too many kids so they only had 2 ups a game when playing any field position.
8. We walked away on Sunday having lost two games on Saturday and the consolation game on Sunday with nothing but another brochure advertising their baseball pipeline recruiting service for $795.
I'm very, very disappointed and am very skeptical that this organization is truly out for the kids. I've been told they'ver been known to put college shirts on people just to walk around and look like they are from colleges, have given incorrect stats on players in their advertisements, advertise pro and college scouts were are showcases when they actually were not. With my experience of the falsified hotel and field information, and these comments from other parents, I have to wonder if all of this is true.

"I've been told they've been known to put college shirts on people just to walk around and look like they are from colleges."

Heard the same, as well as gave them broke radar guns to hold up.

quote:

baseball pipeline recruiting service

Thats a good one.

S-C-A-M

At least the showcase actually occurred. An event in Oklahoma was cancelled without notice or refunds.

We're attending the Perfect Game Underclass Showcase at Baylor this weekend. Was glad to read that it is the real deal. Looking forward to it.

Still have a VERY BAD TASTE IN MY MOUTH from Blue-Gray.

Hope these post help others in the future. I wish I had this information before we went.

I'm amazed at the bashing BG is getting. Coming into this summer, I had heard nothing but positive things--including from some of my son's team mates. We're going to their showcase at UNCG and will keep an open mind--and will give you the report from the mid-Atlantic,
JT

I just wanted to respond to the Blue Gray Showcase topic. My son plays for a summer team in New York. Last night my son found out that four boys on his team will be going to the Blue Gray at Wake Forest. There was no tryout for these boys. Three are pitchers and there fee was waived!. I called Peter Marso who contacted my son and his response was that he would look into it! I also asked our General Manager who runs the team and he said it was true. So WHAT IS THE REAL DEAL WITH THE BLUE GRAY??

I think that some of these showcases vary by the area. I was told that TeamOne was a "top notch" organization yet after attending a tryout in October and being told AT THE TRYOUT that my son had made the team, we never received an invite until the end of MAY saying they were sorry to have overlooked us, please send money by JUNE 1 and you can attend. Most posters on theis website have had good experiences with TeamOne yet my experience says take your money and run.

And some people were unhappy with PG because it RAINED in Atlanta last week

H&R: For us, it will be all about exposure. I was certainly impressed how BG ran their Virginia tryout. As far as the calibre of players that will be at UNCG--I could care less as long as there are legit college scouts in attendance.
BTW, I think TPM was trying to inject a little humor into the thread.

alexgdog

While your experience with teamone may have not been smooth, in fact you are not alone. However, there is no denying they put coaches in the stands, at least in Atlanta. I was at 2003 T1 in Atlanta. You could not walk five feet without tripping over a coach. They were there all day. I have heard that PG Sunshine and other PG showcases also represent colleges well. Anyone who has been to the PG Jupiter tourney in the late fall knows that is the grand daddy though.

Here is list of schools at the 2005 Atlanta showcase.

Alabama
Army
Auburn
Birmingham Southern
Broward CC
Clemson
Coastal Carolina
College of Charleston
Columbus State
Dartmouth
Eastern Kentucky
Florida
Florida Atlantic
Florida Gulf Coast
Florida Southern
Florida State
Florida Tech
Furman
Gardner-Webb
Georgia
Georgia College
Georgia State
Georgia Tech
Guilford
Jacksonville U.
James Madison
Lambuth
Louisiana-Lafayette
Lynn
Mercer
Miami (FL)
Navy
New Orleans
North Carolina
North Carolina State
North Florida CC
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Okaloosa Walton
Old Dominion
Piedmont College
Presbyterian College
Richmond
Samford
Savannah College of Art & Design
South Alabama
South Florida
St. Louis
Tennessee
Tulane
Tusculum College
UConn
Virginia
Virginia Tech
VMI
Wake Forest
Western Carolina
Winthrop
Yale
Young Harris

Major League Teams
Atlanta Braves
Cincinnati Reds
Kansas City Royals
Tampa Bay Devil Rays

http://teamonebaseball.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=45&mi...tid=55212724&style=1

JT,
Thank you for interpreting my post.
It disturbs me that people come here to complain about showcases where things (weather) are out of control for the organizers.
I have never attended an event put on by this organization, but I think that the poster had some LEGITE complaints and I hope they contacted them regarding their concerns.
H&R,
No problem

H&R. I will happily give you my feedback--both right after the event, and a few weeks later.
JT

quote:

Originally posted by JT:
H&R: As far as the calibre of players that will be at UNCG--I could care less as long as there are legit college scouts in attendance.

Two parts to that quote. I do not think there were many legit college scouts in attendance at the BG St. Pete event. I will be curious to see what they post on the website. Much of the complaints above are legit in my view. The calibre of play may affect the level of college scout participation. If I had been watching the team my son played on, I would have left after seeing three different players make errors on routine plays. I have to say we did not have high expectations on this event, but I had hoped for more than what it was.

I would like to comment again on the B-G Showcase. I have heard that the BG is a franchise operation. If that is true than some events might be better run than others. There should be a list of colleges that will be attending?