Perfect Game President Jerry Ford responds to criticism in book “The Arm”

CEDAR RAPIDS — While a lot of its operations have moved to suburban Atlanta, Jerry Ford's office remains in Cedar Rapids. It's home.

Perfect Game USA always was his baby, and it was born here. It began with the simple idea of trying to get Iowa kids more visibility to college coaches and pro scouts and morphed into this massive, multi-million dollar entity that is incredibly influential in the baseball world.

'It has turned into a lot bigger business than I ever dreamt about,' Ford said earlier this week, as part of The Gazette's 'Triple-Play Podcast.' 'Luckily for us, we've just got a lot of real good people that really care and are really loyal that work with us, including the business office. It just started to work.

'Then, as you are aware of, the bigger we got, the bigger the target became for the naysayers of the world. It's really kind of funny because everybody loved us up until the last couple of years. Then they finally decided that someone needed to knock us down a notch.'

Ford — PG's President and National Director — specifically is referring to a recently released book titled 'The Arm' by Jeff Passan that discusses the prevelance of Tommy John elbow-ligament replacement surgery in today's game, including the youth level. Passan takes Perfect Game to task for its year-around showcases, profiteering off the backs of kids and their unrealistic parents, and its emphasis on radar-gun readings of pitching velocity.

'I've written about baseball for a dozen years now, and I've seen nothing that unites people in the industry quite like enmity for Perfect Game,' Passan wrote in the book, an excerpt of which appeared recently in Sports Illustrated. 'The complaints can be summed up like this: What at first seemed to be a useful idea — bring all of the best players together in one place so scouts could see talent against talent and teams could skimp on travel expenses — morphed into an outsized machine that profits off teenage boys and glory-hungry parents.'

Perfect Game ran a question-and-answer retort to specific passages in the book on its website, and Ford spoke on the 'Triple-Play Podcast' about the book as well.

'The guy (Passan) came and talked to me for about 20 minutes one time, and that's all I've seen him in my life,' Ford said. 'I think it was written more for sensationalism. It's almost like we've become a bigger topic than what the book is actually about, which is basically Tommy John surgery. I do know that a lot of people believe that radar guns and radar-gun displays and things like that are harming arms. But we've had radar gun displays on our (office) wall for over 20 years. We've had kids pitching in the winter, we've had kids pitching in the fall, the rest of the year. We really do believe in arm care, so we're really careful about what we do and when we do it. Make sure kids are getting plenty of rest and all those kinds of things.'

Ford was asked why he thinks Tommy John surgery is so much more common today. He pointed to medical advances with the procedure and said he's not sure it's as big an epidemic as many believe.

'Of the millions of kids who play, there is, like, 700 surgeries. I don't know if I'd call that an epidemic,' he said. 'I think it's a complicated situation that really does need a lot more research. The biggest reason that I see, that I think everyone can agree with, is overuse and no rest. Those are the two major concerns. The other thing that has created some of the problem is that kids are just throwing harder than they used to. When we started this 21 years ago, if we saw a kid hit 90 miles per hour, we were doing somersaults. It was exciting. Now it's got to be more like 94 or 95 to get us a little perked up.'

Ford said kids are generally throwing harder because there is better instruction and better overall physical training these days. He also said there is another reason guys are 'blowing out' their arms.

'Part of it is winning,' he said. 'Jeff Passan kind of made light out of that ... but every single case seems to involve winning. Winning a game, winning a championship, whatever the case is. There's only one reason you throw the horse too much. That's really what it's all about.'

How They're Doing

Colin Rea (Cascade): Promoted back to the big leagues (Padres) after a short stint in Triple-A. Is 3-2 with a 4.85 ERA in 11 games, 10 starts.

Scott Schebler (Cedar Rapids Prairie): Outfielder is hitting .188 in 27 games for Triple-A Louisville (Reds). Has a home run and eight RBIs.

Chad Christensen (Cedar Rapids Washington): Outfielder is hitting .204 in 39 games for high-Class A Fort Myers (Twins), with two home runs and seven RBIs.

Matt Dermody (University of Iowa): Relief pitcher has yet to give up a run in four appearances since being promoted to Double-A New Hampshire (Blue Jays). Has given up four hits and struck out six in 5 2/3 innings.

Jon Keller (Cedar Rapids Xavier): Reliever is 0-2 with a save and 5.91 ERA for Double-A Bowie (Orioles). Has allowed 22 hits and 16 walks in 21 1/3 innings.

Mitch Keller (Cedar Rapids Xavier): Is 4-3 with a 1.89 ERA in 10 starts for low-A West Virginia (Pirates). Has a tremendous WHIP of 0.74, with opponents hitting just 1.84 against him.

Jake Yacinich (University of Iowa): Shortstop hitting .239 in 17 games for low-A Burlington (Angels), with two homers and eight RBIs.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com