From Minor League Baseball to Major League Business: Part 2

In part 1 of this series, I described the first connection I noticed (albeit a loose one) between working in Minor League Baseball and Big Business. You can read all about it here. This time around, it’s a theme that’s similar rather than a specific task or idea. I’m sharing the most ridiculous things I’ve done in either so far.

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For those of you who work in Minor League sports, you understand the random things that pop up (like this video), their increasing importance as it gets closer to game time and how they often get in the way of things in your job description. This was one of those things.

Sometime in the middle of this past season with the Renegades, we hit a pretty serious string of rain-soaked days. There was even a point when we had to postpone a doubleheader that was set up by rain in the first place, after the first game had started and had to be resumed almost exactly two months later. Although I don’t think it was during one of those nights, there was one thing I decided to do that I never would have imagined during a similar situation.

The game was supposed to start at 7:05, and the grounds crew was working ferociously on getting the field ready. It wasn’t ready in time, but we didn’t know that until close to the scheduled first pitch. After doing the pre-game show on the radio, I decided to help out however I could. Luckily, we had someone in studio running the board, and we had two people (including me) at the field. We had other material we could air, so we went to it, giving updates every ten minutes on what the field conditions were. Once I knew everything was taken care of on both ends of the radio broadcast, I headed down to the field.

There was still some water above the grass, even though it wasn’t raining anymore. Many of the grounds keepers were literally squeegeeing the field with rollers that are meant to force the water out of the ground and over to wherever you push it. There were no more squeegees left, so I did the only thing I could think of: I used my feet.

I got a few chuckles from Tim Merante and a bunch of the other people drying the field. I can only imagine how much of an idiot I looked like to the fans. They probably had no idea what I was doing. If I had Shaq-sized feet, it might have made a difference. However, I’m a size 9. You can picture how much of the water I was moving. (Hint: it wasn’t much.)

Regardless of whether or not my effort helped, the ‘Gades did end up playing the game that night. I called the action with no socks on and a stupid story to share. Sounds like a victory to me, right?

If you’re looking for another instance involving a short guy and Shaq’s shoes, check out this footage from Celtics practice.

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Although it doesn’t rival the magnification of my rain dance shenanigans, I did some pretty crazy poses the other day at Hill Holliday. I was “modeling” for my Twitter photo, which is going on the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Twitter Page. The idea was to be creative, but also allow people to familiarize with both me and the game of football.

I wore a football jersey, and used a helmet in some shots and a football in others. The best part was being told to grow a beard and putting on eye black for some of the photos. The official photo should be up soon (I’ll let you know when), and I’m hoping to have a few “out takes” shots on Facebook or here. I’m glad I got to fulfill my dream to be a male model. Maybe someday I’ll have a “Magnum” of my own.

What’s the craziest (or most fun) thing you’ve ever done at your job? I’m looking forward to your answers. Thanks again for reading!

Liked this post? You can click here for, “From Minor League Baseball to Major League Business: Part 1.“