So turns out a certain 15-time World's Heavyweight champion and polarizing sports entertainer is a occasional guest of the Trop as he must be local. So much so that some of our long-time staff have less-than-glowing stories to tell about him away from the cameras and so much so that I randomly found an autographed John Cena action figure in storage. It's years old though.
If you have any resources that can help determine who signed these balls, have a special knack for it, or know a guy, please! HALP! It won't earn me any brownie points at work, just peace of mind.
The weekend of FanFest--as chaotic as a game, but without the all the hassle of clearly-defined roles and all that baseball weather. The end of the work week and into Saturday was filled with preparations and cleaning, set up and hustling. FanFest is 20 years strong, and every year we have to essentially reinvent the wheel and try to both give the fans everything they want and nothing they don't, stay fresh but not divert from what works, fix problems from years past, and appease PARTNERS!~ It's a huge juggling act and I think our team(s) of staff did a great job. I was a part of putting together some of our Charity Yard Sale in the 162 Landing. This is where we sell old merchandise, collectibles, and assorted team memorabilia with all proceeds going to our Rays Foundation. it helps us clean out or backstocks of old stuff, gives the fans something awesome to collect, and it all goes to a good cause. Another thing I did was help with the Goodwill partnership table display. They wanted to engage fans with trivia questions so we were tasked with coming up with Rays-centric questions. It was actually a difficult job, trying to come up with questions that were challenging without being impossible. I got the medium-to-hard questions, so I really tried to be creative UPDATE: FanFest was a rousing success. It was well attended, we raised nearly $100,000 for charity, we signed up over 3200 people for miniplans, and I heard very little complaint about anything. Our fans can be a little finicky and fickle, but the response was overwhelmingly positive. Today was the fitting end to a good week. We were not very busy during the early part of the day, It was obvious to many that it was Friday--a lot of fogginess and sluggishness around the office. Some staff were busier than others, some more energized than others. Kim and I at the CP interns desks were in the camp of eager for the weekend. Eventually, we sat in on a exploratory call between Joe and Carmella and All Children's Hospital. They are a returning partner and have very strong opinions and ideas about what they want out of their partnership. It's commendable. Again, it's fun and reassuring to engage in a partner who is active and eager to gain from the partnership But that all did not matter. |
Our Intern Scavenger Hunt popped up on our calendars without warning a week or two ago. We didn't know who organized it, the details of the event, not even who all would be there. When the time came, we had been briefed, quizzed, and pumped up by our department to do our team proud. When we got there, there were 27 total interns (which is crazy; we have probably met like 10). The teams were broken up interdepartmentally to create some new bonds. While noble, I say boo to that. I wanted to WIN, not make friends haha. Anyway, we were told we had a clue to start off, that would lead us around the stadium to all our additional clues and we were to be done or at least meet up at The Porch in Center Field at 3:30. That gave us an hour and a half. |
That's when the sprinting happened. At this point in my life, no one could accuse me of working out too often, so this was not to my advantage. I was paired with a girl from Stadium Ops (Ali), a girl from Marketing (Jessie), and honestly a girl whose name and department I don't recall (some good the event did) [UPDATE: she's Lauren from Ticket Sales]. We were kicking butt and going fast and then it all slowed down and we could not seem t progress or find more clues. We were college educated kids all dumbfounded by simple riddles. It was mostly embarrassing and frustrating. The big twist clue was to "find the person who has the keys to the batters box". Of course, no such thing exists, so no such person exists either. This was meant to be the final clue and meant to make everyone chuckle at the intern's bewilderment. However, we managed to get it practically in the middle of our clues, which meant while we knew the joke we could not progress because we thought we needed something from someone regarding the keys. We wasted so much time and got so frustrated that a while before 3:30 we just went up to the Porch and found that we were already losers and could only place 3rd at best. We tried a little more before giving up and returning to the Porch to find out what we did wrong. Turns out, at one of the more innocuous clues we had gone to Spot A to grab the envelope for that clue, not knowing that Spot A was actually the "answer" for a separate clue altogether. That got us all thrown off and out of order.
It was fun, we learned a little bit and got to be social with our coworkers, both intern and staff alike which is always awesome. It really is a fabulous group of people in the departments I deal with most closely.
It was fun, we learned a little bit and got to be social with our coworkers, both intern and staff alike which is always awesome. It really is a fabulous group of people in the departments I deal with most closely.
This morning at the request of VP Josh Bullock, Kim and I assisted him in executing a small event for the Leadership Tampa group as they held their Pro Sports Day. They came to the Trop first to listen to our dignitaries speak and answer questions, then they got back on a bus and went to Tampa to visit the Bucs and/or Lightning. What a fun day! Our presentation featured manager Kevin Cash, VP of Baseball Ops Chaim Bloom, President Brian Auld, Sr. Vice President/Chief Sales Officer Mark Fernandez, among others. It was held in our Hancock bank Club which is a fabulous space down the right field line in the suite level.
The rest of the day was spend doing some clean up from the Little League Initiative as it pertains to the jerseys. We have to communicate with the leagues that expressed shortages or size issues and rectify those problems. Not easy or fun, but it is a rewarding task.
The rest of the day was spend doing some clean up from the Little League Initiative as it pertains to the jerseys. We have to communicate with the leagues that expressed shortages or size issues and rectify those problems. Not easy or fun, but it is a rewarding task.
Today was the culmination of weeks and maybe months of work for our Community Relations department as well as for myself. We held our little league clinics today as part of our Initiative on the filed at the Trop and the response was outstanding. One-to-two hundred kids and their coaches & parents from over 7 counties and 50 little leagues were present during either of two 3-hour sessions during the morning and afternoon. It's a huge responsibility and undertaking but the reward is just as big. We get to see the smiles on the faces of so many potential new fans and families. This is the kind of thing we work for. The pictures will show just what kind of event this was, and it was great.
The day ended a bit early for myself and Kim as we were relieved of our duties as a thank you for all our hard work.
I get a much-deserved day off Monday!
The day ended a bit early for myself and Kim as we were relieved of our duties as a thank you for all our hard work.
I get a much-deserved day off Monday!
Tuesday after my one-day weekend was a quick and painless day. The majority of my work was focused on two tasks. First I had to drive to our Team Pro Shop in downtown Tampa to pick up a box of hats for Josh Bullock. It's an arduous task but I get compensated the mileage and parking. I had never been to the Pro Shop so it was actually kind of fun. Downtown Tampa on a weekday is not fun however.
Next, came the task of identifying the player who was the autograph on each of probably 4-5 dozen baseballs. These get signed during every season by our players and by dignitaries who come in for baseball-related events. Some were easy: properly labeled boxes full of David Price and Kyle Farnsworth. Many had the official MLB Authentication sticker so a person can just look it up and see exactly who signed and when. But others were...a mystery, Old players, obscure players, etc. At one point we had four staff members scouring the internet trying to determine the identity of one last player on four baseballs. Eventually, it took some serious context clues (the balls may or may not have been signed at our 2014 Big Leaguer for a Day event) and looking through pictures from that event to find out that the balls were signed by former Rockies great Dante Bichette who is a Florida guy. All in all, it was a very fun task. Think of something silly you do at work. Now imagine that that silly task was something that you were perfect for and enjoyed in your free time. That was this for me. This is why I want to work in sports: even mundane tasks are fun.
Today was the day for our Coaches Clinic!
We had over 100 coaches and team representatives attend a presentation as well as a morning of instruction on coaching little players. From the Rays official facebook page:
"Kelly Kratz of Positive Coaching Alliance & Little League's Al Herback helped kick off the #Rays second consecutive coaches clinic this morning at Tropicana Field" ("Tampa Bay Rays").
We had over 100 coaches and team representatives attend a presentation as well as a morning of instruction on coaching little players. From the Rays official facebook page:
"Kelly Kratz of Positive Coaching Alliance & Little League's Al Herback helped kick off the #Rays second consecutive coaches clinic this morning at Tropicana Field" ("Tampa Bay Rays").
The program went well and we got a lot of positive reviews and very appreciative parents and coaches as they left. Our volunteers were very happy to help and put together a great initiative. We had a few hiccups in our execution and some of our partner leagues will have some additional shirts mailed to them. But it is a tremendous chance to reach the community and continue growing young rays fans.
From the Rays official facebook page:
"Kevin Cash helped distribute #Rays uniforms that will outfit more than 5,500 T-ball players and coaches in nine area districts. Majestic Athletic, the official uniform supplier of MLB, designed 18 variations for a second year. The program, supported by Suncoast Credit Union, will save leagues in seven counties more than $115,000 in uniform costs" ("Tampa Bay Rays").
References:
Tampa Bay Rays. (2015, February 8). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/Rays
From the Rays official facebook page:
"Kevin Cash helped distribute #Rays uniforms that will outfit more than 5,500 T-ball players and coaches in nine area districts. Majestic Athletic, the official uniform supplier of MLB, designed 18 variations for a second year. The program, supported by Suncoast Credit Union, will save leagues in seven counties more than $115,000 in uniform costs" ("Tampa Bay Rays").
References:
Tampa Bay Rays. (2015, February 8). Retrieved February 8, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/Rays
Friday was very laid back as well around the office. I guess I as well as all the seasoned permanent staff members know that now is the time to enjoy the peace and quiet.
- The one important thing we did was I sat i on Jake's outreach/touchbase 2015 call with Outback Steakhouse along with Rachel and Kim. We were just flies on the wall as Jake did his thing. My biggest take away from it was that the best partners are the ones who bring opinions and ideas to the table and work with you. Outback sounds like an active and excited partner who must be easy to do business with.
- We finished any last-minute coaches clinic prep today. The big day is Saturday.
Author
Tim is a sports professional just taking his licks and seeing all the sports industry has to offer. He is married and is born and raised in western Michigan.
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