Gamers first PG25 event this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.  Perfect Game could not get enough 14u teams in the Central region to participate (literally hundreds of 14u teams chose not to participate), so the 14u Gamers played up at 15u — which was great for us but would have been a disaster for most 14u Central Region teams.

Pluses

Des Moines is a great city.  Would have been a great college baseball exposure town if Drake actually had a baseball team. 

Great to play against 15u Iowa and Wisconsin teams that were pretty darn good.

Good Fields

Solid umpires except for an egregious homer call at 3rd when we were pressing the favored Iowa team that the local ump proudly knew by their first name.  Other than that, umpires were good.

Cons

Bad marketing — a PG25 regional with a 14u berth to Ft. Myers but 2 14u teams — in Perfect Game’s home state of Iowa.  I think I would have been paying teams to play if I was PG to rescue the situation.  Embarrassing to me personally who built this up as a big event for the Gamers 14u squad … lesson learned on that one.

Bad organization — sold as a 4 game minimum tournament, but no 15u team wanted to stick around for a consolation game (because they considered the event no big deal???, the Gamers have never turned down a Perfect Game consolation game unless it meant missing a school day or a flight from FL).   So, I had  13 families stick around for 3 1/2 hours in the parking lot of Simpson College after our 3rd game only to to be told that the consolation game would be versus a 17u team in another 2 1/2 hours at 5pm — which would put us home at 1am.  Four game minimum with no actual plans to make it one.  That was quite embarrassing to me.  

When I make players/parents travel to compete, I do not expect to be embarrassed. This is not a very high expectation.

So, net-net, left with 13 14u players/parents totally unimpressed with Perfect Game that I am now trying to convince to spend a fortune to go to East Cobb and to Ft. Myers.   Not very smart business — for me, or for Perfect Game.   Especially, when the competing program in our region is selling the Premier Tournaments are better than Perfect Game.