SACCO: Look at what you did Waynesboro

The only reason Jerry Carter is buying a Valley League baseball team is, to put it simply, because of you, Waynesboro.

“This is a unique community,” he said Wednesday. “It’s a special place.”

And, once what current owner Jim Critzer called “a formality” of getting approval happens Jan. 22, the face of the Valley League could get a much-needed lift. And it’s going to begin in front of your eyes.

Carter, 45, is more a throwback than old school. Old school implies stuck in one’s ways (you know, like all those clowns who cry for the old Valley District year end and year out). Carter seems to be cut from a corner of the cloth sewn by Bill Veeck, the legendary clown-prince MLB owner who threw some ivy seeds on a brick wall at a ballpark named Wrigley and tossed a midget into the batter’s box while in St. Louis.

Carter is in touch. He’s a simple man. He has ideas. He has plans. And they all involve the current people in place in the organization.

He wants to offer manager Lawrence Nesselrodt a lifetime contract to manage the team. Proving that, yeah, no problem Staunton, we’ll take what you kick to the curb and watch him win three straight regular-season titles and one Jim Lineweaver Cup. Carter wants the same people working the concessions stand, wants Brian Lundstrom’s aw-shucks, feel-at-home voice to continue to resonate through the summer air and he wants Derek McDaniel in the dugout.

“Not everybody has the core group of people that Mr. Critzer has put together here,” Carter said. “A lot of teams, if you went in and got involved with them, you’d want to start from scratch. That’s not the case here.”

He wants to put an out-of-town scoreboard in the outfield. He would love to have a speed-gun machine to test fans’ arms for a buck or two. He wants a mascot, someone dressed up to appear at games, and wants the community to name it. (Our vote is Tony, a play off our town’s namesake, Mad Anthony Wayne.)

He’s quick to laugh and loves to talk. (Emphasis added.)

Heck, ask Carter a yes-or-no question and he’ll answer with an hour-long oratory that would make Stephen Douglas blush. Stark contrast to his partner in the deal, All Things Valley League creator John Leonard, who said little when interviewed.

“I’m going to be mostly staying out of Jerry’s way,” Leonard said.

And, when you ask Carter, “Why Waynesboro?” his answer, surprisingly, is a quick one.

When Carter’s family came to a game last summer, he was treated like this was his home. He felt welcomed. “We were made to feel like we belonged.”

Quick statement? Yeah, don’t get used to that with Carter; as his mouth motors along you’ll hear one of his ideas and, well, they make sense. They sound like fun. They sound like all the things the Valley League is missing.

This summer, Carter started his Around The Valley In 60 Days campaign where he went to every Valley League ballpark to watch a game and encouraged fans to do the same in an effort to push the VBL to the forefront of summer leagues.

But trying to wrap your arms around a dozen teams is hard, tiring and pretty expensive.

“You can’t do it,” he said. “The question becomes, can you take one team and try to make it better and have a chance to make the league better?”

Critzer thinks Carter can, placing full confidence in the new ownership. He believes in Carter, “He’s going to make things rock and roll.” Critzer said if he hadn’t met Carter — a fan, not a businessman – he wouldn’t have sold the team.

“My job,” Carter said, “is going to get people to come down here. It’s not about me. The Waynesboro Generals belong to the community of Waynesboro and Augusta County.

“I didn’t buy a [Valley Baseball League] team. It was the Waynesboro Generals.”

And, to think, it’s all happening because of you, Waynesboro. The rest can watch, green with envy.