Greetings IS Community, it’s Craig Natale here aka natalysis / Wake County.
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Professionally, I’ve been in numerous leadership roles in the Recruiting/Executive Search (sell side) and Talent Acquisition (buy side) space in Life Sciences (Bio/pharma, CRO), Financial Services and Technology (software). I’ve now interviewed more than 12,000 candidates and hired more than 1000 over my 25 year career. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to positively impact many hundreds of families lives by providing a better career opportunity for them to advance their profession, or find a better motivational fit, based on where they are in their lives.
Personally, my wife and I have two children (a 12 yr old son and 6 year old daughter) and have spent 11 of the last 13 years in Wake County (Raleigh, NC). As some may know, I am a passionate New England Patriots fan, and follow the NFL draft more closely than 99.99% of the general population. I’ve been fortunate to attend the Pats SB win against Seattle and to take my son to his first Pats game and watch TB12 break the all time NFL QB wins record last year, in Foxboro.
In a perfect world, I’d be able to play 36 holes a week, but with two young children, this has proven to be arduous. It’s hard to work 60 hours a week and then run out on a Saturday or Sunday for 6 hours to “sneak” in a round of golf. I simply feel too guilty and now play only 5 rounds a year, as opposed to the 30 I was accustomed to before becoming a Father, in my late 30’s.
I have also been fortunate to attend 3 Masters, 2 US Open’s, 2 PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup (all as a guest, like the Super Bowl) and greatly appreciate those unique opportunities, while also realizing they are unlikely to happen again, due to more restrictive corporate gift policies/regulations.
In short, I’d say I’m most proud of my continuing evolution as a human being. I’m still miles away from being the man I want to be, but I make strides each year and realize just how hard it is for many of us to evolve and not necessarily change our stripes, so to speak…but to have more awareness of those around us and how we can be less inwardly focused.
I’ve also been significantly humbled on several occasions, both professionally and personally and have managed (at least thus far) to pull myself off the floor and stand up with an evolved perspective (at least for me) and continue to push forward. A cancer diagnosis can do that to a person…and while some people have always had the right or an enlightened perspective, it literally took a cancer diagnosis to help me re-frame how I want to live the rest of my life.
I’m also a bit of a gym rat and have been working out for 30 years and while my diet has improved greatly, I still enjoy an adult beverage or two, (three?) but do well to keep in moderation. As to SIM baseball, I started at Stats (perhaps 10 leagues) moved onto ESPN and was a beta tester for IS (my first 4 teams were free!) I’ve also been fortunate to have met dozens of gentlemen in this community (too many to list) and have both greatly and genuinely enjoyed many aspects of this community.
What I enjoy most about IS, aside from the community (though less colorful than we used to be) is the time I spend on BBREF and retrosheet and in the scouting I do on other teams in my divisions as well as the self scouting I conduct on my own team. (How would I try to beat Wake County if I had to play them 24 times a year?) I also enjoy the nuances of the different eras of play and especially trying to build an RA-600 team, where I have managed to be in the Majors for 90% of the leagues’ iterations.
My W-L record is 26,542 and 23,208 (.534) and I am currently ranked 6th in Custom Classic (53 WS titles) and 17th in Standard Leagues (15 titles) though my whopping 6 single season leagues (3 playoffs and 1 WS title) have dropped my overall max score to 27, as of this writing. I’ve played in 303 leagues total and have made the playoffs 56% of the time and won the WS in 22% of the leagues I have competed in, with 69 titles overall. I am also a 2x Grand Open Champ, joining Andrew Bywaters as the only 2x winner of the Open.
In closing, I have a great appreciation for the diversity, intellect and empathy this community possesses. Some may recall that my good friend Adam Schmitz (Adam12) passed from brain cancer several years ago (we met in this community) and we ran a tournament with proceeds going directly to his wife and two young children and managed to raise over $2000. I can say, unequivocally, that the true spirit of this community is revealed (and politics pushed aside) in times of crises and my heartfelt thanks goes out to those who helped contribute to Adam’s cause.
There are also several, legendary threads that I have shared with numerous members outside of our community that show the depth of creativity, intelligence and passion that resides within this community and for all of you…I am grateful.
Best,
Cheers,
Go Pats! (LOL)
Craig Natale aka natalysis
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