A Letter From Me – What’s Happening Now

March 21, 2020 Scott Greene FantasyBaseball, General, MiLB 0

Photo credit Hartford Yard Goats @GoYardGoats
Tweet
Share2
Pin
2 Shares

“On the other side of a storm is the strength that comes from having navigated through it. Raise your sail and begin.” — Gregory S. Williams

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” — Helen Keller

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Many of you reading this will relate to some of the feelings and situations I touch on in this letter. It’s nothing exclusive to me but I wanted to put my thoughts down on paper…err, type them out for documentation so I could look back years from now and remember these unprecedented times.


I am healthy and fingers crossed, my family, friends and everyone I know remain safe and healthy throughout this coronavirus pandemic, and we come out stronger on the other side. But… I am tired. I’m scared. I’m frustrated. I’m sometimes bored. I’ve fallen off the Weight Watchers wagon which I was doing so well with since early January. I’m working remotely for my real-life Account Manager job and sales right now are sparse and I’m losing booked business because of necessary cancellations. My upcoming therapist session this week will be virtual. A local Western Massachusetts Leadership Institute I’m participating in is now meeting via Zoom conference for the forseeable future. My Prospects1500 team and I are still doing our best to generate interesting content for the website and keep our social media feeds active and informative, and I thank all of the writers for that. One of the best things we’ve put out recently is our new Overall Top 199 Prospects which is a collaboration of 27 writers – an aggregated points list based on all of our different individual Top 100 lists. Check it out!

This morning my son Josh was supposed to be leading Shabbat services at our synagogue, in preparation for his bar mitzvah coming up on May 16th. We will not be at the Temple this morning. The service they’re having is being streamed and I don’t even know where it’s going to be from or who’s going to be part of it other than the Rabbi. Josh of course will not be leading, and it’s looking more and more likely that we’ll have to postpone and reschedule his joyous day until the fall, which we’re all ok with. So instead we look forward to the future when all of this COVID-19 stuff is behind us and we can fully prepare for his special occasion, whenever that may be.

I miss being able to dine out at restaurants. I miss being able to see my coworkers and customers each day. I miss having my children thriving in school and being in their comfort zone with teachers and friends. I miss sports, and most of all, I miss baseball. Major League Baseball Opening Day was supposed be this coming Thursday, March 26th. Minor League Baseball was supposed to be starting shortly after that. My buddy and I have Red Sox tickets for April 7th and Big Papi bobblehead night. I was so pumped for Yard Goats Opening Night in Hartford at Dunkin’ Dounts Park on April 9th. Then I was taking the day off from work on Monday, April 20th to hit Fenway for the annual 11AM Patriots Day game. When the game finishes we leave the park, walk across the Brookline Avenue bridge over the Mass Pike to Kenmore Square and see the Boston Marathon runners in their final stretch to the finish line around the corner. Of course none of this is happening in March or April, and I can only hope that the MLB and MiLB seasons will get underway at some point later this spring or summer. I also know there’s a very good chance we don’t get any baseball in 2020. I hope it’s the former.

I have a big Minor League Baseball long weekend trip with my son Adam planned for this July. That trip is very much questionable at this time. For the first time I’m excited to attend First Pitch Arizona and take in some Arizona Fall League action this October, and that’s also up in the air. We all have different plans for these coming months that unfortunately have to be on hold for now. At Prospects1500 we were honored and excited to work with several MiLB teams during Spring Training as we presented social media player profiles for the Yard Goats, Binghamton Rumble Ponies, New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Portland Sea Dogs, Montgomery Biscuits, Biloxi Shuckers and Rocket City Trash Pandas. We got through some of them, while others were in process and have somewhat halted, and one has not been able to get off the ground due to the current circumstances. It certainly is understandable and we move forward and will have many more next year heading into Spring Training. Thank you to all of the team broadcasters and social media teams for working with my staff and me on this year’s series. All of those teams I mentioned are great organizations and if you’re any sort of Minor League Baseball fan, go ahead and follow them on your social media platform of preference, be it Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

My wife and I are reading and watching TV a lot. Well actually she’s reading more and I’m watching TV, although we do continue to enjoy our favorite show “This Is Us” together each week. I’m working through a lot of shows I have recorded on my DVR that I just haven’t been able to keep up with. Better Call Saul. Homeland. And for any of you who know me well, I’m a huge pro wrestling fan and it’s been such a nice distraction to have some live WWE and AEW programming, albeit with empty arenas, when no other professional sports are happening. Their mantra of “The Show Must Go On” is very much appreciated by thousands of fans. I still find it hard to believe that WrestleMania wasn’t canceled and will still happen. If you don’t know, it’s been moved from Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium with 80,000+ fans, to a 2-night event emanating from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando with zero fans in the audience. It truly will be a spectacle; the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

Who collects baseball cards? We’ll have some more #thehobby content coming to the site soon. Tyson Banker (@tbanker28) recently wrote about 2020 Topps Series 1 launching and whose rookie cards are the most popular right now. I am spending some of this additional time at home trying to organize components of my collection, but I’m also continuing to run periodic card breaks via Twitter and my YouTube channel. You can watch some of my previous card breaks and subscribe to my #ScottyBallgameBreaks YouTube channel.

I’m being selfish. I want things to get back to normal. I want my family to not be scared and worried about the virus. I want sports. I want to get back to Yard Goats, Red Sox and other minor league games, and I don’t want to have to postpone my upcoming baseball trips this year. I want all of the Prospects1500 team to have MiLB games and prospect performances to write about. For any of this to happen we all have to be safe and vigilant and practice what everyone is saying now. Social distancing. #StayAtHome if you can. This too shall pass. The stock market will rebound. Let’s stay the course and we’ll all come out stronger on the other side. This is one of my favorite social distancing videos. #DontBeASpreader

Lansing Lugnuts broadcaster Jesse Goldberg-Strassler posted this great baseball story on Twitter the other day which I thought was an awesome idea. We should all take a couple minutes to do the same. Let’s add to Jesse’s thread on Twitter!


Be smart and stay safe everyone. Thanks for spending a few minutes with me. Feel free to reach out on Twitter @Scotty_Ballgame or comment below. I’d love to hear what you’re up to and how you’re passing the time during this historic period in world history. And damn! I just read that Kenny Rogers passed away. #RIPGambler

I am really looking forward to seeing everyone out at the ballparks sooner than later!
Scott

Scott Greene

President of Prospects1500. Founder of Diamond Duos dynasty fantasy baseball leagues and the MLB Fantasy Playoffs Parlay. Participant and champion in several dynasty/fantasy baseball and football leagues. Sales Manager for Reminder Publishing in real life. Huge Bruce Springsteen and pro wrestling fan. Along with his wife and two boys, lives in Longmeadow, MA. Follow on Twitter at @Scotty_Ballgame.

Tweet
Share2
Pin
2 Shares




Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*