Three Months on the Field equals Twelve Months of Preparation.

When fans head to the ballpark to watch a minor league baseball game, they see the players,  coaches, they eat incredible food and drink a tasty beverage. But, have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes? I recently sat down with Batavia Muckdogs' assistant general manager Josh Swan to discuss commitment it takes to field a sucessful team and make fans happy. 


MARC:
Can you hear that? It's the sound of silence, which is usually what you hear standing outside of Batavia, New York's Dwyer Stadium during the month of March. Since 1973, the Class-A Batavia Muckdogs have called Dwyer Stadium home, but just because the Muckdogs play from mid-June until early-September doesn't mean the organization is idle for the rest of the calendar year. Muckdogs Director of Ticket Operations and Assistant General Manager Josh Swan says getting this Short Season minor league baseball team on the field takes a full 12 months of hard work.


SWAN:
For most of our day-to day operations, it consists of me, my boss, who is the General Manager of the team; we take a look at our big board over here. This is what helps set us up.

MARC:
The big board Swan is referring to is a 4 x 8 foot white board sectioned off in categories: picnics, promotions, giveaways and special appearances. The goal? To have every slot on what the front office calls "the mother board" filled.

SWAN:
We are owned by the Genesee County Baseball Club, so it's mainly funded through boosters, through them, but it's our job to help bring in more revenue to keep the team in Batavia, to make sure we get these guys on the field.

SWAN
So, our day-to-day operations consist of reaching out to many local businesses through Batavia, Rochester, Buffalo area, and we have, we sell program ads, we sell radio commercial advertisements, we sell signage throughout the concourse, all the signs throughout the stadium, all the signs on the outfield wall. Everything that we do with that helps bring in all sort of revenue for us, that makes it able to [help] fund a team to be able to stay on the field. And then other, other aspects besides just advertising and marketing that we try to do is we offer group picnic outings that we do, and that's one of my main details as Director of Ticket Operations is I reach out to local businesses that have large number of employees and try to offer them an incentive to be able to come out to a picnic outing that sponsors their group and it's their own night at the ballpark.

MARC:
Swan says with the help of the Rochester Redwings and their management of the Muckdog's concession dollars, revenue is then filtered back into the organization.

SWAN:
It does filter through the organization itself 'cause our concessions are actually owned by the Rochester Redwings and they take care of most of our concessions management money, so all of our revenue we develop through marketing and advertising kind of develops [some] stuff that goes around the stadium. Helps pay for the signs to be put up, helps pay for the new jerseys for the guys to wear every year, all the equipment, all the merchandise for the fans, [that] helps bring them to the games, makes the atmosphere more electric.

MARC:
In addition to the support the Muckdogs receive from the Redwings and local business's, Swan says the Batavia community also plays a tremendous part.

SWAN:
The city of Batavia does most of the work to be able to keep these guys here. Because we actually have a lot of homeowners that rent out their homes to the players and allow them to stay with them. It's great to see a small community like that be able to come in, support their baseball team not by just coming to the games, but be able to help feed the players, drive these guys everywhere they need to go. Most of these guys don't even have vehicles yet. I mean, on their rookie level contracts, they can't even afford them.

MARC:
Swan says the whole community has to come together to help fund and keep the team on the field. Part of that is fans showing up every night. Another is the involvement of the Major League front office.

SWAN:
I wouldn't say so much throughout our daily operations. It's more of like a weekly operations. We try to get in contact to the Marlins about our players. Our roster isn't set in stone until April when these guys actually come here. So, once we kind of get a hold of those guys and we find out who the players are, then we get in contact the coaches and get ready for the upcoming season.

MARC:
The sights and sounds of the New York-Penn League begin Friday June 17th where the Muckdogs open the season on the road versus the Auburn Doubledays. The Muckdogs home opener is Wednesday June 22nd versus the State College Spikes.