Jerry Carter: Man with the plan
Jerry Carter doesn’t need much more than the idea. He will make it happen – it being whatever he sets his mind to.
“I’ve got this great idea that I’ve had in my hip pocket for a while,” said Carter, the former owner of the Waynesboro Generals Valley League baseball team, now working feverishly on what could only be described as the mother of all fundraisers.
He’s calling it Panther Palooza, and the aim is to raise money for a new fence for the recently-approved fencing for the softball field at Page County High School. The thought process behind the event is interesting.
“Basically it’s to make it so that everybody who wants to participate in any way can do so,” said Carter, describing the Oct. 22-23 weekend of events, which includes, well, you name it.
There’s a car wash, a bake sale, an event T-shirt sale, a celebrity softball game, a chicken barbecue sale, performances by cloggers, a golf tournament, and a dinner auction to wrap things up.
Yeah. All of that and more. And Carter thinks the concept is one that will travel well.
“I’m calling this first event the blueprint. I think this is something that high schools up and down the Valley, teams in the Valley League, nonprofit organizations, you name it, can adopt for themselves and use to their benefit,” Carter said.
Follow the planning for the Panther Palooza at AroundTheValleyIn60Days.Wordpress.com.
A new day for the Waynesboro Generals
Critzer, Gauldin step forward to save Valley League team
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The uncertain future of the Waynesboro Generals was a hot topic of conversation for a lot of baseball fans in and around Waynesboro the past several weeks. Among those talking around the proverbial hot stove were a pair of Waynesboro-based businessmen who decided they could perhaps do more than engage in idle talk.
“I was surprised to hear that the team was up for sale. I read the article in the paper, and of course another article came out, and there was talk that the team might not even be in Waynesboro any longer, and may even fold. And that was disturbing to us,” said Jim Critzer, whose name might be familiar for his successful run as owner of the Valley League team for much of the past decade, before selling the team to Jerry Carter in 2009 and riding off, ostensibly, into the proverbial baseball sunset.
David Gauldin II was at the office at Mathers Construction talking about the articles in the paper when the conversation turned to, Hey, Dave, why don’t you try to buy the team?
“So many sit around and talk about what should be done. I said, Well, maybe it’s time to step forward and be a little more active,” said Gauldin, who with Critzer joined in an agreement with Carter to purchase the team in a deal that was made public on Wednesday. Read more
There’s always next year
I was still trying to be hopeful Sunday night after the loss to the Covington Lumberbacks that put our Waynesboro Generals team on the brink of elimination from the 2009 Valley League playoff race.
Team owner Jerry Carter, out of character, for those who know him, was the realist among us.
“We’re still in this,” I insisted, spelling out how we could still go 3-1 or 4-0 the rest of the way and catch the ‘Jacks by the regular-season finale Thursday night, though admittedly a lot would have to go our way for that to happen.
“I just want to win one game,” Carter said, and then added that he’d had this sinking feeling that a loss the next night at Rockbridge that would break the Rapids’ long losing streak could very well be in the offing, and what would that do for us? Read more
Retired General
He didn’t have to say much more. “My priority is my wife,” Jim Critzer told me when I asked him about his decision to sell the Waynesboro Generals, which he had almost singlehandedly saved from oblivion a decade ago, back when it looked like the Valley League original might be moved out of town. Read more
