Crosscutters News

Get an Inside View of the Baseball Winter Meetings on crosscutters.com!

The baseball world converges on Nashville, TN Dec 3-Dec. 6 as the annual Baseball Winter Meetings invade the Opryland Hotel.  The entire Williamsport Crosscutters front office will be among the major and minor league personnel at the event. You can get an insiders view of the meetings at crosscutters.com with the special daily Winter Meetings Blog from Cutters V.P. of Marketing Gabe Sinicropi.  Gabe will check in with info on what the Cutters are up to and some other tidbits you may not hear or see on ESPN! 

Wrapping It Up
Wednesday, December 5 - As the Baseball Winter Meetings wind down, everyone still finds themselves busy but mighty tired.  Late nights spent with friends and colleagues teamed with days of business make for loads of fatigued people.  But everyone is still working hard.  the day started at 8am with a breakfast with Baseball Chapel.  Those  are the people who provide church services to players and staff during the busy baseball season.  Just one of the little things in baseball that the average fan may not know about.  Players and staff in both the majors and minors have incredible obligations of time and effort during the season and it sometimes makes it hard to attend services on a weekly basis.  Volunteers from Baseball Chapel provide services in the dugouts of every ballpark across the nation each and every Sunday.  The breakfast was excellent and the speeches and program helped to put things in perspective in our busy lives. 

A short and uneventful NY-P League meeting followed the breakfast and then it was off to the Trade Show for a full day of business. 

In the late afternoon the full Cutters staff got together to discuss things that we learned, saw and heard over the last few days.  We talked over ideas, promotions and systems, both big and small,  that we want to discuss more in the coming weeks to help make the Williamsport Crosscutters more successful, fun and exciting in 2008. 

We are and always will be committed to fun and excitement to fans young and old and we work each and everyday to improve our operation for our customers.  We know that we are caretakers of a long history of baseball in Williamsport and Historic Bowman Field, the 2nd oldest minor league stadium operating in the United States.  We have loads of incredibly exciting announcements in the coming months and look forward to sharing them with you in the very near future!

Tonight we wrap up things with the Gala at the Wildhorse Saloon in downtown Nashville.  A good time will be had by all!  Then it's time to pack our bags and be ready for out 5am wake-up call from the legendary George Jones  (yes at the Opryland Hotel, you can pick a country star to voice your wake-up call)

Thanks for joining us on our journey to Nashville.  We'll see you back in Williamsport.  Happy Holidays!

Trade Show Time
Tuesday, December 4 - Last night's venture downtown was great fun and laughs with the staff.  Dinner and blues at B.B. Kings (try the pulled pork-best I ever had) then a stroll down Broadway hitting all the live music clubs we could.  We settled in at The Second Fiddle with a great band that played mostly country but really everything from Patsy Cline to AC/DC.  It was a Monday night so there were only about 15 people in the bar.  Us, a group from London and a group from Australia!  The last 2 hours the band just kept taking alternating requests from us, London and Australia.  They sounded great. 

After the short PR Directors meeting this morning it was off to the Trade Show to check out the possible giveaways, promotions, acts and merchandise for 2008.  It's an overwhelming show with hundreds upon hundreds of exhibitor booths.  I spent about 4 hours and did not get through the whole thing.  I have time tomorrow to finish up.  I have plenty to accomplish there. 

With only one scheduled meeting today, I had time to wander just a bit and see some things I have missed in the hotel so far.  Yes, I finally found the ESPN set up and rode an escalator with Peter Gammons.  Also saw Cal Ripken, Jr. and talked briefly with Harold Reynolds.  We know each other from his days of covering the Little League World Series and it's been over a year since I have spoken with him.  We exchanged pleasantries and he said to say hello to all his friends in Williamsport.  Also ran in to former Pirates GM Cam Bonifay in the hallway near our room.  I guess he is a few doors down.  Cam was great to work with during his days with the Pirates and his son Josh played for us in 1999. 

Much of our staff spent the day interviewing possible interns for 2008.  Over 500 young hopefuls are here vying for internships and entry level jobs across the baseball landscape.  The staff collected resumes yesterday and scheduled interviews with the best ones.  They interviewed about 30 prospective interns for the 5 openings that we have.  Bill his going to offer his food and beverage internship to one of the interviewees tomorrow.  We'll see if he accepts. 

This morning was also our NY-P League meeting.  It was attended by Doug and Paul. I did not attend due to a conflict with the PR Directors meeting.  We have another NY-P meeting tomorrow morning that I will be attending before it's off to the trade show. 

Just one more day and night in Nashville, but we'll make it count with our big Gala at the Wildhorse Saloon on Wednesday night!

 

The Gang's All Here
Monday, December 3 - The entire Cutters front office staff is here; Doug Estes, Sarah Budd, Bill Gehron, Jenny Hoover and myself along with Team President Paul Velte.  In addition, we always offer our interns from the past summer the opportunity to room with us free of charge at The Winter Meetings while they search for full-time employment.  Joining us this year; our play-by-play & PR Intern broadcaster Adam Marco, Ticket Ops Intern Marcus Glover, and Asst. Groundskeeper Brian McLaughlin.  Each of them are looking for full-time employment through the PBEO, a division of Minor League Baseball formed to help us find employees and help young hopefuls find internships and jobs.  It's a great system that works on both sides. 

I will say that we have great hopes in bringing Adam back for the summer of '08 to be our broadcaster and work with me in PR.  He did a great job, not only on the air but off as well.  He's exploring his options here, but we have had preliminary talks and if everything falls into place he could find himself back in Williamsport in mid-May.

Today was seminar day.  A chance to listen to fellow operators share ideas about what's new, what's worked and what didn't, plus some seminars where we get information from the main office of Minor League Baseball. 

Tonight is Opening Night at the Trade Show.  Our first chance to walk through and see all the vendors.  Most everyone who supply teams with anything will be there.  Mascot makers, food suppliers, ticket printers, software people, insurance companies, inflatable game makers, fireworks companies, souvenir merchandise suppliers, promotional item suppliers and much more.  Literally hundreds and hundreds of booths in a huge exhibit hall.  I'll probably spend a total of about 8-10 hours over the next 3 days at the Trade Show. 

This hotel is sooooooooooo large and more importantly, spread out.  You just don't see everyone and feel the "pulse" of what is happening as easily as in most hotels with a central lobby and bar area.  Lets just say the center "atrium" area of the hotel contains winding paths through forests, a skywalk, a 44-foot waterfall (Plus other smaller ones), and is 9 acres in size.  That's just the atrium!  So, as you can imagine, just stumbling over things like the ESPN broadcast spot are next to impossible. I actually have to turn on ESPN and watch their reports on TV to find out what's happening.  Where the heck are they!? I saw Peter Gammons in Charlotte, but have not seen him since.  My first Tommy Lasorda sighting was this morning by the way.

Seen in the Jack Daniels Old #7 Bar last night;  Cubs manager Lou Pinella, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker (who called this year's LLWS in Williamsport), Cubs GM Jim Hendry (who spent many days in Williamsport during our time with the Cubbies), former Williamsport manager Oneri Fleita who is now a V.P. for the Cubs, former Williamsport pitcher Nate Teut, who pitched in the majors with the Marlins and now works in the Triple-A Iowa Cubs front office, plus loads of our baseball friends.

Last night's Phillies dinner was excellent.  Good food, good conversation.  The whole Phillies brass was in attendance including Manager Charlie Manuel.  GM Pat Gillick is something, always remembers our name and has lots to say. Phillies CEO Dave Montgomery is the same way.  In fact, as soon as he saw me he greeted me with a "Hey Gabe, congratulations to you and Doug on your promotion".  I was dumbfounded.  How did he know or even care?  All I can say is we love being part of the Phamily and the whole brass said many nice things about how we treated their players and coaching staff in Williamsport in year one.  On the downside, nothing regarding names for our Hot Stove Banquet are available yet. 

Tonight's staff dinner is planned for B.B. Kings Blues Club in the downtown area.  A good time to sit, relax and break bread with my co-workers. 

Away We Go!
Sunday, December 2 - The Baseball Winter Meetings are here!  This is about my 16th consecutive and it's still always an exciting time.  All of baseball is here, about 2,500 or so of us, major league and minor league.  This is my 3rd trip to the Opryland Hotel.  Incredibly beautiful place, but tough to navigate.  It's only 3 or 4 stories high but is as large as a massive Theme Park.  At Christmas it's breathtaking...over 3-million Christmas lights and decor beyond belief.  Just allow about 20 minutes to get to a meeting (if you don't get lost!)

Fans always hear about all the Major League stuff at the Meetings, i.e. trades and free agent signings, but the Winter Meetings are really put on by Minor League Baseball for it's member clubs.  We have promotional and sales meetings, league meetings, Award Luncheons, Galas and our annual Trade Show.  The Major League teams just infiltrate our event, but we are glad to have them.  At any given moment you may be having a beer next to Brian Cashman or riding an elevator with Tommy Lasorda.

The one person that you can't miss at the Meetings his ESPN's Peter Gammons.  The guy is everywhere!  Always has been.  You see him about a dozen times a day and always with a cell phone in his ear, talking to his baseball contacts to get the latest info to report each day on ESPN.  My first "Gammons Sighting" was at the Charlotte airport today.  He was waiting for the same flight to Nashville as we were and he was talking on the hands-free cell to a Major League GM while texting on his Blackberry.  The guy is a source-machine, just incredible. 

Alot of Major League business gets done in the lobby bar at night.  Various high-level Major League personnel having drinks and just talking to each other.  When it gets serious, they retire to their suites to talk and swap names and make those blockbuster trades that you hear about on ESPN.

The coverage of the Baseball Winter Meetings has exploded over the last few years.  In addition to the whole ESPN baseball crew here doing live reports, we have MLB.com & XM Radio here broadcasting or webcasting 24 hours a day along with all the print reporters from USA Today and other major newspapers around the nation.  The media workroom is always packed.

This is the one time each year that we renew friendships with all of our friends across the baseball landscape.  We swap ideas, stories and laughs.  It's a great time of year.

Tonight is our annual Phillies Phamily Dinner Party.  All the Phillies Brass hosting all of their Minor League staffs from Clearwater, Williamsport, Clearwater, Lakewood, Reading and Lehigh Valley.  I am hoping to possibly get information about our '08 coaching staff and some possible guest names for our Hot Stove Banquet. 

Tomorrow it's a full day of baseball business seminars which is always informative and enlightening. 

The Gang's All Here
Monday, December 3 - The entire Cutters front office staff is here; Doug Estes, Sarah Budd, Bill Gehron, Jenny Hoover and myself along with Team President Paul Velte.  In addition, we always offer our interns from the past summer the opportunity to room with us free of charge at The Winter Meetings while they search for full-time employment.  Joining us this year; our play-by-play & PR Intern broadcaster Adam Marco, Ticket Ops Intern Marcus Glover, and Asst. Groundskeeper Brian McLaughlin.  Each of them are looking for full-time employment through the PBEO, a division of Minor League Baseball formed to help us find employees and help young hopefuls find internships and jobs.  It's a great system that works on both sides. 

I will say that we have great hopes in bringing Adam back for the summer of '08 to be our broadcaster and work with me in PR.  He did a great job, not only on the air but off as well.  He's exploring his options here, but we have had preliminary talks and if everything falls into place he could find himself back in Williamsport in mid-May.

Today was seminar day.  A chance to listen to fellow operators share ideas about what's new, what's worked and what didn't, plus some seminars where we get information from the main office of Minor League Baseball. 

Tonight is Opening Night at the Trade Show.  Our first chance to walk through and see all the vendors.  Most everyone who supply teams with anything will be there.  Mascot makers, food suppliers, ticket printers, software people, insurance companies, inflatable game makers, fireworks companies, souvenir merchandise suppliers, promotional item suppliers and much more.  Literally hundreds and hundreds of booths in a huge exhibit hall.  I'll probably spend a total of about 8-10 hours over the next 3 days at the Trade Show. 

This hotel is sooooooooooo large and more importantly, spread out.  You just don't see everyone and feel the "pulse" of what is happening as easily as in most hotels with a central lobby and bar area.  Lets just say the center "atrium" area of the hotel contains winding paths through forests, a skywalk, a 44-foot waterfall (Plus other smaller ones), and is 9 acres in size.  That's just the atrium!  So, as you can imagine, just stumbling over things like the ESPN broadcast spot are next to impossible. I actually have to turn on ESPN and watch their reports on TV to find out what's happening.  Where the heck are they!? I saw Peter Gammons in Charlotte, but have not seen him since.  My first Tommy Lasorda sighting was this morning by the way.

Seen in the Jack Daniels Old #7 Bar last night;  Cubs manager Lou Pinella, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker (who called this year's LLWS in Williamsport), Cubs GM Jim Hendry (who spent many days in Williamsport during our time with the Cubbies), former Williamsport manager Oneri Fleita who is now a V.P. for the Cubs, former Williamsport pitcher Nate Teut, who pitched in the majors with the Marlins and now works in the Triple-A Iowa Cubs front office, plus loads of our baseball friends.

Last night's Phillies dinner was excellent.  Good food, good conversation.  The whole Phillies brass was in attendance including Manager Charlie Manuel.  GM Pat Gillick is something, always remembers our name and has lots to say. Phillies CEO Dave Montgomery is the same way.  In fact, as soon as he saw me he greeted me with a "Hey Gabe, congratulations to you and Doug on your promotion".  I was dumbfounded.  How did he know or even care?  All I can say is we love being part of the Phamily and the whole brass said many nice things about how we treated their players and coaching staff in Williamsport in year one.  On the downside, nothing regarding names for our Hot Stove Banquet are available yet. 

Tonight's staff dinner is planned for B.B. Kings Blues Club in the downtown area.  A good time to sit, relax and break bread with my co-workers.