"Turning $60 into $60,000" post

[RAY@HQ]

You're not alone in your thoughts, Howie, there are several similar sentiments shared in the comments area below the article.

[Howie M]

Thanks, Ray.

That helps, a bit.
But if I were him, I'd be angry that it had "my" byline on it.

I find the entire post offensive, frankly. But certainly there is a significant difference between a cheesy come-on for a site we pay good money for, and Ron himself stooping to such inanity in his writing.

And if no one else or few others are appalled, I will take that as a teachable moment...

[RON@HQ]

It's painfully simple. I do not own the company anymore and posting any type of item defaults to the poster's byline. In this particular case, the deal was cut during the transition to USAT ownership and clearly should not have been. But it was a multi-month deal involving many affiliate sites and it was too late to reneg. After this runs its course, I have been told that you will not see stuff like this again on BHQ. But again, I don't own this company anymore.

[RAY@HQ]

Ron didn't write that copy, it's running verbatim on a number of other sites today. It was provided by DraftStreet. It appears with his byline because he posted it; that's the way our publishing system works.

[DiggyBaseball]

It makes me angry I did not think of making a Daily Fantasy baseball site 5 years ago. The guys a draft sheet must be making a killing. That's all it is I would guess. You may be reading to much into it.

[NICK@HQ]

Oh, he's just having fun while also thinking of his early days in this sport when he worked hard just to get people to pay attention at all, and the idea of making a quick buck (or a quick ten thousand bucks) simply by picking players was a true pipe dream. Think of Ron's early success when he was working angles other players hadn't thought of. He could have cleaned up if this sort of thing existed back then.

I think it's more in that vein. Not true regrets for Ron has done very well and he knows it.

[Howie M]

surprised no one has posted on this new posting yet.

http://www.baseballhq.com/content/kid-turned-60-60000-playing-daily-fantasy-baseball

By Ron Shandler July 12th, 2012 9:57am

"As you may have noticed, we've been running promotions every few weeks for DraftStreet.com. DraftStreet offers Daily and Weekly fantasy sports leagues for Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey and Golf. The site is relatively new, but growing at an incredible rate and if you take fantasy sports seriously, there is A LOT of money to be made.

A college kid from New Jersey (pictured above) who plays at DraftStreet (handle: “hixvillehunk” – you can’t make this stuff up), started playing at about this time last year. He made a modest deposit of $60 to get going and over the course of last baseball season turned that $60 into $60,000. He's kept the momentum going into this season and is making a living playing fantasy baseball!
Just saying it makes me angry, and makes me question the decisions I’ve made in my life. You probably feel similarly."
............

there's more, but you get the idea.

I'm trying to tell myself that's not supposed to have Ron's byline on it - especially because it's difficult to believe he's hard-up for money these days. And if that's not an issue, then how does this happen?

If his new bosses convinced him it doesn't hurt Ron's reputation, then I'd suggest they re-think that.

I respect Ron, and the freedom we have here to post. But some things just need to be called out. This is one of those.

And if Ron wants to defend this, I'd be interested to hear it.