In this, the third of a three part series, Lake County Captains assistant general manager Neil Stein offers a behind-the-scenes look at all that went in to planning August 1’s Cleveland Sports History Night and Major League movie tribute.

Part one is HERE.

Part two is HERE.

Part three, detailing the night of the promotion in question will commence as soon as you transition from this sentence to the next one.

The “Calm” Before the Storm – Planning the Promo of the Year (Part Three)

We want Jobu!

Friday, August 1

The day we’ve all be waiting for has finally arrived. My day begins with a 7:12 a.m. text message from our groundskeeper, Dan Stricko, telling me that the golf cart was there but that  it was too tall for the garage. He also informed me that the first person in line for the Jobu bobblehead arrived at 4:30 a.m.

At 8:30 I went to Bruce Custom Graphics and picked up a banner for our gate with the text “Welcome to Classic Park. One giveaway per person, not per ticket. No stadium exit until all giveaways are distributed.” I also picked up the 6’6” Skipper cutout with removable jersey. The cutout is reminiscent of the Indians owner from Major League, Rachel Phelps, and the cutout Indians Manager Lou Brown gets for the team. He tells the team that there are 32 pieces on the cutout, and he’ll remove one piece of her clothing for each win they get for the remainder of the season.

When I got into work I spoke with Dan Stricko about the golf cart, to see what we might be able to do as a backup plan. We thought about our options: removing the roof, backing it into the players entrance tunnel, leaving it in the corner of the bullpen and, finally, parking it behind the centerfield gate and driving it out from there. (The final option was the one we ended up deciding on.) I also spoke to Dan about the Brandon Weeden promotion we were planning, where we’d have someone in a Weeden jersey get stuck under the oversized American flag in centerfield just like Brandon Weeden did in his NFL debut for the Browns.

I then wrote up a summary of how the Skipper cutout promotion would work. It would cost $10 for a piece of his jersey; each purchase included an oversized Topps Jobu trading card and another prize. Other prizes included tickets to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, Ricky Vaughn Topps Cards, and Singing Skipper bobbleheads from 2013 which played part of the song “Burn On” from Randy Newman (the song played at the beginning of Major League).

Next I spoke with promotions manager Drew LaFollete about the in-game promotions and the prizes we’d be awarding. We had Ricky Vaughn bobbleheads (thank you Cleveland Indians) for the five fans who got the Red Tag under their seat, full packs of Topps Major League trading cards for in-game promotion winners, Bubba Q’s barbecue sauce for any RBI, and Bubba Q’s gift cards for home runs hit by a Captains player.

I returned to my desk to take care of a few last minute details. These included ticket requests from celebrities, finding graphics for the Bubba Q’s promotion and locating a logo for the Baker Vehicle pitching change promotion.

While doing this I was looking at the Crisco, Vaseline and Vagisil sitting on my desk and had an idea. Could we put all those substances, plus jalapenos, on a tray and offer them to Chelcie Ross when he threw out his first pitch? I found a serving tray and put together a platter of substances from which he could choose for his pitch.

By now, Billy Herron, a college student who has helped us a few times this year, showed up to assist with our celebrities and VIP event. I explained everything to him so that he’d be up to speed as he was helping get the celebrities into the ballpark and to the VIP tables.

It was now 4:45 p.m., so we started moving the bobbleheads out of storage to the gates. I took the boxes that we needed for the VIP event and the rest were to be placed evenly at the gates. We ordered extra giveaways (over and above the 1,500 at the gates) for our season ticket holders who have “guaranteed giveaways” as part of their package. Those boxes were set aside.

At 5 p.m. the gates opened for the 200 people who purchased a Jobu VIP package. I checked them in, as several members of our ownership group helped pass out the bobbleheads. After I got through the initial rush of fans, I noticed that there didn’t seem to be as many boxes at the gates as I was used to seeing. I asked an intern to watch the table for me while I checked storage. Sure enough I found 30 more boxes of bobbleheads that had not made their way to the gates. We only had 10 minutes before gates opened for season ticket holders so I made a plea over our radios for anyone available to get the boxes to the gates. In two minutes the task was done, but it was a panic attack nonetheless.

At 5:45 p.m. season ticket holders began entering and cleared out in about 10 minutes. A couple of last minute stragglers came through in the final five minutes before the gates opened to the public.

At 6 p.m. I wrapped up the VIP early entry and prepared to open gates to the public. The playing of “Burn On” by Randy Newman signaled the opening of the gates. A mere 15 minutes later, the 1500 bobbleheads were gone. In somewhat of a surprise, we didn’t have any issues at the gates with people trying to get more than one bobblehead. An always stressful moment during giveaway nights is when we’re down to the final box. One fan is ultimately going to be number 1,500 and get the giveaway, and the next person will be number 1,501 and kick themselves for not getting in line two minutes sooner. Stadium operations manager Josh Porter drew the short straw and had the final box of bobbleheads. Down to three bobbleheads, he literally held them over his head as fans were pouring in and the next three people who got to him went home with the final Jobu bobbleheads of the night.

Two months earlier, when the national media first picked up on the Jobu giveaway, we knew the demand for Jobu was going to be at an all-time high. Fans were traveling to our ballpark from 23 states and Canada, so we came up with a plan for fans who really wanted a bobblehead but weren’t one of the first 1,500 through the gates. We put together a Jobu seven-game ticket package that would be good for any August game or April 2015 game. The plan was priced the same as our normal seven-game plan — $60 each — and fans who bought a package would get a free Jobu bobblehead at a later date. We planned on placing a re-order for these fans the following week. We had 3,000 postcards printed describing this offer and handed them out once the bobbleheads were gone. Fans wanting this package had to purchase them that night and our ticket department processed the orders on the spot. At the end of the night we had sold nearly 200 packages!

When the gates opened it also marked the start of our game-worn jersey auction and the first half of our celebrity autograph session. The Captains wore replica road jerseys of the 1989 Cleveland Indians – the year Major League was released. A bonus item included in the auction was an autographed Pete Vuckovich baseball. Baseball fans remember Vuckovich as the 1982 American League Cy Young winner with the Milwaukee Brewers but Major League fans know him as Yankees slugger Clu Haywood from the movie. Vuckovich is currently a special assistant in the Seattle Mariners organization and they were gracious enough to have him sign a baseball to include in our auction. Not only did he autograph the baseball, he also included the inscription “Clu Haywood,” which made it even better.

At 6:40 PM the first autograph session ended and our Cleveland sports celebrities were escorted to the field for their First Pitches.

Celebrities included Arthur Chu (Jeopardy! Champion), Hector Marinaro (all-time leading scorer in Indoor Soccer History and former member of Cleveland Crunch and Force), Jock Callander (all-time leading scorer in IHL history), Jessica “Evil” Eye and Stipe Miocic (current top-10 ranked UFC fighters from NE Ohio), Al “Bubba” Baker (former Cleveland Brown), Jim Chones and Austin Carr (all-time great Cleveland Cavaliers) and finally Chelcie Ross, aka Eddie Harris. Ross got the biggest ovation and a huge laugh from the crowd when we presented him with the tray of Vagisil, Crisco, Vaseline and jalapenos to choose from before throwing his pitch. For those wondering, Ross went to the Crisco first followed up by a little Vaseline.

After the first pitches the celebrities got to eat and relax in a suite before returning at 7:15 for the second autograph session. Autographs wrapped up at 8; some of the celebrities headed home for the night while others went back up to the suite to watch the game.

On-field host Andrew Grover and promotions manager Drew LaFollette handled the in-game promotions, along with our interns. Promotions included a rubber chicken launch, with the contestant catching the chickens in a deep fryer basket. In Major League Pedro Cerrano wants to sacrifice a live chicken before a game, but the team brings him a bucket of fried chicken instead. Working with our sponsor, Mr. Chicken, we passed out 20 boxes of chicken from Mr. Chicken and each box contained a certificate good for a free 15-piece dinner. The next promotion was called Vision Chart, as one contestant had to read letters on the video board just like Ricky Vaughn did in Manager Lou Brown’s office before determining he needed glasses. This was followed up by the Willie Mays Hays race. Then, my favorite: Guess the Substance. We blindfolded two contestants and had them feel what was in a bowl in front of them and guess the substance. The substances included Vagisil, Vaseline, Crisco and jalapenos in honor of Eddie Harris. Our final in-game promotion of the night was an Austin Carr impression, where fans tried to do their best impersonation of the current Cavs TV announcer. His signature calls include “Wham with the right hand!” and “Get that weak stuff outta here!”

The dust finally settled around 11 PM; the game was over and the Captains had won by a score of 8-1. Starting pitcher Mitch Brown, who played the role of Rick Vaughn in the Captains Major League spinoff videos, pitched five scoreless innings. Nellie Rodriguez, playing the role of Pedro Cerrano, went 2-for-3 with a double, home run and three RBIs.

Nellie “Pedro Cerrano” Rodriguez (left) and a “Wild Thing”-inspired fan

The 9,069 fans who attended the game (one of the top five crowds in Classic Park history) and every person involved in the planning of the night —  from full and part-time staff to the Eastlake police and maintenance departments to our celebrity guests — contributed to making it an overwhelming success. The Captains’ “Cleveland Sports History Night and Major League 25^th Anniversary featuring the Jobu bobblehead” was a grand slam for the organization and the highlight of my 15 seasons in Minor League Baseball.

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Thanks to Neil Stein for taking the time to write this, and thanks to you for taking the time to read it. “On the Road” content resumes tomorrow. My next road trip begins on August 22 in Batavia. See you there? 

benjamin.hill@mlb.com

twitter.com/bensbiz

The Lake County Captains staged a mammoth promotion on August 1, combining their annual “Cleveland Sports History” celebration  with a wide-ranging 25th anniversary tribute to the movie Major League.  The evening’s much-coveted giveaway was a Jobu bobblehead, with actor Chelcie Ross – who played junk-baller Eddie Harris in the film – throwing out a first pitch. Between-innings games and contests referenced Major League in a variety of ways, as a small army of Cleveland sports celebrities signed autographs on the concourse.

In order to shed light on the Minor League Baseball promotional planning process, Captains assistant general manager Neil Stein has written a series of journal entries detailing the work done by he and his staff in the week leading to August 1’s promotion. These journal entries are running in three segments. 

Part one can be found HERE, in the latest edition of my Farm’s Almanac column. Part two can be found below. Part three will run on Monday, here on the blog. 

The “Calm” Before the Storm – Planning the Promo of the Year (Part Two)

Tuesday, July 29

Day off! Yes, a day off during the season. Nonetheless, some work still needed to be done. I got two phone calls at home about our pre-game VIP Meet-and-Greet package, including one person looking to purchase 15 packages. I took time in the afternoon to check my e-mail and respond to several people about the night, including a celebrity who was e-mailing me to potentially cancel his appearance.

That night I needed to run to Walgreens to return a Redbox movie so I thought I’d cross a few items off my list for the Major League promotion while I was there. What items did I need? Nothing out of the ordinary, just a tube of Vagisil, Vaseline and Crisco. In the movie there’s a well-known scene in which Eddie Harris (played by Chelcie Ross, who was coming to our game) and Ricky Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) are talking in the locker room after practice. Sheen looks at Harris, who is shirtless, and notices some substances on his chest. Vaughn asks what’s on his chest and Harris responds with “Crisco, Bardol, Vagisil. Any one of them will give you another two to three inches drop on your curveball.” With Eddie Harris himself coming to the game, we knew we had to incorporate this classic scene into the promotion. Hence, the need to purchase Vagisil and Crisco. Later in the movie there’s a reference to a “Vaseline ball” by the Indians’ radio announcer, played by Bob Uecker, so that’s the significance of the Vaseline. After picking up the items, I checked out, got an interesting look and comment from the woman at the cash register about purchasing Vagisil, and called it a night.

Wednesday, July 30

When I arrived at the ballpark and opened my office door I was greeted by Jobu himself, sitting proudly on the corner of my desk! The biggest stress item and question of the week — “Will the bobbleheads arrive in time?” — could now be crossed off of the list. Thank you Alexander Global for getting Jobu to us on time!

I was then greeted by the Captains beat writer from The News-Herald, David Glasier. David was planning a story on the night and wanted to see Jobu. The News-Herald has been a long-time partner of the Captains and was the co-sponsor of Jobu along with our presenting sponsor Sysco. David and I staged a photo shoot in the office with Jobu and some other bobbleheads. I filled David in on some of the details for Friday, including the golf cart to bring our pitchers in from the bullpen and our plan for first baseman Nellie Rodriguez to play the role of Pedro Cerrano by using “hats for bats.” We also discussed one of our celebrities potentially backing out and brainstormed some potential last-minute replacements.

Then I walked through the concourse with stadium operations manager Josh Porter, so that we could finalize the placement of tables for autographs, sponsors, and the game-worn jersey auction. Josh has been helping with the logistics of the event, including police officers and crowd control for the night. Josh also put together Major League-inspired videos, with our Captains players assuming the roles of players in the movie.

During the afternoon it was time to pick up the phone and confirm more details. This included talking to the Browns to coordinate pickup of The Barge trophy, talking with Campy Russell to confirm Cavs guests, and, finally, at 6 PM, speaking with the representative for Stipe Miocic and Jessica “Evil” Eye (UFC fighters) to confirm t-shirt sales during the game.

That night, while lying in bed, I had a bunch of random thoughts go through my head about the night. This  included the possibility of closing the 1^st base gate in favor of giving away all of the bobbleheads at the main gate. Also, what happened to the balls we sent to Corbin Bernsen for autographs?

The Barge Trophy. It is actually a thing.

Thursday, July 31

It’s Jobu Eve at Classic Park. In the early morning I got an e-mail from one of our celebrity guests, former Browns and Lions defensive lineman Al “Bubba” Baker. He was inquiring about an in-game promotion involving his restaurant (Bubba Q’s), his barbecue sauce and his famous de-boned rib steaks, all of which were featured on the TV show Shark Tank. Previously we suggested giving out something for every Captains RBI (aka “ribby”) during the game. Bubba liked the idea and also wanted to give out a $50 gift card for every Captains home run.

After that I sat down with general manager Brad Seymour and stadium operations manager Josh Porter, to discuss the possibility of giving away all of the bobbleheads at the main gate. We determined that this would be best in terms of crowd control, and it would also make sure that one location didn’t run out before the other. I suggested routing everyone down the stairs and along the sidewalk in four lines, as we were anticipating long lines Friday night. After this Josh and I walked to the main gate to visualize how the lines would work. We made our best guess as to how long the lines might be and to see how we could safely route the fans along the side of the ballpark. Josh called the city of Eastlake to see if we could borrow traffic cones to help with this process.

In the office I checked the status of some final VIP orders to make sure they were fulfilled, so that there wouldn’t be any issues with this on Friday. (We sold out of VIP packages on Tuesday.) I talked to Josh Porter about our VIP event and how to keep season ticket holders out of the autograph area from 5:45 to 6:00 pm, when those two groups would be overlapping inside the stadium. We came up with a stanchion system that would divide the concourse, which be easy to remove at 6:00 pm.

I then went back to my to-do checklist. Items included working out the logistics of driving the golf cart onto the field, graphics for the video board, PA scripts and reads, and responding to e-mails from fans begging to buy Jobu bobbleheads.

Neil Stein at work

During my lunch break I ran to Goodwill, Wal-Mart and Discount Drug Mart to get some props. We needed pajamas for our Willie Mays Hays in-game promotion, which was going to involve swinging a bat, doing 20 push-ups (like Willie Mays Hays every time he hit a popup during the movie), putting on pajamas and racing from home plate to first base (similar to when Hays was removed from the dorm during training camp, woke up late for practice and ran a 60-yard dash in his pajamas). At Wal-Mart I got red paper to make Red Tags to put under seats, signaling fans had won a prize (as opposed to in the movie, when a Red Tag in someone’s locker signified a player getting cut). Finally, I went to Discount Drug Mart to see if I could find a Pilot Flying J gift card at their Gift Card Center. Unfortunately, they didn’t have one. The plan was to allow anyone with a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) to register for a chance to win a $50 gift card, as retribution for the well-documented issues the company owned by Cleveland Browns owner, Jimmy Haslam, had with trucking companies over the past several years.

Our staff held a meeting at 3 pm, where we discussed all the games of the upcoming six-game homestand. (The first game was tomorrow’s Cleveland Sports History Night and Jobu bobblehead giveaway.) We spent 45 minutes discussing details and logistics for Friday night, so that our staff was aware of how things would run and be able to answer any questions. We also conducted a competition among the staff, guessing the time that the first person would arrive for the giveaway.

My guess: 5:30 PM Thursday night.

Following the staff meeting I left to pick up postcards and ticket vouchers for the ticket package we were going to offer to fans who didn’t get a Jobu bobblehead (more about this later). I was also going to pick up a banner for our main gate and a life-sized Skipper cutout, but they weren’t ready so I made arrangements to pick those up Friday.

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Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion of Neil Stein’s promotion planning journal! Will Eddie Harris opt for the Vagisil? What time will the first fan get in line for the Jobu bobblehead? Will the Skipper cardboard cutout ever arrive? All will be revealed! 

benjamin.hill@mlb.com

twitter.com/bensbiz