Minor operation, Major Work

Behind the Scenes with the B-Mets

by Evan Drellich
t 10 a.m. on Labor Day Sunday, most of the Binghamton Mets front office staff of 12 gathers at NYSEG Stadium. The B-Mets, the New York Mets Double A affiliate here in the Southern Tier of New York since 1992, have two games left in a dismal 2009 season. At 5385, they have only the history books to worry about: Long out of the playoffs and in last place in the Eastern League Northern Division, they need one win to avoid finishing with the fewest victories in team history. But in the conference room, there is no discussion of the days starting pitcher, Jenrry Mejia, though he is one of the teams top prospects. There is no review of whos available in the bullpen, no lineup changes made. Scott Brown, B-Mets general manager since the end of the 2003 season, hasnt had a say in player-related decisions since the 1990s, when he was an assistant director of scouting with the big league Mets. Tonight, for a 6:35 start against the Altoona Curve, a giveaway of 1,000 hockey pucks has to be finalized. How many pucks per box? One hundred, and theyre heavy. Who are the pre-game guests? A volunteer emergency squad and an ice cream manufacturer from nearby towns. More intensive planning is needed for the next day, the season finale. The player introductions will have a Field of Dreams theme, complete with corn stalks in right field, and the teams best Ray Liotta impressions as they enter through them. Theres some concern, though, about the smoke machines. I dont know if its going to work real well if theres wind, we tested it the other day, director of stadium operations Richard Tylicki says. A lot of those machines are built for indoor venues. If it doesnt work, it doesnt work, says Brown, who adds he has seen the movie once. Just something to spice up the last day.

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WINS AND LOSSES

The B-Mets won that Sunday, 43 over the Curve, their final victory of the season. They finished tied for the fewest wins in team history, at 5486. The 1999 club went 5488. Of 60 Double A and Triple A teams, only two finished with winning percentages below .400 in 2009. Both were Mets affiliates: the B-Mets, and the Triple A Buffalo Bisons, who went 5687. Over the past five years, Double A has overtaken Triple A as the final grooming spot for most prospects. In 2008, Nick Evans, Eddie Kunz, Daniel Murphy, and Bobby Parnell all spent time in Binghamton before getting called up. Some have stuck, some have not. Last year, only catcher Josh Thole made it to Citi Field. There were other potential major leaguers on the team: first baseman Ike Davis, pitcher Brad Holt, and shortstop Ruben Tejada, who, like Mejia, was just 19 in 09. But the one who put the B-Mets on the map wasnt even a player. Tony Bernazard, the hot-headed former Mets vice president for player development, was fired in July after challenging some of the team members to a fight in an attempt at motivation. Now that Bernazards gone, the Mets are left to sort the farm system he left behind. Mets farm director Adam Wogan, who assumed Bernazards duties after the much publicized July dismissal,

The staffs jobs revolve around sales, fan experience, and the whole entertainment operation. (Team slogan: Big League Show, Small Town Price.) Everyone does a little of everything, except manage whos playing on the field. They think about it sometimes, though. You kind of never know with the kind of year that we had if the fans are going to be like, Wow, gosh, we really sucked this year, Brown says. For the most part they realize were not the ones that make the team, you know, says Connor Gates, a special events coordinator who is involved in a lot of on-field promotions. I think everybodys realized were just not playing together as a team, says Jim Weed, the assistant general manager. They have individual talent. And thats it. Back to business. First pitch is already pushed back tomorrowwhos going to make sure the players dont get hounded for autographs as they walk to the makeshift corn field?

While the New York Mets summoned four players from Binghamton to Flushing in 2008, the decimated 2009 Mets only recalled Josh Thole, a developing catcher with a nice stroke but little power.

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Photo on previous page: Teressa Pace

Photo this page: Evan Drellich

Bottom-right Photo: Binghamton Mets

Binghamton Mets GM Scott Brown and director of ticket operations Casey Both (profile) meet with the staff each morning to discuss the plans of the day. Above Brown is a photo of Johnson Field, former home of the Binghamton Triplets, before it was demolished to make way for Route 17.

Minor operation, Major work

Binghamton Mets coach Donovan Mitchell talks to a pair of avid fans. Note Mitchells jersey with the logo of the Binghamton Senators hockey team as part of a promotiona must in a town that seemingly prefers the ice to the diamond.
points to the future impact of the B-Mets, not their ability to win, as the standard for success. Sometimes wins and losses at the minor league level may not necessarily be a reflection of the number of players thatll eventually help the major league club, he said. But not everyone buys that. They say, Oh, we got players, we got players. Everybody has players, one major league scout said. Its not a good farm system if you cant even trade players. Farm system means two things: It means you need to bring players up to your team, and you have to have players to trade. Mako Oliveras, the B-Mets manager the past three years, will not return for the upcoming season. High A St. Lucie Mets manager Tim Teufel, of 1986 Mets fame, is slotted to replace him in Binghamton. Oliveras, 63, led the B-Mets to a 188236 mark during his tenure. Thats 48 games under .500, though the team was just two games out of a playoff spot in 2008. Oliverass record, however, may not have been his undoing. At the minor league level, theres not a whole lot of managing to be done. Orders come from above, from the Wogans and the Bernazards and their lieutenants. In the minor leagues you dont manage, you are a supervisor, Oliveras said. If you manage, you have control. Everywhere is the same way, Im not complaining. I was happy with doing what I was doing and following instruction. Bernazards departure is likely what sealed Oliverass own fate. He was, self-proclaimed, a Bernazard guy. Tony Bernazard was the one that brought me there, and I had the feeling that when Tony was let go my days there were numbered, Oliveras said. Instead of judging me by the work that I did there developing players, how many players went up from Double A to the big leagues, I dont think they did that. To me its their loss, continued Oliveras, who was inducted into the Pabelln de la Fama del Deporte Puertorriqueo, the Sports Hall of Fame in Puerto Rico, as a baseball coach in October. I wanted to go back and stay with that organization. Im not going back to a place where they dont want me. The B-Mets havent made the playoffs since 2004. They won their only Eastern League championships, two of them, in their first three years, 1992 and 1994.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

There were glory days for Binghamton baseball, but when they happened depends on your source. Some say that its not even a baseball town, but a hockey town. The Binghamton Senators are an affiliate of the NHL Ottawa Senators, and professional hockey has been here since the 1970s. The New York Rangers had their farm team in Binghamton in the 1990s, winning the division title four times in seven years. It was also during this

Photo: Teressa Pace

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period when New York won its elusive Stanley Cup, so some of that enthusiasm carried upstate as several Binghamton vets were part of that achievement. The Rangers left Binghamton in 1997they werent the last to do so. Binghamton, nicknamed the Parlor City and the Carousel Capital of the World, like a lot of similar cities in the Northeast, has been losing population. It currently is home to about 45,000 people, according to census data from 2006. Thats a 4.6% drop from 2000, a trend that mayor Matt Ryan, who narrowly won re-election in November, doesnt expect has changed. Certainly the numbers have been going down over the last four decades, probably the fifth as well, Ryan said. Binghamtons population peaked around 85,000 in the 1950s. The city is a hub between upstate and downstate, sitting off an intersection of highways that lead to Syracuse, Albany, New York City, as well as Scranton, PA. But the area entered a steep post-cold war decline, when IBM, which originated here at the start of the 20th century, and other defense-industry businesses began to downsize in the 1990s. So much of our manufacturing has either gone to the South of this country or out of the country completely, we used to have a huge manufacturing base, Ryan explained. Were not different than a lot of other cities upstate... Thats one of the problems with Binghamton: People havent forgot those days when we were really at the top of our game, and expect it to change overnight. The mayor himself, who says he attends about ten B-Mets games a year, grew up a Yankees fan. Hes not alone. Probably 80% of fans in the area are Yankees fans, Brown estimates. That harkens back to the Binghamton Triplets, the last affiliated professional baseball team to play here (192368). Baseball in Binghamton started in 1871 with the Binghamton Crickets, according to Marvin Cohen and Michael McCanns Baseball in Broome County. Hall of Fame third baseman Wee Willie Keeler was a part of an 1892 team, the Binghamton Bingos. Then in 1923, at the Arlington Hotel here, the Triplets were born along with the Eastern League, which was known as the New York-Pennsylvania League for the first 15 years of existence. The Triplets, who wore pinstriped jerseys, were a Yankees farm club from 1932 to 1961, and again from 1965 until they disbanded after 68. The Triplets played at Johnson Field in neighboring Johnson City, one of the three Triple Cities along with Binghamton and Endicotthence the team nickname. There was a 24-year gap between the Triplets departure and the B-Mets arrival, but it didnt convert Yankees fans to Mets fans overnight. The reason its hard for these people to forget the way the Triplets were back then, the New York Yankees used to play an exhibition game against the Triplets, said Steve Kraly, a former Triplets pitcher and B-Mets official scorekeeper. That was common from day one, Joe DiMaggios and all them, they came here and played exhibition games. Opening Day here the brass from the New York Yankees would come watch the Triplets play. John Fox, a newspaperman in Binghamton from 1949 to 1993, concurred, The Yankees came in when there was still a Ruth and Gehrig. Kraly, an 80-year-old southpaw, still wears his 1953 World Series championship ring in the press box. He went 192 with a 2.08 ERA for the Triplets that season before he was called up by Casey Stengel to a team that went on to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. Kraly lost both decisions in a five-game career in New York, with a 3.24 ERA and a ring for his efforts. Hes been the scorekeeper for the B-Mets for all 18 years of the clubs existence. Kraly decided to take the job at the suggestion of Fox. When the Williamsport (PA) Bills relocated as the Binghamton Mets in 1992, there was a Bobby Jones and a Brook Fordyce. They were on a championship team in a new $4 million (or so) ballpark, and there was no shortage of fan support: The team drew 259,183, second most in the league that year and a mark it hasnt approached since.

Father and son are all smiles at a B-Mets game. Binghamton functioned as a Yankees farm club from the 1930s through the 1960s and there are still plenty of Yankees fans in the region, but the Mets have made their mark on the city since 1992. 4 | Maple Street Press Mets Annual 2010

Photo: Teressa Pace

Minor operation, Major work

The Mets owned the team for its first two years here. When the club was sold to a local ownership group of Urda, George Scherer, and Bill and Dave Maines in 1994, the cast of players was even more impressive: Jay Payton, Edgardo Alfonzo, Rey Ordonez, Jason Isringhausen, and Bill Pulsipher led the B-Mets to another championship. And then, the honeymoon was over. I remember getting a letter from Gerry Hunsicker who was the assistant GM at that time, Urda said. He basically said, Great, this is a great year... its not going to be like this every year. So they did us a favor, they didnt really promote anybody, they left the team here and we just swept everybody away in the playoffs. Since Binghamton management has little control over the talent they put on the field, the B-Mets have to focus on their many marketing challenges: Theyre landlocked with minor league teams in three nearby cities, each about an hour away. Theres been heavy rain in recent seasons, and their market is one of the smallest in the league. The stadium, while perfectly A look at the ticket line from the other angle at Binghamtons NYSEG Stadium. Though attendance has dipped along with the pleasant, is not the luxurious facility that some of the citys population and the teams fortunes, Binghamton still has a other Eastern League teams have had built over the loyal fan base. past decade. The B-Mets drew a league-low 210,526 people in 2009, the lowest total since 2001. Theyve Postseason play starts right when school does, and theres lost 10,000 fans at the gate each of the last two seasons. little time to advertise the games. For the fans who stick through it all, though, winning The team raised individual ticket prices by a dollar in and losing can be secondary. Theres an enjoyment in seeing a 2008, to $9 and $10. David Wright or a Fernando Martinez before they make it to Citi Field. The non-Mets fans just wants to see baseball. And HANDS ON: FROM INK TO PAINT yes, there are Mets fans too. Unanimously, those around the B-Mets praise the way theyre I used to go to Shea Stadium and my uncle had box run. Brown, 44, manages the day-to-day operations, which seats on the first base line, right near the box where they take includes about 200 to 250 part-time workers, and just about the pictures, says Jim Dalpiaz, a 55-year-old West Islip transeverything else aside from police and EMT workers at the plant and day-one season-ticket holder. He would always game. Despite the long days, Brown seems perpetually upbeat. give me the tickets. Ive been a Mets fans since 1965 when I The front office was unbelievable, said Hector Berrios, was growing up. When I heard the B-Mets were coming, I the B-Mets pitching coach the last two years. There is just went and got my tickets, they let you pick, and I went exactly this touch that Scotty Brown brought. I had a situation with where my uncles seats were. a car, I had a fender-bender, and they got me connected to all The B-Mets have about 250 season-ticket accounts, the right people for it to run smoothly. Thats the personal totaling over 800 tickets, according to director of ticket sales side. The professional side, every time you need a cartridge Casey Both. About one-third to one-half of those are owned for printing, or pencils, or anything you would possibly need, by individuals. From 1997 to 2006, the season-ticket numbers they were there by the end of the day. didnt fluctuate much, but a new $500,000 scoreboard One scout, someone who has less than favorable things installed for the 2007 season gave a boost. to say about the state of the Mets farm system, had nothing ill The B-Mets have been profitable since the construction to say about the B-Mets staff. Theyre good guys there, he debt on the stadium was paid off about six years agoBrown said. Scottys personable, hes in a really tough market and he says half of minor league teams arent. Surprisingly, he also does a really good job. [In other places,] they just dont want says making the playoffs doesnt create a windfall financially. you up there in the press box.

Photo: Teressa Pace

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taller and about 100 pounds heavier and have a lot more talent than I do. So, really thats all that separates [us]. And the fun absolutely isnt deciding who gets called up whenthose decisions are made in Queens. But if youre around the players for a whole season, it can be rewarding when someone does get that call. When Nick Evans was promoted from Binghamton in 2008, Brown elected to drive him to the airport himself. A few years earlier, a staffer had overslept and a player didnt make a flight. I said, Nick Ill pick you up and everything, I wanted to make sure, Brown said. I got up at four oclock and drove to his place on the West Side, hes sitting on the step with his suitcases packed, he was pumped, he was ready to go. He said, I didnt sleep a wink, and he said, Man, this is the biggest day of my life, and all this kind of stuff. We get to the airport, and the instructions I had been given were [once his plane landed, Evans was to] take a cab from the Denver airport directly to the ballpark and theyll reimburse you. He goes, I only got 20 bucks in my pocket. I had kind of anticipated he might need some money, so I had a hundred ready to go for him, but it was kind of ironic. Here I am, giving a loan to a guy thats going to make 350 grandpro-ratedbut thats going to be a new salary. Brown was reimbursed by the Mets, as is normal. Far from normal, Evans had three doubles in his major league debut in Denver, bringing plenty of smiles to the office in Binghamton. Theres comradery that makes the days go by easier. After games, some of the staff relaxes in the owners box with extra food Urda orders, and theres always a beer or two in the fridge. Thats what Ill always remember, said Rob Ford, the B-Mets media relations director and play-by-play man for four years. Staff members and maybe a few fans, or sometimes the broadcasters from the other team, or media will come by, or an umpire or two. All of us just hanging out, sometimes talking baseball sometimes talking about other things. Those nights in the skyboxes are really how I got to know the staff at the ballpark technically but away from the field because we werent working. Fords last year with the B-Mets was 2008. For two years in a row, he sent out his CD and resume to almost every major league team. Before last season, he was hired to cover the Kansas City Royals for their flagship radio station. For some in the minor leagues, that might be the most fun of allmaking it to the big leagues. Its not only the players who have those dreams. But it might be even harder to make it from the minors to a major league front office. A lot of times a big league club will hire experts in their field that live in their area, or started as an intern for them, Brown said. Its difficult.

Nick Evans has his mind set for second base as part of his three-double debut in the major leagues in 2008, a journey that began with a drive to the airport and a loan for Denver cab fare from Binghamton GM Scott Brown.
When the season ends, the B-Mets front office has to repaint the stadium themselves. They have to take down the tents in the left field picnic area, board up the bathrooms. Anything they can save from damage over the winter, they take in. Actually, Both said a few weeks after the season, today, Im finishing up painting the box office. Its mentally relaxingall I have to do is come in and paint. Thats for September and October, also the best time to take a vacation. Both took a half-day in October to go down to Philadelphia to see Pearl Jam. Once the season hits, forget it. Both, who runs the box office, wouldnt even ask for a break. Then in November, the sales begin. They cold call and knock on the doors of local businesses, trying to sell seasonticket packages. They have to time when they do sales so that baseball, not hockey, is still fresh on peoples minds. The fun of working for a minor league team is not the hours, which can easily reach 120 during a week in-season. The fun is not meeting future stars, because that mystique wears off quickly. Getting to know the players, future stars or not, as people, though, is rewarding. It makes for some good after-hours stories, too. I dont think its a big deal anymore, everybody has that fan side, almost as though theyre not human, said Both. Theyre five years younger than me, but theyre six inches

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Photo: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Minor operation, Major work

Brownwho was the B-Mets assistant general manager in 1995 and stuck for good in 2001 after leaving and returning twicehas been to the big leagues. His first job as a teen was with the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium, where his father worked in public relations for four decades. He helped set up for gameday giveaways. Later he was a runner in the press box, sending stories for reporters via a predecessor to the modern-day fax. Out of college, Brown was as assistant GM and then GM of the St. Lucie Mets. He came to Binghamton briefly in 1990, when it looked like a team would move here for 1991, but that fell through. When it came crashing down, I called [Hunsicker and Mets GM Al Harazin] and I had just gotten married. I said, Guys, you told me to make this move and its not happening, Brown said. They called him back and offered a job as an assistant scouting director. It was mostly administrative, but he did some field work as wellscouting Paul Byrd, for example. Then came a peculiar decision after the 1994 draft. Im one of the weird ones, because everyone wants to go the different direction, they want to go from the business side to baseball, Brown said. I decided I was never going to be a scouting director, I just didnt feel like I had the on-field experience to understand the deepest layers of the game. I felt like I had more of a passion for the business side. I kind of want to be the best I can be at something, and its almost like becoming commander of the 81st airborne without having gone to jump school. Both, 29, is 15 years Browns junior. He interned with the B-Mets in 2005, the same year he graduated from SUNY Cortland with a degree in sports management, and also the same year he met his girlfriend, a gameday staffer at the park. The next year, Both was full-time. Both grew up in a National League house in Center Moriches. He was a Mets fan first, and then, when Darryl Strawberry left, an Indians fan. Out of college, the B-Mets job was perfect: he was in baseball, and it wasnt nine-to-five. You lead the college lifestyle, theres no separation between that lifestyle and here, Both explained. That work hard, play hard mentalityit was great. But as it does for journeyman minor league players, reality begins to set in. There are 25 spots per team on a major league roster on the fieldbut theres only one team president, only one director of ticket sales. You start to think about a family, getting married. Brown has been remarried and he has four daughters. Hes gotten out of baseball more than once, moved to Florida. Hes worked for Coca-Cola, then for the food distribution company run by two owners of the B-Mets. He even worked for the sports department at Binghamtons local paper. If there was an ultimate goal, being a president of a club would be awesome, Brown said. I may never realize that and Im not necessarily so rabid about it that thats guiding my every thought. The opportunity has to be there, all the stars have to be aligned. When Both came to Binghamton, he thought it would be for three years, and then on up the ladder. Out of college, he had that major league dream. Now hes thinking about settling down with his girlfriend, the same one he met as an intern at the ballpark. As you get older, its how long can you sustain it? Both said. It takes a lot away from your personal life. After a while, you have to sit: Is it worth it? Summertime youre working 100 hours a week. To go home and face your wife at the end of the day and say, Hey, how was everything today, Im sorry I was gone for 16 hours. Did you take care of everything? Im at a crossroads at figuring out what I really want to do, and Ill bust my tail here as long as I am [with the team]. Hard work is the guiding force of a minor league operation. The people who work there are a little like the players in that the game is work, but its a job thats hard to get and hard to imagine doing anything else. MSP
Evan Drellich has covered baseball for Newsday, the Press & Sun-Bulletin, Inside Pitch Magazine, and MetsBlog.com. He unconditionally believes that Pedro Martinez, in his prime, was the greatest pitcher ever.

Photo: Evan Drellich

No task is too small in Binghamton. B-Mets GM Scott Brown fixes a mistake on one of the clubs Hall of Fame plaques. Working in the minor leagues is about multi-tasking and long hours.

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