Results tagged ‘ Orlando ’
Trade News From the Winter Meetings
The annual Baseball Trade Show is one of the highlights of the Winter Meetings, featuring a sprawling cavalcade of vendors selling a veritable cornucopia of baseball related goods. The show is accessible via this entrance, leading to an escalator that brings one into the depths of National Pastime consumerism.
And once one gets down there, there is a LOT to take in. My guess is that the Trade Show encompasses 3.2 billion square feet.
And once you start wandering, it’s easy to get disoriented. The images just fly by in an kaleidoscopic whir (these next two shots courtesy of MiLB.com photo prodigy D. Wild).
Junk Balls!
And check out these “Player’s Packs”, shaped like ball caps and available in backpack or cooler form:
Stormy, one of the new mascots of the Omaha Storm Chasers, was on hand.
No one complimented me on my earlier reference to Stormy being “anemometer-ically correct”, but yet I still find the inner strength and self-confidence to pose in front of giant jerseys.
The above was a non sequitur in a post filled with them, the perhaps inevitable result of writing after an extremely long day of huffing and puffing through the vast confines of the Orlando Swan and Dolphin Resort (it doesn’t help that this internet connection is slower than Kevin Slowey pitching in a slow-pitch softball league in Penn-slow-vania).
So let me make it clear that I have much more content to share in the near future, including a variety of Flip Cam interviews that I am (tentatively) quite pleased with. One of my interview subjects is none other than Ted Batchelor, the stuntman who ran around the bases on fire in Savannah last summer. He and his wife Debby were manning a booth at the trade show, attempting to convince teams to add him to their 2011 promo calendars (in conjunction with his goal of being lit on fire in all 50 states).
My suggestion to all teams is to wholeheartedly embrace this imminently worthwhile and distinctly American endeavor.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
Greetings From the Meetings, Day One
Greetings from Orlando, FL, home of the 109th Annual Baseball Winter Meetings!
And helloooooo industry!
To the extent that the Winter Meetings exist in the popular imagination, they are viewed as a simmering cauldron of Major League hot stove activity. And while the lobby of the Disney Swan resort is admittedly teeming with agents, scouts, managers, and big-name sports media personalities, the bulk of the attendees are associated with good ol’ Minor League Baseball.
But the assembled media cares not about such individuals. And why should they? Minor League business news doesn’t sell. Right guys?
But who needs them? I’ve got you, whoever you may be. And what I’d like to tell you about is my time in Orlando thus far.
Upon arriving on Sunday evening, I was whisked away in a Party Bus and driven to Disney property. Anyone have any idea who these people were and how this happened?
But all that’s in the past now. My day started bright and early at the Bob Freitas Business Seminar, designed to “bring together the best minds in the industry…and making their thoughts available to the industry as a whole.”
Last year I was able to present at the Seminar. But my mind isn’t the best these days, so this year I simply existed as audience member. Then, I wrote about it.
One of the highlights of the morning was courtesy of Jim Jarecki and Steve McCarthy of the West Michigan Whitecaps. They gave an informative and highly detailed presentation on specialty theme jerseys which I found to be very interesting (the team does 10 each year, five for a cause and five for fun).
Here’s McCarthy and Jarecki in action, modeling their wares (Led Zeppelin and ’70s Night, respectively).
Some much better shots of the Seminar, courtesy of MiLB.com’s photography wunderkind Danny Wild.
This is Brooklyn Cyclones general manager Steve Cohen, detailing “Promotions That Pop.”
And here’s Brad Dudash of the Clearwater Threshers, speaking on “Choosing the Right Food and Beverage Promotions and Making Them Work For You.”
In between the morning and afternoon portions of the Seminar was the Opening Session, featuring league by league executive of the year awards and speeches by Minor League Baseball president Pat O’Conner, vice president/COO Tim Purpura, and vice president Stan Brand. More on this can be found in my article on MiLB.com, which will go live any minute now. Go check it out, as some interesting stuff was said.
But save for the feverish typing (and even more feverish cursing of the internet connection) of the assembled media hordes, Day One has largely come to a close. We’ve now arrived at the portion of the evening in which attendees enjoy expense account steak dinners at Shula’s and then adjourn to the hotel lobby for alcohol-fueled conversation within the clamorous din of the Swan Lobby.
Check back in Tuesday afternoon for more, as I’ll have lots of info from the Trade Show and beyond. In the meantime, I’ll be hanging out in the Coronado, listening to THIS.
benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz
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