April 2010
Let’s Play Catch Up
I’ll be completely honest with you – I’ve been a little busy of late and forgot about this blog. Hopefully I can be forgiven because there’s a valid reason that posts haven’t been popping up on here every Monday: it’s baseball season, in full-swing! That’s right, the R-Phils have played 19 regular season games thus far (almost 1/7th of the season already) including two home stands, one that wraps up tonight. So let’s get caught up, it’s been a while.
The last time I wrote an entry on this site, the R-Phils had beaten Portland 7-5 to earn their first victory of the year and level their record at 1-1. ClickEffects was becoming easier for me to run, and the general flow of the day was at a much more comfortable pace – even if the days themselves are hectic. Flash forward to April 28, and the team is sitting at 8-11 after last night’s double header. ClickEffects is a great tool, Frency (our Hall of Fame PA announcer) has a nickname for me, and the Stephen Strasburg circus just came and went. Oh, how quickly things can change. Did I mention Domonic Brown is hitting close to .350? Or that Brad Lidge and Joe Blanton are on rehab assignments here? Yes, Baseballtown has been jam-packed with stars, fans, and promotions over the past few weeks. Simply put…it’s been a great way to kick off 2010.
The first home stand against Portland and New Hampshire came and went, along with a match-up between Phillippe Aumont and former R-Phil Kyle Drabek. Intrigue anyone? The good guys came away with a victory in that one and finished the very first home stand with a 5-2 mark at FirstEnergy Stadium. Michael Spidale and Brandon Pinckney were en fuego. Times were good.
You probably know this from reading www.readingphillies.com, but the road trip to Richmond and Harrisburg turned out to be a bit rough, as the R-Phils managed a 1-6 record away from home. One of the neater experiences thus far in my tenure in Reading was taking a short drive to Harrisburg to see top-prospect Stephen Strasburg take the mound against our boys. I can say it with complete honesty – this kid is the real deal. He was hitting 98 consistently on the gun, with his off-speed stuff clocking in at 77. It was dazzling to watch, and quite interesting to here him talk at his post-game press conference in the Senator’s team store. I think someday I might look back and say, “Wow…I was recording Strasburg talk in a gift shop at Harrisburg’s stadium…and he’s 15-5 for the Nationals so far.” You never know.
The rest of the time the team was on the road was mostly downtime, as I got to go home every day at around 2:00 p.m. Yes, if you’re wondering, that is a joke. There’s no time for that in Baseballtown, as everyone was pulling their weight to get ready for the next set of home games. The Baseballtown Gazette was sent off to the Reading Eagle for publication and I feel good about the turnout, even though there were a few mistakes that had to be touched up here and there. As the season carries on, not only will the program look better, but it will become easier and easier to actually produce.
I must say, I’ve had a number of nicknames so far in my almost 23 years. Some of them, perhaps most, aren’t PG, so I won’t share them right at this moment for you. But it was beyond an honor for Frenchy, the awesome PA announcer, to give me a nickname that will without a doubt stick for the rest of the season (in the press box at least). I was outside bringing up papers during a recent home game as Frenchy was introducing the camera crew and video and sound crews. He knew me, he knew where I went to college, and thus…Aaron “The Owl” Gottlieb was born. I love it of course, as I’m a very proud Temple alumni, and brag about my Owls as much and as often as I can.
The current home stand wraps up tonight as Joe Blanton takes the mound for the second time in Reading. Between Blanton and Lidge both pitching for the R-Phils, it’s been a complete media frenzy. Throw in Strasburg and it’s just insane, to say the least. It will be nice to have a bit of rest from all the press conferences, intense fan demands, and roster moves…but at the same time, how cool is it to see those three pitchers play right in front of me? Not many people can say that.
So, as usual, I feel as if I’ve gone on far too long. For those of you still reading, I appreciate it, and hopefully another post will be up here sooner rather than later. The team goes on the road tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be here working. So here’s to an R-Phils victory tonight…I’ll catch you next time.
Excuse Me, Please Don’t Play That Song
It feels like it’s been weeks since I last checked in with this site, but as it turns out, the reality is that time flies when baseball season gets cooking. The R-Phils are two games into the season already, which is hard to believe, seeing as how it seems like just yesterday that I was driving to the stadium with 50 or so days until Opening Night. But the practice is done, run-throughs finished, and preparation complete. The boys of summer are back and baseball is, pardon the pun, in full swing. Finally!
Before I get into the first two games themselves and the excitement that surrounded them, I want to try and describe what the final few days of getting ready meant for me. The biggest, or one of the biggest, challenges was learning Click Effects. This is the program that I’ve written about briefly in previous blog posts on here which runs the audio for the entire stadium during the game. The “charge!” organ riffs, the at-bat songs, and everything else. Simple enough, right? Well, consider the fact that I had almost no experience with this program coming into my internship, I’d say it was more of a challenge than some might imagine. But after moving songs around, getting comfortable with where they are and when to play the correct ones, and a whole lot of practice…I think I got it down. However, doing Click Effects in an empty stadium as a test is a little bit different than 7,500 people packed into FirstEnergy Stadium for Opening Night 2010.
There were plenty of other tasks I had to do before April 8th, and you’ll have to take my word that they were difficult and rewarding, but I really want to talk about these games. So, it’s April 8th, Opening Night in Baseballtown. The Portland Sea Dogs are in town for a four-game series and our team is more than ready to go. I had interviewed pitcher Jason Stephens two days prior, and he noted that the team is already forming a fantastic chemistry in the clubhouse and on the field. I ran down stat packs to the clubhouses, updated the dry erase leader board and lineups, copied down each teams lineup for the media, and prepared my music. It was showtime.
Now, let’s actually pause here for a second. It goes without saying that at-bat songs are pretty important. Think “Kashmir” for Chase Utley – when you hear that song at any time, you think Utley. Some players had come up to the press box with a CD or song in mind for their at-bat music. For those that didn’t, I tried to give them something upbeat and popular. For example, our catcher Tuffy Gosewisch got Dave Matthews Band’s “Shake Me Like a Monkey” (great song by the way). What did he do the first game? Tuffy went 2-4 with a double and an RBI. Safe to say he might keep that one for a little while. But for every minor success like that, there is a “Disturbia.” Yes, I chose Rihanna’s song for Melvin Dorta. Looking back, it wasn’t the best move I could have made. So during the day after game one, we got a call from the clubhouse attendant. Let’s just say that Dorta didn’t truly care for this song. Needless to say, I have the right one in there now.
The R-Phils actually ended up dropping the opener 10-5, but the crowd was unbelievable: 7,500+ people packed into FirstEnergy Stadium. It was a shame that they lost, but it’s a long season, and this team has far too much talent to worry about one little loss. Plus, I got a game under my belt, felt comfortable doing so, and had a great time overall. After the game, it was time for a minor celebration in the RBI room with much of the staff. This isn’t like another job at a corporate office building, where you count down until the time you leave and proceed to bolt out the door, exhaling deeply. Working for the R-Phils family, you want to stay. You want to be around the people here that you work with, to talk to, to hang out with, and to be around. It was a great time, that could happen about, oh, 70 more times this season.
Michael Spidale, who started in left last night, got three RBI in the R-Phils first win of the year, 7-5 over Portland. Aumont was our starting pitcher and there was even a reporter here from Quebec to cover the native son. The R-Phils won, I felt good about my tasks at hand, and hey…the big league club won 8-0 and are off to a 3-1 start. Not too shabby all around. Not too shabby at all.
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