rico43 has gone beyond the Field of Dreams.

I've seen this news for a few days and didn't really know how to react. Sadness obviously, but Rico kind of was always like a wise sage that really had no business being here. I remember SAV and I (as well as weso who was my lead recruiter) worked hard to convince him to leave Scout after Bill kept taking down his stuff randomly. While he wasn't a breaker, his content definitely made this board a little more legitimate. Much more legit than SAV's swing analysis.

RIP rico, you were a good one.
 
zitothebrave said:
I've seen this news for a few days and didn't really know how to react. Sadness obviously, but Rico kind of was always like a wise sage that really had no business being here. I remember SAV and I (as well as weso who was my lead recruiter) worked hard to convince him to leave Scout after Bill kept taking down his stuff randomly. While he wasn't a breaker, his content definitely made this board a little more legitimate. Much more legit than SAV's swing analysis.

RIP rico, you were a good one.
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I do remember how Bill and rico went at each other. The old Scout board was a two-tier board with a paywall separating the discussions. Bill kept accusing rico of posting stuff from the pay board on the free board while rico insisted he was doing his own research separately from what Bill was posting. I think the straw that broke the camel's proverbial back was information surrounding a player's injury (or it could have been a promotion or suspension or some such thing, I just remember it was a pretty big story), but when rico posted it on the free board, I believe Bill suspended him. rico had an extensive background in journalism and had a ton of sources around the minor leagues, so he likely came by the information independently, but Bill was having none of it. Scout board was falling apart a bit and I think this episode accelerated the exodus. At least that's my recollection.
 
50PoundHead said:
I do remember how Bill and rico went at each other. The old Scout board was a two-tier board with a paywall separating the discussions. Bill kept accusing rico of posting stuff from the pay board on the free board while rico insisted he was doing his own research separately from what Bill was posting. I think the straw that broke the camel's proverbial back was information surrounding a player's injury (or it could have been a promotion or suspension or some such thing, I just remember it was a pretty big story), but when rico posted it on the free board, I believe Bill suspended him. rico had an extensive background in journalism and had a ton of sources around the minor leagues, so he likely came by the information independently, but Bill was having none of it. Scout board was falling apart a bit and I think this episode accelerated the exodus. At least that's my recollection.
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The concept of paying for a message board is so bizarre to me today, but I remember paying for it around the trade deadline and winter meetings.

Rico simply loved minor league baseball and did the work with little fan fare. Huge loss for the community. Fitting that a minor league pitcher is starting the game where we win the chip.
 
If you’ve spent significant time on message boards, you know there are people you think you would enjoy watching a game or having a drink with, and those you like online but from whom you want to keep your distance.

Rico fell in the former category for me. Would’ve loved to have taken in a Rome Braves game with him just to soak in his knowledge.

RIP to his family and those who knew him well.
 
chop2chip said:
The concept of paying for a message board is so bizarre to me today, but I remember paying for it around the trade deadline and winter meetings.

Rico simply loved minor league baseball and did the work with little fan fare. Huge loss for the community. Fitting that a minor league pitcher is starting the game where we win the chip.
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One could argue that Scout--like other early boards--was the prototype of sorts for The Athletic where one pays an annual subscription, but you're absolutely right that paying for a public message board has gone the way of the dinosaur.

On the old Scout board there was a chat room that required a premium subscription and that place was hot during the winter meetings and around the trade deadline. I still remember one of the greatest stunts a group of us--Bill included--pulled during the winter meetings is we all agreed that when the next person entered the chat room, we were going to concoct an outrageous fake trade and talk about how crazy it was. It was like the old Stone Soup story because participants kept making the trade and its ramifications more and more ridiculous and the person that was in the dark simply couldn't believe it. That person would leave to check other websites and then come back and say "I can't find that story anywhere" to which the response would be "Just wait. Bill has inside information on this one." We kept it going for about half an hour before revealing it was a hoax. The victim was not amused (outraged is probably the more apt description of his reaction) and Bill lost a subscriber that day.

But RIP to rico. He worked his tail off on the minor league and amateur stuff. He knew Tennessee and North Georgia really well and actually knew families of some of the lower level minor league guys. His human interest angles were really good.
 
Dang, just seeing this thread. What a bummer.

RIP to rico. Hopefully someone picks up the minor league mantle in his honor next year (after the Braves win the WS in his honor, of course).
 
chop2chip said:
The concept of paying for a message board is so bizarre to me today, but I remember paying for it around the trade deadline and winter meetings.

Rico simply loved minor league baseball and did the work with little fan fare. Huge loss for the community. Fitting that a minor league pitcher is starting the game where we win the chip.
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IIRC Bill got a chunk of the premium fees - maybe even a large chunk.

Seems like several of us looked into what it would take to keep it operational before it finally fell completely apart - and Scout finally disbanded/gave up. Has been so long though I don't remember details.
 
clvclv said:
IIRC Bill got a chunk of the premium fees - maybe even a large chunk.

Seems like several of us looked into what it would take to keep it operational before it finally fell completely apart - and Scout finally disbanded/gave up. Has been so long though I don't remember details.
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I seem to remember that a major network purchased Scout and looking it up, it appears that Scout is now owned by cbssports.com. For some reason I thought Fox had bought it.
 
50PoundHead said:
I seem to remember that a major network purchased Scout and looking it up, it appears that Scout is now owned by cbssports.com. For some reason I thought Fox had bought it.
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It was a subsidiary of FOX at one point. The insiders was i believe part of FOX's brand at the time. Then it was sold off.
 
50PoundHead said:
I do remember how Bill and rico went at each other. rico had an extensive background in journalism and had a ton of sources around the minor leagues, so he likely came by the information independently, but Bill was having none of it. Scout board was falling apart a bit and I think this episode accelerated the exodus. At least that's my recollection.
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Something happened around July of 2013 but I can't remember what it was. lol

I think we all just got tired of BS and his bs and Sav made a new board. Big thanks to him.
 
Runnin said:
Something happened around July of 2013 but I can't remember what it was. lol

I think we all just got tired of BS and his bs and Sav made a new board. Big thanks to him.
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July 2013 was when this iteration of the board came online. The great Migration. Where SAV was trying to cash in on all us. Still hasn't paid me my finders fees.

I think the old board started like way the **** back in 06. Cause we had a migration and SAV made some free board and it was weird. There was a hot minute where the entire board (we all migrated back to scout) was just Gatom talking to himself because he was still banned on scout. Before the next mass migration when Patio became the biggest douche in the world.
 
zitothebrave said:
July 2013 was when this iteration of the board came online. The great Migration. Where SAV was trying to cash in on all us. Still hasn't paid me my finders fees.

I think the old board started like way the **** back in 06. Cause we had a migration and SAV made some free board and it was weird. There was a hot minute where the entire board (we all migrated back to scout) was just Gatom talking to himself because he was still banned on scout. Before the next mass migration when Patio became the biggest douche in the world.
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haha **** that guy.
 
My god PatioDaddio…

Winning the World Series is going to bring a lot of strange nostalgia into my life. Wish there was a way to celebrate with Mike Adam’s, rniki, brb, etc. So much time wasted back in the aughts arguing with people about Chris Reitsma, Ken Ray and Martin Prado with the single focus of how the Braves could win a championship again. Puts into perspective how rare these moments are.
 
chop2chip said:
My god PatioDaddio…

Winning the World Series is going to bring a lot of strange nostalgia into my life. Wish there was a way to celebrate with Mike Adam’s, rniki, brb, etc. So much time wasted back in the aughts arguing with people about Chris Reitsma, Ken Ray and Martin Prado with the single focus of how the Braves could win a championship again. Puts into perspective how rare these moments are.
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I still lurk around and check in on you guys and read the game threads!

I hope rico is smiling down on this team and rests peacefully.
 
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