Today our office spent the afternoon at the Bricktown Ballpark watching a AAA baseball game. It was great.
I love baseball. This is no surprise, most people know this about me. I've loved it since I was a kid.
I loved it so much that at the age of 14 I started working for the AA minor league baseball team in Wichita, the Wranglers (Kansas City Royals farm team, they've since been moved to another city.) I worked there every summer until I was 21. I started as an usher and worked my way up to the front office staff. I worked full-time running the ticket office, gift shop and I was in charge of the other ushers and game-day workers. We worked LONG hours for little pay and I had the time of my LIFE. In 1999 the Wranglers won the championship, and we all got rings. In 2000 we came in second, but I got an all expense paid trip to Round Rock to watch the finals. I saw Nolan Ryan, he owned the Round Rock Express, the team who beat us.
I've seen so many players play before they made it big in the majors. I remember one time having to go pick up Carlos Beltran from the airport. He sat with another guy in the back seat of my dad's old beat up mustang and no one spoke the whole ride because they didn't know English. He was called up to Kansas City within a month, and he's now an All-Star. I watched Angel Berroa play, and he's now with the Yankees. Oh and don't forget the guys from KC who would come down on rehab: Mike Sweeney, Johnny Damon, Kevin Appier, and then the amateur tournament Wichita hosts every year, where I saw Albert Pujols play as a college kid. I've seen so many players, I wish I'd have kept a written list.
I think I've watched over a million baseball games. I'd go to work at 9am and get home at 2am. Sometimes I really miss that job. During those years I had the chance to experience every part of the game--minus playing it.
I picked up trash, ran the speed pitch, ushered, waitressed, sold tickets, took tickets, balanced out the evenings' receipts (talk about a crash course in accounting), ran customer service, ran the scoreboard, helped in the press box. WHEW. Wait, there is more! I danced to the stupid YMCA on the dugouts, PULLED THE TARP in the rain, picked firework bits off the field, ran the gift shop, kicked GA people out of expensive seats, kicked people out of the ballpark, counted out players meal money, picked up players from the airport... this could go on forever.
I hated getting stuck in the ticket office all night, but that job had major perks. I liked calling the clubhouse to ask the players for the pass list. Each player was allowed free tickets, but they'd have to provide the ticket office with the recipients names. One player in particular used to answer the phone and chat with me, he was so nice and polite and he always left tickets for his family. He was a fan favorite and a genuinely nice guy, and I felt sad for him because he didn't have the stuff to get to the majors... and he knew it. I also enjoyed meeting the scouts. They rarely called ahead, they'd just show up and flash their credentials and need tickets. Some of those guys were always a hoot. They were funny old men and would just give you a hard time.
All of these memories came back today as we sat at Bricktown ballpark, watching the RedHawks play the Iowa Cubs. Eight years worth of baseball behind-the-scenes memories came flooding back.
I still have a hard time not sitting in my assigned seat, because I had to be the hard-nosed usher who made people move! And I shelled my peanuts with small pangs of guilt because I know guys have to come through with leaf blowers and clean it up. But overall it really made me miss my old summer career and all the friends I made. For three years I was full time, five months out of the year, eating, sleeping and breathing nothing but baseball.
And I loved it. I still do. But now, I get more excited about the game itself. I'm content to just sit and watch. After seeing so many games, I'm tired of the promotions. I don't care about the little advertising gimmicks in between innings. I hate the wave. I won't do YMCA. I know those things are there to make money or interest people who are bored, I'm past that.
I love the "boring" details of the game. I love watching the catcher step into the infield, take charge and flash signs to everyone. Did you know that the catcher is like the team captain, the one "in charge" on the field? He can see everything from his vantage point. I love watching the shortshop and second baseman relay those signs to the outfielders. Did you know that the centerfielder is the captain of the outfield? If he calls the ball you better back off! I love watching the batter change his stance as the pitcher sets. I love the small stuff. The stuff most of you probably find boring.
So that is what is going through my mind when I watch a minor league baseball game. I think of the whole she-bang, all of the dirty work behind the scenes and how much I miss it. I left that job my senior year of college to embark on a career in advertising, when really, I was just a kid quitting a summer job. But I'd been through so much, and they never treated me like a kid, so in a way I was an adult "changing careers". It's so crazy how a part-time job for a 14-year-old turned into a full-time job/love affair with a sport. Funny, huh?
p.s. I really hate the chicken dance.
