Why I Love Minor League Baseball (Part 2)

Jake the Diamond Dog acting as bat boy for the South Bend Silver Hawks.

     In last week’s post, I talked about one the main appeals for me with Minor League Baseball... access to emerging talent.  This week, I’ll discuss how Minor League Baseball goes beyond simply being a run-of-the-mill sports outing, and is often a full-on barrage of entertainment for people of all ages.

      I’d like to broach the topic by sharing a story from my first internship in Minor League Baseball with the Burlington Bees.  To say that employees in small town Class A baseball “wear a lot of hats” is an understatement.  I did everything from clean facilities (restrooms included), recycle used cans, stock concession areas, put together stat packs for the radio broadcast, and tackled business related items.  The one thing that was always paramount and a driving factor behind doing even the most horrific tasks was making sure that the fans had the absolute best experience when they come to the park.  One day, this meant tackling the age-old physics question of how to shoot a hot dog with condiments, intact, out of a CO₂ cannon.  When it was rolled out for the game, the results were spotty, but the fan response was incredible.

    

     Many of the fan experience initiatives you see in Minor League Baseball don’t generally find their way into a Major League ballpark.  Whether it is an open cheeseburger eating contest after a “Jimmy Buffet” night, or a Hawaiian Luau night with open fires in the concourse and a man playing a ukulele, they enhance the novelty of the experience for a typical fan without detracting from what is happening on the field.

  

    Minor League Baseball also has some of the premiere giveaways if you are a collector of sports memorabilia.  One of the more popular giveaway items, pictured in my previous post, are bobbleheads.  Although Major League teams also give these out, generally they are extremely high quantities.  In the case of MiLB teams, most bobblehead runs are limited to 2,000 or less.  This makes them far more rare and adds a substantial level of value.  Although this is just for a niche group of collectors, they can add value to the experience and drive ticket sales. 

     Lastly, and probably most importantly, is the attention paid the kids in Minor League Baseball.  I can’t be certain if it is a conscious effort to breed a new generation of fans, but they pull out all of the stops to cater to children.  Beyond just mascots, children are generally involved in activities on the field throughout the game and even after, running the bases of a professionally maintained diamond.

    Whether it’s between inning activities, fun follies like shooting hot dogs into stands, fireworks, or even bat retrieving golden retrievers (pictured), most minor league baseball stops do as much as they can to make it a memorable experience on a nightly basis, regardless of what is happening on the field.

Why I Love Minor League Baseball (Part 1)

View from the "Cheap Seats" in Minor League Baseball.  Two tickets for around $20.

     When I espouse my love for Minor League Baseball, I’m generally met with a wide array of reactions from people.  Even some of the most ardent Chicago Cubs fans living within 10 miles of their Class A affiliate have never been to one of their games.  Over the next three installments of this blog, I’ll discuss why I think people missing out on their local Minor League Baseball organizations is a sports fan travesty.  I’ll expand on the three main reasons I love Minor League Baseball:  access to emerging talent, excellent fan experience, and ending with a discussion on MiLB branding. 

      One of the debates I get into most with people (my girlfriend included) is whether it is considered “professional” or “semi-professional.”  Minor League Baseball players are professional athletes... end of discussion.  They are under a contract from a Major League organization where training, practices, and development are all mandatory.  Semi-professional generally refers to Independent League players, who could not possibly subsist off of the average player salary.  Sure, some of the players in A, AA, or AAA ball will never make it to the top level, but MiLB rosters typically consist of the elite of the elite high-school and college players.  Most every player donning a Major League uniform has played in the Minor Leagues for an extended period of time. 

Minor League Baseball bobblehead giveaway items show stars Justin Morneau, Albert Pujols, and future pitching phenom, Archie Bradley, in their Minor League attire.

     If you follow the Major League Baseball draft well enough and watch the subsequent prospect ratings, you can make a fairly educated determination of who is going to ascend the ranks.  In 2007, when I was interning for the Kansas City Royal’s Class A affiliate - the Burlington Bees, I caught wind that a pretty good left-handed pitcher for the Great Lakes Loons was coming to town.  During the first game of the series, he was in the stands holding the radar gun for one of his teammates.  I got a chance to have some brief conversation with him during that time.  He then pitched the final game of the series and after his game was gracious enough to talk with me for a little bit and sign a game-used ball.  Today, he is the highest paid pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

     Down on the farm, players also seem to learn more than just fine-tuning the game.  They play in small towns, in front of modest crowds making modest pay, and many live with host families.  There are some exceptions to the rule, but most Minor League Players that I’ve had the opportunity to communicate with have been humble and engaging.  If you run into a Major League Baseball player who demonstrates similar traits, people rave about their character being an outlier… in Minor League Baseball, it is commonplace.

     Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the price differential.  Recently, I bought tickets for two, got a great giveaway promotion, and concessions... all for under $30.  In contrast, if I was to go to a St. Louis Cardinals game (my beloved team from birth), $30 generally wouldn’t get one person in the stadium (standing room for a weekend game is $36 per ticket).  Add in another ticket, concessions, and a souvenir, and I’m pondering Chapter 7 on my way back out through the gate.

      I love baseball in general, and I love going to Major League games when it is feasible, but nothing compares to the access and price point of Minor League Baseball.  Next week, I’ll talk about how fan experience at Minor League games is an experience that leaves many trying to replicate. 

     I would love to see your thoughts on Minor League Baseball, and if you’re not a fan of it, I’d love to here why.

The Pen(written thank you) is Mightier than the Sword

      For many, one of the indelible moments associated with the transition into adulthood is high school graduation.  I can vividly recall several events that I occurred on the days leading up to and after my graduation.  I remember being overwhelmed with excitement to move to college and start life on my own, I was grateful for the gifts that I received to help me towards the next step in life, and finally, I can still recall the dull pain that came from writing what seemed to be an infinite amount of “thank you” letters to those that were generous to me during this momentous event.

     Following that day, it was nearly four years before I wrote anyone a handwritten thank you note.  Whether it was memory of the endless stack of letters at graduation, or more plausibly the ease of use associated with recently established technologies (e-mail, text message, social media), I didn't see the need to send a primitive handwritten thank you letter.  Then, in early 2008, I had a paradigm shift.

      Working as an intern in Minor League Baseball for the Memphis Redbirds, one of the functions of my job was ensuring that those having group outings were being fully taken care of and were having a premiere experience.  Invariably, I would receive e-mails from group leaders telling me they had a great time and thanking me from the experience.  In turn, I would respond back thanking them for the opportunity to serve them.  As sincere as both sides were probably trying to be, the e-mails seemed transactional and contrived.  

     One day, I went to fill up on Dr. Pepper, (yes, they had a fountain soda machine in the break room!), and stopped in the mail room on the way.  In my cubbyhole I had a letter from a small church group that had purchased a no frills package weeks prior.  The group leader took the time to write me a very neatly penned thank you card, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mail.  The effort she put forth to say “thank you” said more to me than the message did.

     As a result, any time that I have meaningful dialogue with someone and am truly appreciative for the discussion, I send a handwritten thank you note.  Whereas an e-mail or social media message may suffice for certain things, I believe that a handwritten note says as much in the effort you put into it than the content of the message.  In my opinion, a handwritten letter tells the recipient several things:

• You’re worth using a tangible good (card/stationary).
• The interaction meant enough to go the extra mile to mail or personally deliver a message.
• The sender was focused solely on writing the letter, as there is no backspace function on pen and paper.
• Chances are the sender experienced some level of discomfort (hand cramping) or frustration (ink blots, misspellings, etc.) to send a more thoughtful message. 
• Handwriting a letter takes 2-3 times longer for an average person than typing.

      In closing, I know that handwriting a “thank you” may seem inconvenient and difficult to justify considering how easy it is to type out the same words.  With that said, I’ve kept every handwritten thank you letter I've received in the past 6 years for helping someone out.  Conversely, I’ve lost almost any instant message or e-mail thank you I've received.

Click above to read the thank you note.

  

Whats in the Bag?

In my childhood, there was no bigger thrill than going to a sports memorabilia show and seeking out a vendor selling little brown paper bags with cards inside.  The bags would generally be accompanied by an unvetted claim that select lucky packs carried a value inside of $1,000+.  Maybe it was the thrill of the unknown, or perhaps the prospect of turning $5 into a miniature fortune, but I couldn't resist the magnetism of the product.  If I were to look back at my expenditures, my card collecting balance sheet would be woefully in the red, but the thrills I experienced allow me to write off the monetary loss. 

I wanted to create a blog that would attempt to capture that same buzz… without causing the substantial hit to anyone’s pocketbook.  I’ll be touching on a variety of topics including, but not limited to:

• Lessons learned from experiences  
• Interviews with influential people
• Miscellaneous musings about professional decorum
• Marketing and communications
• The business of professional sports
• Personal stories and accounts

One of my main sticking points in this blog will be not adhering to the status quo of writing at a fifth grade level.  When I started my college experience, one of the first things I learned was that my lexicon was extremely limited.  Each assigned reading in my Rhetoric I course pushed the boundaries of my vocabulary.  The thesaurus I purchased at the beginning of my freshman year became tattered and unusable by the time I was a senior.  That’s not to say that this blog will be a scholarly work… it won’t, but if one word causes someone to look in a dictionary and expand their vocabulary, it will be a small victory for me. 

I’m also excited to engage with anyone reading and am open to writing about topics that interest my readership.  Please feel free to contact me at thomas.felgar@gmail.com or comment below with some suggestions.

I sincerely want to thank you for reading, and hope that you will make a point to visit every Thursday morning for new content.

Have a great day!

Tom