Apter Hours: A Minor League Atmosphere - Part I: Reading Phillies

Street Team as Screwball

For the past two summers, for those of you who don't know, I have been swamped with crazy work hours and weird sleep patterns. Why do I do this to myself? Well, as much as I love watching the Phillies, I find a lot of enjoyment working in minor league baseball. Would I ever like to work in the bigs? Sure, who wouldn't. If you ask me, I have found my calling in the minor leagues. I am going to let everyone in on what it is was like for me working in the front office of a minor league team through my experiences with the Reading Phillies (2009) and the Wilmington Blue Rocks (2010). Part I will cover the R-Phils with Part II coming soon on the Blue Rocks.

In the summer of 2009, I embarked on my first minor league baseball expedition as an intern for the Double-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Reading Phillies. Working in the Phillies organization has always been a dream of mine, and I finally got to start off in the right place. As a college intern with the R-Phils, I got to witness the inner workings of what happens within the organization. Other than making a small pay of $25 a game and having to commute an hour and 20 minutes each day in an non-air conditioned car, there were not too many down sides to the job.

After a few weeks of working and getting some games under my belt, it was clear to me what minor league baseball was all about. Many baseball lovers and locals flood their area stadiums for cheap, affordable sports, but what I didn't know is that minor league baseball is much more about the atmosphere than the game itself.  Little kids experiencing their first games and groups from schools, churches, etc reserving spots to enjoy the family fun feel of the minors. Minor league baseball has that local community feel. You will have die-hard fans of a Double-A affiliate where the players are promoted, demoted, and cut and it doesn't really matter. It is not a big deal that it is pretty much a different team every year. At this level, I still thought that the team's number one goal was winning, but it really wasn't. Sure, it is a large part of the game, but this is more focused on prospect development and growth. The minors also serves as a cheap way to see your favorite players during injury rehab. I had the pleasure of being able to see starts by Brad Lidge, Scott Eyre, Raul Ibanez, JC Romero and even Pedro Martinez, which was in front of the largest crowd in R-Phils history (9,953). Seeing those guys up close was a treat, but I enjoyed seeing the top prospects at work on a daily basis. I got to see Kyle Drabek confuse Eastern League batters pretty much every start. I also got to see outfield prospect Michael Taylor have the best year of his professional career. Of course, both of those two ended up being pawns in the trade to bring Roy Halladay to Philadelphia. Fortunately, I was able to meet of these guys a few times. They were funny and very personable and I wish them the best of luck with their new respective teams. I also got to see the Phillies current top prospect/newest outfielder, Domonic Brown for the final part of the season. Dom tore apart pitching during the last quarter of the season and hit some monster home runs. He was a surprisingly lanky, tall fella, but extremely nice when it came to signing autographs and talking to fans. A few times, I was lucky enough to get a glance of Ruben Amaro and Pat Gillick coming to the stadium to see some players rehab and to check out the prospects. I got to get them their tickets to the game at one point and found myself to be somewhat star struck.

The Reading Phillies put on a great show, and the stuff I was able to do while working there was great. I got to dress up as Screwball and go out with the Reading Phillies Street Team to camps, parks and pools in the Reading, PA area to visit kids and l ocal fans to let them know what is going on at the ballpark. I also got to be a part

Me as the Veggie Bag

of the coveted Veggie Race. I racked up 8 wins in about 20 races over the time I was there. You could mostly see me as the veggie bag. That race was always a crowd pleaser because honestly, what is better than having people dressed like veggies, racing

each other and creating carnage? Not much else. Unlike what most people thought, the race was not staged. The most fun I had was during the 7th inning stretch. In Reading, they have the fan applause decide who they want to perform the 7th inning stretch. I got to be one of the stadium characters in the contest, Brando the Bando. I created this character throughout the year because I played the trumpet throughout grade school and college. I even had all the goofy costume parts to go with it. Although I only got to play "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" 5 or 6 times out of 30, it was an absolute blast getting to go on to the field every game for it. They would also have me start conga lines in the Mascot Train through different parts of the stadium.

One of the most enjoyable experiences of this entire internship was getting to work with ESPN's own Jayson Stark. Stark, the author of the 2008 Phillies Championship book "Worth the Wait: Tale of the 2008 Phillies", appeared in Reading twice in 2009 for book signings. When there was not a line, Stark was very interested in how I ended up in Reading and why I enjoyed it so much. He and I talked for a few hours each game and he

Brando the Bando

even gave me a signed copy of his first book, "The Stark Truth". He wrote in it "Having you as an assistant in Reading was definitely Worth the Wait. Hope to keep in touch throughout the years." Now, I did not really read too much into it, because he didn't give me much contact information but the second time he showed up, he left his email with me and told me to keep in touch and let him know how things go with my career. I still keep in touch with him today and he even provided a nice Q&A for one of my columns on Philly Sports Port before the Phils 2010 campaign begun.

A lot of the office days that I worked were spent specifically in the ticket office. I never thought I would like sales too much, but when you love what you are selling, it makes it a lot easier. Selling minor league baseball is not like selling someone a new dishwasher or household appliance. I was selling affordable, family entertainment. When I wasn't selling tickets, I was creating sponsorship databases and helping out the group sales department make thank you calls to each and every group that attended the games on the previous homestand.

My time in Reading was a blast and it really gave me that feel that I knew what I wanted to do. Work in minor league baseball. Although a lot of the full-time interns were cocky and not very helpful, the majority of the front office staff was great to work with during the season.

I attended the baseball winter meetings in December in Indianapolis to search for a job. I got a few ticket sales offers and one offer from a team in the middle of no where in Alabama. Luckily, I had a seasonal job offer from the Advanced 'A' Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, the Wilmington Blue Rocks. I had interviewed with them prior to going to the winter meetings and really felt like it was a good fit. The position was Marketing Assistant. Little did I know, it was the next big challenge in my eventual goal to become a minor league GM. Make sure to check out what my experience in Wilmington was like in the next Apter Hours.