iTunes 11 Play counts will not reset

After rebuilding my iTunes Library, I have been trying to reset my play count to zero for all my songs. I have tried selecting individual songs, selecting all songs, putting them into playlists, and clearing the play counts. Each and every time the play count clears to zero, just like I want, but after a couple of hours, the play counts are back to what ever they were before. Some of the counts are very erratic, ranging from no plays to >700 plays.

I can only guess as to what is going on, and it probably is self induced. I have iTunes Match turned on, and all devices are able to update play count.(2 iphones with no music on them, and my iPad with about 50 songs on it.)

I am suspecting that the issue is coming from iTunes Match. The songs in the cloud may have play counts that my computer keeps syncing to. Before my tragic library corruption, I used play counts for some of my play lists. Now this method is useless to me.

Is there anyway to sop the madness?

BB