Four Snapshots From Northeastern Ohio

Last week I put together a post that featured my Top 10 pictures from the 2009 Minor League season. One of the teams included therein was the Akron Aeros, best known to readers of this blog as the team that stages the rough and tumble Cream Stick Race on a nightly basis.

But there is far more to the Aeros' operation than premeditated outbursts of Vanilla on Maple violence. In order to illustrate this essential truth, Calvin Funkhouser -- the Aeros exquisitely-named director of corporate and suite sales -- sent me an email containing some of his favorite photos from the 2009 campaign.

Before sharing these photos with the world, I would like to ask that other clubs (and fans) follow the Funk and send me your favorite photos from 2009. I will dutifully post them on this blog, and together they will serve as a beacon of light which will make our treacherous passage along the rocky shores of the offseason slightly less fraught with peril. In case you missed it the first 275 times I posted it, my email is benjamin.hill@mlb.com

And now, let's check out some pics (italicized text provided by Mr. Funkhouser).

Orbit's Birthday: We had all kinds of mascots here. In the photo, Orbit is playing shadow ball with Sully from the Lake Erie Monsters, the MUCaw from Mount Union College, and Moon Dog from the Cavs (not pictured) is pitching. Orbit is swinging with a sword that was provided by one of the mascots.

All I want to know is this: Which mascot had a sword, and why? Under those circumstances, it would be all too easy for a swing to result in a sliced fowl.  
 


All Tuckered Out: The next two pics are of two of our interns from the summer. Tex and Twilight (nicknames used to protect the innocent) passed out on a Sunday morning in our break room after supervising our second scout campout. Notice that Tex (approximately 6'4") is curled up on the love seat, while Twilight (approximately 5'6") is stretched out on the full size couch.




 
It is apparently Akron Aero company policy to issue their interns plain white t-shirts, athletic shorts, and New Balance sneakers. Individuality is then sublimated even further through the use of generic nicknames, so that the interns in question become interchangable cogs within an impersonal but dastardly efficient machine. Way to rip a page right out of the Fortune 500 playbook, guys.

Landlocked Is Just A State of Mind: The last picture is of our promo crew, our marketing intern Brett, and me rocking our sweet outfits on Tropical Beach Night. Notice the commitment to the event that Brett (2^nd from right) and I (left) had.  That's right; those are awesome mustaches in honor of Magnum PI.

 
 
Wait? An intern was just referred to by his real name? And he's not wearing a white shirt and athletic shorts? And it's possible that he's not even wearing New Balance sneakers? Well, then never mind my above analysis of Aero intern policy. It was clearly just a bunch of ponderously unfunny gibberish by a bored writer trying to cope with the relentless slog that is the month of October in Minor League Baseball.

Help me out by emailing me: benjamin.hill@mlb.com

Thanks.