Newsletter - November-December 2011

My Team won the World Series
Black Friday Sale
Say goodbye to Cooperstown
Wayne Peltz: Lego artist
Let’s go to dinner

The past 6 weeks or so have been a busy and exciting time for me. In late September we had our event in Cooperstown, then 2 weeks later our first annual Champions League Series in New Orleans, and a few weeks after that our first annual Chase Field Classic, and while all this was going on my beloved Cardinals were making history. I remember them losing to the Mets while we were in Cooperstown, and pretty much thinking that they were done. Then the Braves can’t win a game, (thanks Phillies) and on one of baseball’s greatest nights they clinch the wild card.

We then head to New Orleans and I am watching them lose game 3 before I get on the plane. Oh well we made a historic run, but wait…. they win game 4 and then Carpenter beats Halladay 1-0. I win a bet and don’t have to wear Phillies crap in Palm Beach and now we play the Brewers. We beat them in a slugfest series after losing the first game and I am I headed now to Arizona and my boys are in the Series against the heavily favored Rangers. Well the rest is history. We watched games 6 and 7 upstairs at Chase Field at TGIFridays, and you could hear the empty ballpark below echo with screams of joy from this lunatic Cardinals fan.

On the way home from Arizona to New York, I have a 2 hour layover in of all places St. Louis. Let’s buy the T Shirts, programs, sweatshirts, a couple of hats too please….but wait…..who’s that sitting over there waiting to get on my plane with the Series MVP trophy………David Freese. He waits 2 minutes while I scramble to the gift shop, get a magazine with him on the cover and signs it for me. Talk about steppin in it………..Already hanging in a matted frame.

Well the dust is starting to settle and then yesterday I received a beautiful piece of art work from our friend in Cleveland, Wayne Peltz the visiting clubbie. He did a great job on a portrait of Stan Musial. I contacted Stan’s company in St. Louis and Mr. Musial agreed to sign the art work, so Wayne shipped it there and it arrived yesterday. Wayne is becoming quite famous with his Lego portraits. Yes Lego’s, the build block lego’s.. If you’ve been to Cleveland with us you have seen his amazing work. He told me yesterday that Justin Verlander has just commissioned one from him….with Wayne’s permission he is allowing me to offer to any of you the chance to have this unique art work of any player you may wish to adorn your home. Just give me a call and I will pass it on to Wayne…it’s quite affordable………….Thanks Wayne

Okay on to some business…..Next Friday we will be having our annual Black Friday sale. This will be the last chance to save on a stay and play trip to Pirate City, Palm Beach and a chance to save a few hundred on the Cajun Classic Team rate. The sale will run through Sunday. You’ll get a reminder next week. We already have as many people signed up for Pirate City as we had entirely for our first camp. It is the place to play ball in Florida. The Pirates make you feel so welcome and the facility is to die for. The dates again are…Feb. 2-5, 2012.

For the past couple of years I have been reluctantly going back to Cooperstown on the bequest of several good customers. Boys find someone else to play with up there, I am done. Although the fields are great to play on, the problem is there is no preventive care taken when rain is in the forecast. My good friend Joe Harris who has been the head groundskeeper at Doubleday and Dwayne Sharratts up at Beaver Valley are alone and can’t do much besides letting the fields drain. I understand this, but when you have customers coming from as far away as California to play there and the sun is shining on Saturday and we are not playing because the fields are wet, something is wrong. Dwayne doesn’t have a full infield tarp so I don’t expect to play at Beaver after a full night’s rain. But Doubleday Field has a tarp, but not the man power to pull it out to the field. As a paying customer, this is unacceptable. This is no reflection on Joe, who breaks his ass there as it is.

The Village of Cooperstown has put the rental of that field as a high priority in generating revenue, has raised the rates in the last few years and desperately needs the money. They should have some crew on call on a if needed basis to cover the field at night when rain is in the forecast. I don’t expect a crew there all day sitting around waiting for it to rain so they can pull the tarp. So now I get a refund check, clients are pissed off and it’s just a situation that I have grown tired of. There are some fine organizations that go there to play ball throughout the summer. (I just can’t remember their names off hand...) Sorry, but we are looking at something for that time slot next year in either the Phoenix area or perhaps San Diego……The first Modified/Fantasy Rules World Series…you’ll win a ring.

And finally, we would like to have a table of 10 people for the Baseball writer’s dinner January 21, 2012 at the New York Hilton. Price is 250 per player. It’s a great night, if you are interested please let me know.

Have a great Thanksgiving next week, and as always thanks for your support and to the many who sent me congratulatory emails and text messages concerning the Cardinals, thanks for thinking of me……………Greenie

P.S. Next year’s Palm Beach classic is at the home of the 2011 World Champions….couldn’t resist…………..