You can take THAT to the bank…The Foodbank!
Sometimes when I look back on my life, I think of all the food that I’ve wasted. There were so many times growing up that I would just not eat all of the food on my plate because I was either too stubborn to listen to my parents when they told me to finish it, or the food just tasted really bad (sorry Mom). My parents would do the “make him feel guilty” trick by saying, “You know, there are starving kids in Africa who would love to eat this food that you are wasting.” That was pretty much the same moment I would drop the food on the floor and feed the not-so-starving dog.
I don’t know why people use the starving kids in Africa as an excuse to not waste food. What about the starving kids in Canada? Or even closer…Cleveland, Ohio?! Does it make us feel better to pretend that only other countries/continents have hunger issues? A little local fact: Cleveland Foodbank helped provide over 30 million meals to families in need around the Greater Cleveland area this past year. As great as that sounds, the need is for 50 million meals!
The Cleveland Indians front office did a fraction of their part this week as part of their “Week of Caring.” On November
photo courtesy of Dan Mendlik
16, they held their annual food drive outside of Progressive Field. With a huge help from Progressive Insurance, they were able to collect enough food for close to 7,500 meals! We even had about 15 Progressive IRV’s stop by the ballpark to drop off over 155 boxes of food.
photo courtesy of Dan Mendlik
The next portion of our “Week of Caring” involved our front office employees swinging by the Cleveland Foodbank to help sort, package, and fix up some meals on the morning of November 18. Partnering in the community once again were our friends at Progressive Insurance, who took over the afternoon shift after the Indians employees finished the morning shift.
Our final day of the “Week of Caring” ends with a Thanksgiving Dinner served by members of the Indians executive staff, including Mark Shapiro, Paul Dolan, Chris Antonetti, and many more! Five local charities were invited to bring 75 people each to attend the dinner at no cost to them. Delaware North Companies (the food partner with the Cleveland Indians) prepared and donated the food. The dinner takes place on Sunday, November 20 and is intended to provide a hearty Thanksgiving dinner for those families that may not have been able to afford one.
“I can’t believe we drove around all day, and there is not a single job in this town!” “Yeah, unless you want to work 40 hours a week!”
When I decided to move home from California it wasn’t easy finding a job, especially finding one in the city I grew up in and for a sports team that I grew up watching. I applied online for positions around Cleveland for over a year and a half; all returning the same results of me not being qualified for the positions I wanted, or the positions were filled by a better candidate (I’m not sure how that is possible seeing as how I am perfect in every way, but whatever).
After numerous rejections, I finally decided to re-create my resume. The fact that I was still showing that I lettered in Cross Country and Track in high school, or that I was a medical marvel when it came to academics really didn’t wow any potential employers. I needed to create a resume that would make those employers think that I knew what I was doing and that it related to what position I was applying for. “Buzz words” were no longer deemed stupid and a waste of time. These words helped twist simple job experience tasks into a sophisticated work of resume art. Drove a van for Amish workers? Try: Transportation Specialist for Constructional Engineers. Picked up horse manure? I prefer: Gathered and disposed of trusty steed remnants. See how that makes the task seem much more important? By the way, I grew up in and around Amish Country for those wondering about these odd jobs. And no, I’m not sure who decided to hire me at the Indians based on my past job experience.
Anyway, a resume is a very important piece of getting hired for a job. The past two days, members of the Cleveland Indians front office have been volunteering their time at Glenville High School teaching students how to create their resumes. Partnering with Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.), the volunteers work with the students on building successful resumes as well as fielding any questions they may have about the job market. Y.O.U. provides a resume building software that the students use, saves the resumes on their main server so they can be updated at any time, and presents the students with 10 copies each of their new professional resumes!
Youth Opportunities Unlimited’s mission is to empower youth–disadvantaged youth born into poverty–to succeed in school, in the workplace, and in life. For more information, visit www.youthopportunities.org
Those who can, do. Those who can do at the All-Star level, teach!
Chris Perez always says, “you can never throw too many curveballs.” For the sake of argument (or me getting sued for libel) I can’t officially say Chris Perez ever said those words. I don’t even know why he would say that. In all honesty, I made up that whole quote and the fact that he said it. I’m sorry Chris Perez. I was just trying to write a blog entry and needed a lead-in for it. This was all I could come up with. It’s been almost a month since my last blog entry and I panicked. It’s been 11 years since my last confession, too, but I won’t get into that train wreck (long story short: I’m not even Catholic so there was no reason for me to be in a confessional at the time).
Back to the story at hand…
Chris Perez, an All-Star closer, gave a pitching lesson to a lucky fan who won the lesson from a silent auction. The auction was part of the annual Indians Wives Association’s Tribe Treasures auction held here at Progressive Field during the season. The well-informed lot of you who always read my blog will remember the Wives auction as the same place the Justin Masterson head shaving item was sold at. Chris Perez’s wife auctioned off the opportunity to have Chris teach a 30 minute pitching lesson!
The money raised went to charity (split between Cleveland Indians Charities, Beech Brook and Providence House) and, while I normally try to post pictures, I’m going to attempt to throw a video link up here. The video was created by our team photographer, Dan Mendlik, and has Chris Perez talking about trying to teach the winner how to throw a curveball (the reasoning behind the first quote of this entry…it’s not funny if I have to explain all of my jokes). Enjoy!
“What’s for dinner? Chicken or…Chicken?”
When I lived down in Winter Haven, Florida back in 2007 as the Indians Spring Training Marketing Coordinator, I had the chance to swing by Universal Studios with my girlfriend to enjoy some amusement park fun. We were standing in line for one of the rides, I believe the “Twister” ride–if you want to call it a ride, and there was a woman eating a giant chicken leg!
It was probably the funniest thing I had ever witnessed while people watching. She was just standing in line with the big drumstick, gnawing on it like a lion gnaws on a baby gazelle. Can you picture that? She didn’t care that the sauce from the giant drumstick was smeared all over her face because she was on vacation and she was enjoying herself. Standing next to her in line, I felt like my arteries were getting clogged! To me, that was a whole lot of chicken…
The Cleveland Indians recently partnered with Tyson Foods and Lift Up America for a food drive. Tyson Foods donated over 31,000 pounds of meat (mostly chicken) to help feed local food agencies. With help from The Cleveland Food Bank, 28 food agencies swung by Progressive Field and picked up their portion of meat. Prior to the pick up, a press conference was held on Gateway Plaza to announce the news. Volunteers from the Baldwin-Wallace football team, Cleveland Metro School District as well as Indians outfielder Trevor Crowe, Pitcher Josh Tomlin and 2nd baseman Cord Phelps were on hand to help load the trucks with food.
Josh Tomlin and Cord Phelps help load donated protein into truck
31,000 pounds…now THAT is a whole lot of chicken!
I wonder if the University of Tennessee athletes get paid, or if they are all just Volunteers.
Part of my job here at the Cleveland Indians, nay, the majority of my job here is to coordinate different events that involve numerous volunteers. It is a very rewarding job because I know that at the end of the day, events that I have planned and coordinated, ended up helping someone or some non-profit organization. It’s also great because every one of my volunteers, whether they know it or not, don’t need to be paid! It’s free help! Anyone can work to get paid, but it takes a real man (and woman) to work for a hearty handshake and a warm smile…and free Indians tickets.
The Indians in partnership with Business Volunteers Unlimited continued the Indians Volunteer Challenge during the 2011 season. The Challenge is an opportunity for area families, citizens and baseball fans to give back to their communities and receive Tribe game tickets. To make life even more exciting (and to back up our reasoning for calling it a volunteer “challenge”), we thought we would reward the person with the most volunteer hours logged the opportunity to throw out a first pitch before an Indians home game.
We actually had two winners this year. Richard Schapel of Parma and Brian Dietrich of Avon each logged over 160 hours of community service and were named the Cleveland Indians Volunteers of the Year. They were honored during a pregame presentation last night and Richard Schapel threw out the ceremonial first pitch. I’m sure we’ll have the challenge next year, so keep an eye out on Indians.com for how to sign up!
Sweeny Masterson: The Demon Barber of the Dugout
To all of my avid followers, you’ll remember a while ago I wrote an entry called “Bic It, Masterson” (keep scrolling down through the entries and you’ll find it). I spoke of how Cleveland Indians Charities and the Wives Association held an auction where the players’ wives/girlfriends donated something of their husband/boyfriend that was a little different from normal auction items. Chris Perez and his wife donated a 30 minute pitching lesson, the LaPorta’s donated a breakfast at a restaurant with them and the Masterson’s offered up the opportunity to have Justin Masterson shave someone’s head!
Getting to know Justin a little bit more this year, I’ve come to understand how perfect this auction item fits him. The guy loves people’s heads! He’ll just go up to them during meet and greets and rub their head. There was one kid at an event who had a nice afro and Justin–while holding his baby daughter–walked up to the kid and had his daughter poke and rub the hair. The rest of the day, as soon as she would get close to the hair she would reach for it and want to play with it. For a guy who shaves his head, he definitely loves playing with hair.
Oddly enough, it wasn’t even his idea to have this as the auction item. The idea came from his wife, Meryl, asking Facebook fans what the item should be and the head shaving idea won…leading to the main purpose behind today’s blog. Our winner, after a few months of waiting, was finally ready to have his head shaved.
The shaving took place in the Indians dugout prior to the team taking batting practice. Justin was ready with clippers, towels, shaving cream and a few razors. He took his time and enjoyed it making sure it was a nice, smooth shave. Although we were all waiting for it, no skin was cut during the shave. Justin cleaned off the freshly shaved scalp with water, put on some aftershave and stood back to smile at his work.
You’ve Just Been #LouMar’d!!
Not quite sure what the title of this entry means? Well then you aren’t on Twitter and you definitely don’t follow any of the Indians players. A couple hundred Indians fans were #LouMar’d on Sunday and probably didn’t even realize it as it was happening and that’s just the way Lou Marson likes it.
Where did this happen, you ask? At a post game autograph session. 
The autograph session was for any fan who donated a glove for the Cleveland Indians and KeyBank Glove Drive that ran throughout the season. The concept was simple, you donated a glove and received a free ticket to the August 28th game, as well as a pass into the autograph session. Matt LaPorta, Carlos Santana and Vinnie Pestano were also on hand signing for fans. As always, thanks goes out to these 4 guys for making sure every fan got an autograph…and #LouMar’d.
The season long (almost) glove drive brought in over 800 gloves which will be donated to the Cleveland Baseball Federation–helping kids play the game of baseball. The Baseball Tomorrow Fund was also on hand at the game and presented Cleveland Baseball Federation a check for $5,000 in honor of Justin Masterson for all of the work he does in the community and for his efforts during the glove drive.
I Just Flew In From Afghanistan And Boy Are My Arms Tired
I had a rough day at work the other day. It was a day filled with running around from one end of the ballpark to the other, making sure things were in place for an event we were doing the next day, making sure our Fill the House for Charity night was going off without a hitch and dealing with the guy who sits next to me (Nate Janoso) who coordinates events for Cleveland Indians Charities. He’s an awesome guy, but he is cursed with rain spoiling every charity event we have. And because rain never spoils my events, I have to constantly take a special chunk out of my day to remind him how funny that is. It is very tiring.
With how rough that day was, it only took two minutes to make me remember why I love my job. It all started a week before with a guy named Ken.
Ken had given me a call and said he just got back to the states from Afghanistan to his base in Louisiana. His family lives up here in Cleveland and, while they knew he was back in Louisiana, they did not know when he was coming home. We quickly devised a plan which included setting his family (all 32 of them) up with tickets to the August 10 game. Ken’s sister was the only family member who knew what was going on and she coordinated the family part of the plan.
Ken flew up to Cleveland and met up with me. I took him down to watch the Indians take BP as well as meet some of the players. We then took him into a room and recorded him giving his family a message to make them think he was still in Louisiana and it would be played during the game. When the time came in the game to roll the tape, we stationed a camera guy right near the seats the family was sitting in and had Ken walk down to the seats to surprise them!
As the entire family watched the message play on the scoreboard, they looked so happy just to see him on the jumbo-tron. Once they then realized he was walking down the aisle they erupted into tears of joy. Ken’s two young daughters ran up to him laughing and smiling. His wife, with tears in her eyes, hugged and kissed him. The crowd of 30,000 gave him a standing ovation and began chanting “USA, USA.” It was a moment that left many fans around him with watering eyes and is a moment I will never forget.
Thank you to our scoreboard and camera crew for capturing the moment. Thank you to Ken and all of the servicemen who defend our country on a daily basis. Thank you to Jessica R. for helping keep Ken occupied in between BP and first pitch and thank you Nate Janoso for having it rain on your raffle the night before this all took place so that it would be a nice night for my event!
Confessions of a Shopaholic…
…was a terrible movie. Yes, I’ll admit that I watched it but that doesn’t change the fact of how bad it was. It may be because I am not a shopaholic and don’t understand what they go through so I may have missed half the jokes. I am also not one to confess to anything, but that is a whole different story.
Whether you are a shopper or not, you should enjoy knowing that a couple of Cleveland Indians players decided to get in touch with their inner fashionista and participate in the annual Shop With A Pro event that we put on. Some of the players had a little (okay, a lot) of help from their wives, while the others mixed and matched styles up on their own. Joe Smith, Tony Sipp, Vinnie Pestano flew solo and Justin Masterson, Chad Durbin and Matt LaPorta made it more of a family affair.
Matt LaPorta helps bag at Shop with a Pro. Photo courtesy of Dan Mendlik
The event took place at Macy’s over at Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted. Macy’s provided 30 kids from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland with $100 gift cards so that they could buy back to school clothes. Levi’s also provided gift bags filled with school supplies for each kid. Thanks to all the players and their wives, Macy’s, and Levi’s for all the help in putting this great event together and making a positive impact on our community!
Two Out Rally
WHAT IF last Friday night at Progressive Field, the heroics didn’t belong to the Cleveland Indians baseball team? WHAT IF the two out rally wasn’t started by Grady Sizemore or Travis Hafner? WHAT IF this time…this one time, the victories didn’t belong to the Tribe team that everyone is used to and instead belonged to the Cleveland Indians kickball team–made up of members of the Cleveland Indians front office? I’m glad you asked!
The competition was fierce that day, my friends. I’ll tell you the opposing players were 10 feet tall if they were a foot! But that didn’t matter to us. We simply looked at our enemies and smiled, because we knew–we knew we had the Cleveland Indians “bat magic” on our side. We had the likes of Dan “Asdrubal” Badders at short stop making unbelievable defensive plays to help out our pitcher Ashley “Pure Rage” Churchill. We had a core team of veterans named Machado, Walters, Janoso, Frohwerk, Sherman and Polito showing the rookies how its done. And most importantly, we had the “never-give-up/two-out-rally” attitude that has created so many memories for our fans this year on the baseball side of things.
Game 1 and 2 were easy victories for us and got the juices flowing. We knew going into Game 3 we would need great defense and even faster legs. We played smart ball, but still found ourselves down 1-0 early on. We came back to tie it up 1-1 in, what we thought would be our last ups. Time still remained and we were able to get one last at bat and that is where the magic began. In the bottom of the 3rd inning (the last inning), the Indians came back to win it 2-1! The opposing team was not happy thinking that they lost on a technicality. Umpire’s call–we win and we move on.
Game 4 was just as intense. We were again down 1-0 in the 1st inning. No matter what we tried to do, we were going down 1, 2, 3 until the 3rd inning (again). That’s when the rally began. We battled back to tie it up. Then, with two men on and two outs we kicked a solid single. Dan Badders, on second base took off to third and then tried for home to get the win. The ball was thrown and clearly the catcher did not tag our runner. The umpire had a bad angle and didn’t know what to call. She called out and then safe and the complaints piled in. There was no way for her to make it right and, because this was a game for charity, both teams agreed that a re-kick was the most fair option. The rally continued as we ended up scoring to win the game 2-1 and move on to the Championship game versus KeyBank.
I’m not even going to go into details of this game because every fan watching has their own take on how it all went down. That’s how legends are created, and that’s what this battle will go down as–legendary. Some will say we had it in our grasp from the first kick, others will say that KeyBank should have come up with the victory (those people would be wrong). Knowing the game was all for charity, the Cleveland Indians reached deep down into their guts and pulled out the greatest win of all time to became the first back-to-back kickball champions in the world!
The kickball games were played as part of the 2nd Annual “Cleveland Kicks-It”–a charity kickball tournament to raise money for an organization called Kick-It. Kick-It is a national fundraising program that raises money for children’s cancer research through the game of kickball. Cleveland Kicks-It brought local Cleveland businesses together to compete against each other at Progressive Field in a double elimination tournament. Competing teams included the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Cavs, Rosetta, KeyBank, American Greetings, Clear Channel, Quicken Loans, K&D Group, Kalman + Pabst, West Side Challenge and Fairmount Minerals.
Indians Off The Field
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