Tales from the Off Season #2

Just over 2 weeks since my last post about the off season thus far. Not a whole lot has changed or happened in the world of working in baseball since then but a few progressions towards the 2010 season have taken place.

This is the time of year when the intern search begins. Perhaps not so much for short season teams but the full season folks such as myself are already looking ahead to who can be the most help as an intern. I feel confident saying that small market minor league teams such us ours rely on interns more than anybody in any profession. We only have 11 full time people in our front-office staff and that number will double by the time next season rolls around as we will hire 11 interns. I myself was an intern twice over the past 3 years and I completely agree with the fact that young, career-driven, hard working, college kids are the pulse of much of the operations of our organization. Anyways, interns are awesome and important and we are in the process of seeking some of the best. I recently attended a job fair at Mercyhurst College to recruit some worthy folks. I have since reviewed some reels and resumes and I am still receiving emails from folks.

Today was a big day for the Entertainment department as we held our first ever Wolfpack Auditions. In search of some energetic, enthusiastic, and entertaining people, we auditioned almost 20 people in front of 3 judges from our front office to find the next fan-favorite entertainer at the ballpark. We auditioned for wolfpack members, on-field host, and mascot through various skits, dances, and ad-lib/improv exercises. Over all I feel that it went very well. The toughest position to fill for next year is going to be our on-field host and if we could find a qualified candidate for next season, than today was a success. Well that we did as a few individuals definitely made a strong impression and seemed like they have what it takes to grab the attention of thousands of fans every night. We also came across plenty of great wolfpack candidates and even a few potentially great mascots for the 2010 season.

So monday, it will be non-stop reviewing of judges' notes, video, and resumes of all the people we feel will make our show better.
As far as other off-season stuff goes, I'll continue to watch movies for situational clips, listen to music for appropriate sound bites, and work on organizing a master entertainment binder that catalogs everything from funny movie clips to entertaining skits. I will also be recording some audio in the near future of some of our front office staff chanting our team's name and then I will send it off to have a made into a version of AC DC's "Thunderstruck"....its going to be pretty cool, I'll be sure to share when its finished.

In the meantime I continue the countdown to opening day 2010...100 work days remaining til baseball returns.

Tales from the Off Season #1

I have found that a very common question amongst folk who do not work in baseball is: "So...(awkward pause) what do you do in the off season?" I think the pause is in there because they are hesitant as to whether or not you get laid off or they do not want to offend you and question your work ethic. Either way, I have become very used to answering the question by saying that we spend most of our time always thinking about how we can prepare for next season.

Sure its only November and the season is 6 months away but as far as I am concerned, its NEVER too early to start thinking about baseball. Especially in Erie when it snows for 6 months out of the year, the thought of spring and summer at the ballpark helps warm the soul. Not to mention that as an Indians fan dealing with the lack of postseason experience, I have become very accustomed to thinking about "next year" all the time.

So as a way to keep people informed about what we do in the off season (besides obsessively checking facebook of course) I am going to blog throughout the dark months of fall/winter about whats going on in the world of working in baseball.

Currently, season ticket renewal letters are out and wolf pack "all you can eat" plan has been determined as well. The phones have started to pick up a bit with season ticket holders interested in renewing and taking advantage of the popular A.Y.C.E. option. Sponsorship sales are moving forward as our folks are targeting potential new sponsors and following up with those from years past about plans for the 2010 season. Promos/Marketing are helping out with proposals and proof of performances for sponsors and laying out designs for some of next season's print material. Soon, they will be sitting down and discussing the 2010 promo schedule. From the my end of the spectrum, entertainment, I spent three days at a director's brainstorming/review session and now its time to plan for auditions for the 2010 on-field positions including wolf pack, on-field host, and mascot. The auditions will be taking place November 14th. In the meantime, I am upstairs in the control room organizing all of our music and adding new songs, organizing and adding new videos, and putting together a director's handbook that will serve as a reference to all of our audio and video material. We have also tentatively set dates for when we are bringing in an outside entertainment act to perform next season. I am also required to watch a movie weekly and try to pick out clips that can be used for different situations during a game.

Believe it or not, this keeps me pretty busy throughout the week. The season has been over now for 2 months and we are already well on our way to preparing for next season so stay tuned for more "Tales from the Off Season..."

Keep Pumping Out the Player Intro Videos!

So this vid is from the end of the season (late August) and I am just getting up on my blog now. If you would have asked me in April if I thought I would put together 4 intro videos I would have said "No way! 2 maybe 3 tops will be enough." Well I got tired of playing the same videos and was inspired by my intern to do one last video to close out the season.

Part of the idea for this one came from our Director of Marketing and Promos who said we should shoot some player prep footage for the intro video...makes sense right? Video of a player getting ready for the game fits well in the "Intro" Video. So while the team was on the road, I had my intern dress up like a player and got some cool closeups of him lacing up his shows, strapping on his batting gloves, etc.

One other element I tried to incorporate in this finale was the players embedded onto building downtown, similar to what I did in my senior capstone video.

The video premiered and played throughout the final two home stands of the season.


CHECK IT OUT

"VJ" for a Day

This time of the year, things are really slow around a minor league ballpark. Of course there is much preparation for the 2010 season already taking place but as far as keeping busy during every minute of the day, it gets rather difficult at times.

I am the type of person that likes to always keep busy so when I heard about a charity check presentation taking place at the ballpark I went into video journalist mode for the first time since college. My thinking was that I could put together a brief news-like package to put our website. Good publicity could never hurt right?

So I shot the press conference and check presentation, edited the footage, recorded a voice over, and posted the story to the web. I basically was a VJ for the day except I only covered a single story. I really enjoyed the process and it felt good to brush up my news editing/writing skills and made me realize why obtaining a solid news background from Westminster College was so important.

In my opinion, people are going to be more prone to click and watch a video to learn about the charity work we are involved with rather than reading a story. Plus, its tough to keep the content on our website fresh and up to date during the off season when there is not much going on so I thought this would be a nice piece to put together.

Reviewing for a Reason...the End of the Season!

Remember back in March when I blogged about getting my first full time job with a minor league baseball team? I can't believe that was 6 months ago. Since then, the season has come and gone and I have grown so much (luckily not horizontally despite all the ballpark food I ate all season long.)

How can I forget being so nervous the night before Opening Day back on April 7th, staying up til 3am getting moving headshots edited for the following day. Or staying at the stadium til 1am getting things in order in the control room and helping out with operations stuff around the ballpark.

Since then, I've sat through 70 some games, one that lasted til 1am and spent 5 months around the game of baseball...no complaints really. I have grown a lot and have a much better understanding of the flow of the game from an entertainment standpoint.

1.Scripting the Game-yeah I wish I could script the actual game and make the SeaWolves win every time but what I am talking about is the script for in-between inning skits/entertainment. It was a great learning experience to have the opportunity to build the scripts before every game and it gave me an opportunity to understand what kind of stuff works in what part of the ball game. For instance, putting something with high energy and fan participation later in the game work because whether the team is getting killed or the game is close, it keeps fans energy level high and they remain involved.

2. Understanding the feeling of the fans-after sitting through game after game, it starts to become pretty easy to get the feel of the fans. During my inaugural season here in Erie, I learned to pickup on the mood of the crowd and was able to aim our entertainment and inning breaks towards the fans. For example, when fans seem bored and not into the game, cue the dance music and a fan cam or how about a pump-up video...it always works!

3.How to utilize the full capabilities of our videoboard-Erie's videoboard is pretty nice. It has to be one of the nice boards in the Eastern League. Before I arrived, the board's capability was being used minimally. Through some experimentation, I discovered ways to use the entire thing and make it light up like the 4th of July! I was able to utilize the sideboards for video which was something that had not been done before. I took a great sense of pride and satisfaction in this and was glad that our awesome videoboard was being used the way it was meant to be.

4.Understanding the importance of sponsorship obligations-one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone on staff informs me that we have to drop-in a sponsor' read or video the morning of the game after I've already put the scripts together. Well, now I realize how important our role in the scoreboard room is to please current and potential sponsors. We truly do hold much of the power and influence in getting a sponsor to re-invest or invest with the organization. Through the smallest things like drop-in PA reads and short 15 second videos, we are able to please and impress some of our biggest sponsors.

5.Working as a team for our team-No matter what your job description says or what your role is, there is always things to do that may not exactly match your initial responsibilities. Running a minor league team takes a lot of work and with only 11 people on staff, there are times when I had to do things that were way out of my realm, but to be honest, I always enjoyed taking part. For example, tarp pulls are a regular early in the morning and late at night after the game. Or, how about serving lunch to youth baseball campers, or one of my fondest memories, cooking and wrapping a 1200 hot dogs for local elementary students on school days at the ballpark.

All in all, the season was GREAT. There were times that I could not wait to get to the ballpark and of course, there were times I was dragging out of bed in the morning. Either way, I look forward to doing it all over again because how can I complain about doing what I LOVE?!


CHECK OUT THE SEAWOLVES 2009 SEASON SLIDESHOW:

Journalistic Editing Meets In-Game Entertainment

Long time no BLOG! My apologies...the past month has included a slew of home stands, lots of work, a wedding and a honeymoon. Two of those things were TONS of fun and the other kind of wore me out...(make your own assumptions).

Now that the team is on the road for almost two weeks, I get to sit down and do some editing, something I thoroughly enjoy doing. A few weeks ago I shot an interview segment with starting pitcher Pat Stanley. Pat is a real nice guy who was more than willing to speak with and share his story of his "road to the show." The idea to put this segment together came from an Indians game where most of my ideas and influences have come from.

I shot the interview on the fly one evening shortly before the gates opened to the ballpark and our show began but I was pleased with my choice of a backdrop. This was the first instance I noticed my journalism skills as I setup for an interview-type segment making sure the lighting was good and that I was utilizing a good interviewer/interviewee setup.

Questions were flowing from my mouth as I interviewed somebody for the first time since college. I must confess, I had nothing written down and little preparation. I just knew that I wanted Pat to tell his story and I would gear my questions towards getting that out of him. And that I did as again I felt that my broadcast journalism skills were helping me ask some pretty solid questions that would eventually make editing much easier.

And finally, the final product. Putting it together was a lot of fun and I felt as if I were editing an interview segment for Westminster College's "The County Line." Piecing together a good story in the amount of time we have in-between innings to run the spot (1:30-2:00 min) was somewhat challenging but I felt I did the best I could with what I had. As soon as I finished watching it, I emailed my college broadcast professor to show him that I had not completely forgot the skills that he and others had taught me.

'The Road to the Show" was a great example of how a journalism style of editing can be utilized for in-game entertainment during an inning break at a minor league baseball game. I am very excited to debut this to fans and tell Pat Stanley's great story of how he got into professional baseball. I am also glad to see that my college education and my broadcast journalism degree is being put to use.


Check out "The Road to the Show"

4th of July Celebration

It turned out that we did not play baseball on July 4th. The team was on the road which I am not complaining about since it was nice to have the day off. However, we definitely made sure we had a little celebration of our own on the evening before.

Friday July 3rd was our big "4th of July Celebration" which consisted of a Blues Brothers appearance, Harleys, a celebrity first pitch, color guard, white doves, a beautiful rendition of God Bless America, a marriage proposal, and of course, an awesome fireworks show to cap off the night.

The rain messed with our plans somewhat, but overall, it was a great night with a sold out crowd and plenty going on from pregame to end of game to keep fans entertained and excited about the holiday weekend.

I must admit, this was my favorite game of the entire season because there was just so much going on in the way of entertainment and it definitely put me in the mood for the 4th of July. The Blues Brothers were so fun to watch with all of their singing and dancing (I could of sworn John Belucci was on the field), the Harleys sounded pretty powerful as they made their way around the warning track with C. Wolf, and the white dove release at the conclusion of the national anthem always gives me goose bumps. Not to mention the fireworks at the end of the night were pretty amazing (until we had to pick up all the pieces after the game...haha!).

If you were so unfortunate as to not have been able to make it out on the July 3rd, below is a brief montage of what you missed out on.

Mid-Season Mark

Its been 3 weeks since my last post. If you work in baseball, I'm sure you can understand how it can become quite hard to take the time to sit down and blog in between preparing scripts, getting props ready, reviewing game DVDs, creating new graphics/videos, meetings and conference calls, and of course, working during the games...Boy do I love what I do!

Now that we have officially reached and passed the half way mark of the season, I felt it was time for some mid-season reflection.

Not to sound like a broken record but I have trouble believing that's its already half-way over because its all been such a blur to this point. But that is what I love it about. Always being busy and working in such a fast-paced environment. It truly does make the season fly by faster. Over all, I have truly enjoyed my role with the SeaWolves thus far this year. From what I have heard from other staff and fans, the value of entertainment at the ballpark has increased and the show has improved. That's is very rewarding to hear and is a tribute to all the people who help put things together each and every day. Since Opening Day, I feel that our show has improved with each home stand. Whether it is from an entertainment, technical, or logistical standpoint, we have tried new things and made our show better. My personal favorite game thus far was the 15 year anniversary game that just took place this past Tuesday. There were lots of people in attendance, it was a momentous occasion, and there was lots going on during the game that fans truly appreciated. I also thoroughly enjoy "All You Can Eat" Nights because there is usually sold out crowds to entertain.

Some memorable moments from thus far: technical issues, great contestants, and funny moments. I can think of a few examples of each of these especially technical issues. For instance, this past Thursday the "blue screen of death" showed up on our Venus computer and the whole system was down for a few minutes. It was crazy as the board was flashing a hundred different colors all during LIVE action on the field. We had great contestants a few weeks back that took part in the 70s Dance contest. These guys were breaking it down with their Afro wigs on and had no shame at all that their shirts were a bit too tight...it was hilarious!

There is still 2 months of the season left and I am looking forward to implementing new ideas and further polishing the entertainment at the ballpark. I can only hope that when I reflect at the end of the season, that there will be more great stories to tell of and our show will be best it has ever been.

And speaking of polishing...check out the 15 year tribute video and new player intro video that I recently put together:

Finding Full Potential

And the season presses on. June is here, summers a few weeks away and the SeaWolves can smell first place as they only trail the Akron Aeros by a few games. After sweeping the Aeros over the weekend, the Wolves struggled against Altoona dropping 3 of 4 games and then headed to Bowie this past weekend for three games to get back on track. But enough about the team, lets talk about the in-park entertainment!

This past weekend brought out 4-thousand plus fans for each game. It was GREAT! The perfect opportunity to entertain and the more fans there are the easier and more rewarding this job is.

Saturday was probably our best game entertainment-wise from top to bottom. Pregame ran smoothly as we made some adjustments to the flow of our pregame agenda by tightening up the time between starting lineups, the national anthem, and the first pitch…what a BIG difference it made. Our on-field games ran smoothly, had great fan participation, and seemed to go over very well with the crowd. And of course it didn’t hurt that there was great baseball being played as well.

The second series in the 7-game home stand brought about some improvements to the technical side of our show. Our ballpark is equipped with 3 man-operated cameras including a home plate camera, third base camera, and a roaming wireless camera. There are also 4 other stationary cameras located down the third base line, first base line, high home plate, and dead center field. During Tuesday’s game, while running switcher, I decided to attempt to utilize these cameras for live shots and replays…why not?!

The result was very pleasing to this camera geek who always enjoys seeing things from as many angles as possible, especially a baseball game. By now using all 7 cameras, we are able to show replays and live video in between pitches/batters/innings that greatly resembles that of a game being broadcast on television. As a matter of fact, a local TV station could plug their feed into our switcher and we could easily broadcast a game LIVE. The following day we adjusted the angles, focus, zoom, and cleaned these stationary cameras and we’re now good to go. I have already received several comments and compliments on how much this it adds to our overall presentation during the game.

I am very pleased and excited about this small but noticeable improvement. It further contributes to my goal of utilizing our video board and equipment to its fullest potential and gives new meaning to Jerry Uht Park having “The Biggest TV Screen in Town.”

Season Update: Through Homestand #...? (they all seem to run together)

Can you believe that we have already played 1/3 of our home games for the 2009 season!? It sure is hard for me to believe this because at this point, the season thus far feels like one super long homestand. But I believe we are actually approaching homestand #5 if I have calculated correctly by looking over the most current camera man schedule I recently put together.

To get up to speed, 2 homestands ago we had a 6-gamer, then I went to Dayton to spend a day with observing the Dayton Dragons, then had a weekend off, then another 3-gamer, then a much needed 4-day memorial day weekend, now back to the grind with a 7-game home stand starting this friday.

I am very excited for the upcoming homestand because the weather is supposed to be superb, we are expecting great crowds, and we have plenty of fun stuff going on at the ballpark such as Margaritaville Night and of course the always-popular Buck Night. I am also very excited to continue to implement new ideas and entertainment elements to keep fans coming back for more. And on a side note, I am definitely not disappointed that school days are officially over and that Saturday games will now start at 6:35 from here on out.

Lots to do before Friday and I've got to admit, it was tough to get back into a groove today after having 4 days off. However, there is plenty to get done and I got a solid start on things tonight as I was surfing between Family Guy, the Indians game, and the Cavs game. Family Guy was hilarious as usual, the Indians beat the Rays again, but the Cavs are making me a little nervous...

CHECK OUT MY NEWEST HIGHLIGHT VIDEO

Getting into a Groove

Off days are pleasant. The team is on the road until friday and the days to follow are always a great way to get stuff done for the upcoming homestand. I have compiled a large list of stuff to do so I will definitely be busy in the upcoming days.

Homestand #2 wrapped up last wednesday with a school day. Over a thousand youngsters packed the park for an 11am game. Entertainment-wise it was great to have all the kids there because you always get a great reaction from them. Whether it be a "stomp, stomp, clap" from click effects or a "make more noise" clip on the video board, you can always rely on 1100 kids to take part.

We also had some great weather during the weekend games with brought out great crowds of 3-4 thousand people. Saturday was by far the best. I knew the stadium was packed when we did the ice cream scream and I couldnt even hear myself talk from the scoreboard room...it was crazy! Then on sunday, Dontrelle Willis had a rehab start here in Erie and we had another nice walk-up crowd and more great weather.

We implemented some new entertainment items including toddler race, sneaker shuffle, and the ballerina dance, all which went over extremely well with the fans. The Ballerina Dance went over exceptionally well as fans really enjoyed seeing grown men dressed in tu-tus dancing atop the dugouts. The toddler race was also great as fans were providing a mixure of "aww how cutes" with cheers and laughter.

Over all, homestand #2 went better than the first mainly because of better weather, larger crowds, and the fact that we are starting to get into a groove on a nightly basis. From the music to the on-field host, we are getting better and tighter with each game.