12/29/23 : Just Sayin

Today is my 64th birthday - nine years ago I retired from Pfizer as a senior director in Global Financial Systems, moved to the Clearwater, Florida area and began a “second career” - this one unpaid as a amateur scribe focusing on the Phillies player development system.  During the first and second years I embarked on this new task I won the Phillies Phantastic Auction prizes of a dinner with then President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail.

At each of the dinners we discussed the Phillies system at the time along with my new endeavor and he remarked that he would be interested in seeing where I was with it in ten years.  He said he found my approach unique, somewhat groundbreaking in the detail I provided (both opinions and facts from in person daily observations of minor league games and practices) and was intrigued by my pursuit of getting to know as many executives, managers, coaches, players, trainers, writers, broadcasters, stadium support, player family members and other folks I could via my virtually daily newsletter emails about the minor league games and players or with my direct meetings.  All the while I also providing the same intel in a practically daily public newsletter for fans and player family members first via a dedicated Facebook page that has now since evolved to a dedicated website.  I don’t advertise the site or allow it to become a chat page, in fact no comments are published - it’s intent from day one and continues to be informational to those who read it.  I’ve never concerned myself with how many followers it gets, not my thing.

So nine years later I continue to provision our “service” and have had the privilege of getting to know many more folks in the Phillies corporate family and within professional baseball that I could have ever envisioned.  Over the years I’ve also found some terrific photographer partners in the endeavor who’ve provisioned great player photos.  It’s been our honor to interact with many folks both inside and outside of the organization. This second part of my “career”  has been the most enjoyable, there’s no stress associated with expected deliverables, no required world travel like I had to perform for Pfizer, in fact there are no requirements at all other than my own self driven expectations of providing a thorough, positive outlook on what I see, hear and perceive in watching Phillies player development.  I am doing something I truly love, watching baseball be played at a level much higher than I could ever imagine doing so myself.

I’ve got one more year to go before the ten year window that Mr. MacPhail spoke about during our dinner conversations completes and while there have certainly been some frustrations along the way I can genuinely say that for the most part I’ve enjoyed the chosen task I’ve taken immensely.  I like to believe that most everyone who either gets my newsletters via email or reads them on the website also enjoys what’s been provided - at least that’s what I’ll tell Mr. MacPhail if I’m ever privileged to chat with him again.  Just sayin 🤓.

Happy Birthday, Happy Baseball ⚾️

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