BTVF: Who is Laurent Geffroy?
L.G: I’m a baseball fan and web specialist. I started playing when the Montigny le Bretonneux club launched in 1988, then progressed by joining the PUC in 1992 (N1B team in ’92 and ’93, N1A team, now D1, in ’95 and ’96).
I discovered baseball on football fields or vacant lots, without real uniforms, the Boucaniers when they were still called the Ocean Cubs and their great reputation, M Yoshida at the PUC, beautiful spring trainings in Cocoa Beach, the construction of the Montigny field and its rise to the top level.
I had the opportunity to be the starting pitcher for Montigny’s first D1 match in 1994 during their partnership with the BCF.
First pitch in D1A, March 1994 vs Nice Université Club
Returning to my roots in 1997, I was also part of the great 1999 adventure with Montigny in Elite. Like all French players, professional life took over from our high-level commitment, and I stopped in 2001, with a brief comeback in 2011.
It was in 1995 that I created the first website for the Montigny Cougars, which we exchanged via floppy disk! Then the first offers of free web hosting arrived, and it was in 1997 that the site went online.
The site evolved over time, until in 1999 it became a real web application where coaches could enter match results and statistics online, which were then immediately visible, with an analysis module and records, as well as synchronization with the Palm Pilot, the ancestor of the smartphone. It was my volunteer work that served as my business card to start my career in web development. Then two children, a demanding job, I left the Montigny teams to continue the Cougars’ web experience.
End of the 1996 season, Puc
BTVF: In 2010, you launched a site www.francebaseball.com, what were your initial motivations?
L.G: At the end of the 1990s, there were rings, sorts of pages that listed websites on a very specific subject. With the webmaster of the Cergy Teddy Bears, we had launched the Francophone Baseball Softball ring.
Then, I noticed the efforts of the different clubs to build complete websites with news that was beginning to be structured. The federal site was not as comprehensive as it is today, and I thought that a point of access was missing for all those who wanted to find out about baseball in France or find a club.
That’s why I created www.francebaseball.com. First with a club and field search engine, but above all, this site had to be a relay for all the communications of the clubs on their own sites, YouTube or Camaleo with Facebook integration to show your friends which teams you supported. It was also a way to follow the scores of Elite matches.
Cougars de Montigny site – 1997
The way it was designed required little time but involved follow-up to update the data. Unfortunately, over the last three years, I have devoted little time to it, and the site has begun to be less attractive, until the complete overhaul last November!
BTVF: 11 years later, you have followed many baseball events in France, what do you remember from this decade?
L.G: I am really impressed by the seriousness and commitment of many clubs to provide rich content on the web, via websites but especially through live coverage of the various matches.
We must really salute these costly initiatives and the professionalism of the volunteers. I was far from thinking I could follow a French match comfortably on my couch.
We don’t have a huge pool in France of people interested in baseball, but those who keep the clubs running, coach the youngsters, do live broadcasts, make shows or write about this magnificent sport are real enthusiasts, passionate and lovers of baseball.
France Challenge 2015
BTVF: Today, baseball news and other related sports are better covered by various media, how have you wanted to support them?
L.G: That’s exactly the purpose of www.francebaseball.com: to relay content. The federal site is already well stocked, and the communication actions around baseball are numerous: club sites, live broadcasts, podcasts, blogs. My main goal is to highlight them, without any compensation. You will notice that you don’t have to accept cookies on www.francebaseball.com as there is no advertising, nor any tracking of your clicks.
Content, formatted, the possibility to know the live broadcasts and follow them easily, perhaps discover a little better the statistics put online by the federation.
BTVF: Given your experience, what do you think needs to be done for baseball in France to continue to develop?
L.G: This sport has everything to attract our youth: it’s a great school of life, full of self-improvement, learning from failure and camaraderie; it’s a rather classy uniform and meetings that can mark you forever.
What’s missing is that spark in colleges and high schools to discover baseball. Baseball5 could be a great gateway, I think.
With Owen Ozanish, D1 finals 2018
BTVF: What can we wish you?
L.G: That I find time to continue the site’s evolution; I would like to progress on the follow-up of team and individual statistics, but also to highlight the results of D2.
I’m always hanging around Montigny, on the lookout for great matches and meeting old friends, talking about the good old days when our knees allowed us to believe we could play forever!
Interview by Didier CANNIOUX
