The Cardinals hold their Grapefruit League home opener today at Roger Dean Stadium. They will be going up against the NY Mets for the second day in a row. Yesterday, the Cards traveled up I-95 to St. Lucie to play the Mets. They came home with a 0-1 record, losing 17-11. Meanwhile, we move even closer to the Cards minor league camp kicking off.
In that spirit, Sports Hot Corner honors the 2009 Pacific Coast Champions Memphis Redbirds this week by featuring its blog as our “Cardinal Blogger of the Week.” Chirp Chatter was created last season by the Redbirds, and they look to utilize it even more this year to communicate with their fans. Chirp Chatter falls under the purview of Director of Baseball Operations/PR Kyle Parkinson. He’s assisted by two interns - Jordan Johnson (Communications Assistant) and Dave Portney (Media Relations Assistant). Jordan and Dave will be the go-to people on the blog this year, with Kyle adding his two-bits from time to time.
Besides the Chirp Chatter blog, the Redbirds have branched out its social networking arms to reach its fans. They recently created a Facebook account under the name, Nostalgia Man (facebook.com/nostalgia.man). And they have established a Twitter account (twitter.com/memphisredbirds). Between the three, they hope to connect with Redbirds fans and draw them into the experience of attending a minor league baseball game.
Other honors keep coming the way of the Redbirds. Winning the PCL crown will do that for a team. During the weekend of Feb. 19-21, the Redbirds were honored by the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in Nashville. On behalf of the organization, Redbirds broadcaster Steve Selby was on hand to pick up the Redbirds award as one of two Professional Teams of the year for the state of Tennessee. The other team honored was the Knoxville Ice Bears.
The Redbirds open defense of their PCL crown on April 8th at Omaha. They return home on April 16th to face Oklahoma City at AutoZone Park. For ticket information call 901.721.6000 or visit memphisredbirds.com.
*************************************************
Q&A with Kyle Parkinson:
For many of the bloggers in Cardinal Nation, your job might be called a "dream job,” but I'm sure it involves a lot of work. What did you do before getting the Redbirds’ job that best prepared you for your current position?
I do have a dream job, but it is a ton of work. This is the only job I’ve had since I graduated from the University of Arkansas, but I started here as an intern in 2005. While in college I worked for the Athletic Department in coach’s video so that definitely helped get my internship with the Redbirds. I also wrote for the school newspaper, The Traveler, and served as the Sports Director for UATV, student television. I had plenty of experience when I started here in ’05.
What piece of advice were you given that has helped you the most?
I don’t know if there is one piece of advice that I can point to, but I was told several times in college that I wouldn’t get a job in sports and here I am. So that was definitely motivation. I try to take something from everyone I work with or do business with good or bad and apply it to what I’m doing and what I want to do in the future.
What advice would you give our readers who have a desire to find a job in minor league baseball?
Get an internship. It’s by far the best way to get into sports. There are 159 minor league teams in 44 of the 50 states and almost every one of them has some kind of internship program. It’s the best way to find out if you actually want to work in baseball, which is unlike any other sport because we play every day. An internship gives you a leg up when you’re trying to get a full-time job.
When does the hiring process begin for the organization in getting ready for a new season?
For our internship program we’ll start getting resumes as early as June or July for the next season. We typically fill those spots starting in September and try to be finished before the Winter Meetings. For full-time positions, it just depends on need.
Besides getting to watch baseball all summer for “free,” what are some of the perks of your job?
I tell people all the time when they ask what I do that I get to do all the fun stuff. I’m responsible for the day-to-day operations of our baseball team and all of our public relations efforts. The variety of what I do during the day in season and the daily challenges of trying to move our team around the Pacific Coast League is what I enjoy most…other than getting to watch free baseball.
Will you or your staff be heading down to Jupiter this year? Any advice/suggestions for first time visitors to Jupiter?
Our broadcaster Steve Selby and I will be down there for a few days at the end of March. If it’s your first time going to Jupiter, go early and stay late because you will never get more open access to players, coaches and front office staff. If you’re a baseball fan, you owe it to yourself to go at least once to your team’s spring training because you’ll never forget it. As for advice, check out the minor league games. They’re free and resemble a little league tournament with four games going at once on four fields. It’s mind blowing to think not much changes from T-ball to the pros.
How would you describe an average AutoZone Park visitor for a Redbirds game?
We have a wide variety of people that come to our park, but the majority of people that come here through the week I would say are couples and friends that have older kids. Then on the weekends that completely changes with families bringing their young kids to the park. Some of the fans that I think are the most fun are the people from Europe. With Elvis’ Graceland just down the road Memphis is a tourist attraction for a lot of Europeans, who have no idea what baseball is or how it’s played. Those people have a blast when they’re here.
Minor league baseball is known for its between-inning entertainment. What are some of the entertainment highlights at a Memphis ballgame?
Traditionally we haven’t done much between innings, but that’s going to change this year. You’ll have to come to a game to see what we’re doing this summer.
How many special nights per year do you typically have? Like the Tipton County night coming up April 18?
We like to think all 72 home dates are special, but we are having 14 fireworks shows this year, which will be the most-ever. A lot of our fans will be excited about our championship ring replica giveaway on July 8. We will have 11-12 community nights as well.
What other events (besides baseball) are being held at AutoZone Park this year?
Over the last few years we’ve really tried to expand the use of the park to 365 days a year. We’ve had Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews Band and a displaced VooDoo Musicfest in 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina. This spring we’re having (the Memphis) Brewfest, which is a beer festival, on April 24 (from 4-8PM). We have a game on April 23 against Iowa (Cubs affiliate) with post-game fireworks and Brewfest the next day so it should be a big weekend at AZP.
When did you or your staff decide to create the “Chirp Chatter” blog for the Memphis Redbirds?
We created Chirp Chatter last spring. My interns at the time, Ben Spradling and Alex Wassel, came up with the name and did an outstanding job with it, including their epic Hot Dog Race entry. We really dove into the entire social media thing last year with twitter (twitter.com/memphisredbirds), a new Facebook page (facebook.com/nostalgia.man) and the blog.
Who decides on the content for the blog? You, your staff or a combination of both?
Dave Portney and Jordan Johnson have complete creative reign over the blog this year. I’ll make suggestions from time-to-time but they’ve done an outstanding job creating content on a regular basis. They also enjoy feedback and comments, so feel free to express your opinions.
With social networking becoming bigger and bigger, how do you plan on taking advantage of some of the things that it has to offer? (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace)
My favorite social network is twitter (twitter.com/memphisredbirds), hands down. We were one of the first teams in the PCL to get a twitter account and then it blew up and now everyone has it. We’ve taken a little bit different approach than some of the teams I’ve talked with. We’re not out there following every person we can, hoping they’ll follow us. We have over 2200 followers and probably 90-95 percent of those followers I would say are legit Cardinals or Redbirds fans, and that’s who we’re trying to reach. It’s a free way to reach out to the people that have some kind of interest in you, so there’s no reason not to do it. I think we’ve only scratched the service of what social networking can do for us.
What kind of public response have you gotten for the naming of your Game Day program, which you ran through your Twitter and Facebook accounts?
We had nearly 600 entries for the program name which was more than I expected. The suggestions varied from good to weird to completely absurd. (Editor’s Note: Voting on the final name is open till 5 PM today – March 5, 2010. Go to the Memphis Redbirds site, locate the poll midway down the far right side and cast your vote for one of the five finalists: The Bird Feeder, The Free Bird, Dugout Dirt, Words of a Feather or Redbird Rambler.)
Do you plan on running any other “special” events through Chirp Chatter, Facebook or Twitter this summer, where fans can win free tickets for games? (contests, Redbird trivia, etc)
We’re actually kicking around several ideas to interact with fans through Facebook (facebook.com/nostalgia.man) and twitter (twitter.com/memphisredbirds) this summer. Tickets, autographed items and all kinds of stuff will be up for grabs.
As defending PCL champs, what is in store at the park this summer to recognize last year’s team?
Nothing is set in stone yet, but the plan is to honor all the returning players and coaches, and we’ll also have a championship flag raised on Opening Night.
Who are some of the players you anticipate returning to the Redbirds this summer from last year’s team?
Well thanks to the Cardinals being loaded that helps us bring back a lot of guys that played here last season. We never want to see guys here more than one season because that means they’re not in St. Louis, but we’re definitely glad to have them when they do get sent here. Selfishly I would love to have Allen Craig, Tyler Greene, Nick Stavinoha and Jaime Garcia all back with a healthy Joe Mather, but we’ll see how the spring shakes out.
I know it’s early, but who are some of the “new” players (like Daryl Jones) that the Cardinals could be stocking the Redbirds with in 2010?
Daryl Jones is an interesting case because one thing the Cardinals have in the system is outfielders, and we’ll likely have four or five guys that expect to play in the outfield every day. Former Ole Miss Rebel Lance Lynn will likely be in the rotation at some point, and he was pretty impressive in his lone outing for us last summer. Eduardo Sanchez is another arm I’m excited to see.
In all your years with Memphis, what players have been the most fun to work with?
For the most part we’ve been lucky to have a great bunch of guys, but over the last few years my top five (and I know I’m going to leave someone off and catch flak for it) in no particular order would be Blake Hawksworth, Nick Stavinoha, Joe Mather, David Freese and Jason Motte. Honorable mentions go to Brendan Ryan because you never know what he’s going to say or do next and Skip Schumaker is one of the best guys we’ve ever had here.
Strangest request that you ever got from a media person?
Probably one of the strangest was when we had our former Director of Marketing wear a skirt for a photo shoot for a local women’s magazine. He did not have the legs to pull it off.
What question are you asked the most, that you wish you had a card written out with the answer, so you could just hand it over and wouldn't have to reply?
How do I get my son a tryout is the one I get the most and the most annoying. We have nothing to do with any player decisions for the record.
A Redbird Repeat in 2010?
That’s the plan, and we should have a really good team with a lot of guys that have been around this league at least once. I’ve already stopped wearing my championship ring on a regular basis because it’s time to go get another one.
***********************************
I’d like to thank Kyle for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions and to congratulate Kyle, Jordan, Dave and the Memphis Redbirds organization on becoming our Sports Hot Corner “Cardinals Blogger of the Week.”
If you want to nominate a “Cardinals Blogger of the Week,” please submit your choice to BleacherBum593, ArRedbird or Tulcard via a PM on the Sports Hot Corner site or send an email to BleacherBum593@aol.com.
If you’re a blogger and would like to have your blog listed on our link page, let us know via PM or Email.
Check back every Friday to see which blogger is featured. Hopefully, you’ll make a connection with one or more of the men/women who write about Cardinal baseball.
Previous featured Cardinals Blogger of the Week:
02/26/10 – Cards Cove - http://sportshotcorner.yuku.com/topic/510
02/19/10 - Cardinals Best News Links – http://sportshotcorner.yuku.com/topic/506
02/12/10 - C70 at the Bat - http://sportshotcorner.yuku.com/topic/497
In that spirit, Sports Hot Corner honors the 2009 Pacific Coast Champions Memphis Redbirds this week by featuring its blog as our “Cardinal Blogger of the Week.” Chirp Chatter was created last season by the Redbirds, and they look to utilize it even more this year to communicate with their fans. Chirp Chatter falls under the purview of Director of Baseball Operations/PR Kyle Parkinson. He’s assisted by two interns - Jordan Johnson (Communications Assistant) and Dave Portney (Media Relations Assistant). Jordan and Dave will be the go-to people on the blog this year, with Kyle adding his two-bits from time to time.
Besides the Chirp Chatter blog, the Redbirds have branched out its social networking arms to reach its fans. They recently created a Facebook account under the name, Nostalgia Man (facebook.com/nostalgia.man). And they have established a Twitter account (twitter.com/memphisredbirds). Between the three, they hope to connect with Redbirds fans and draw them into the experience of attending a minor league baseball game.
Other honors keep coming the way of the Redbirds. Winning the PCL crown will do that for a team. During the weekend of Feb. 19-21, the Redbirds were honored by the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in Nashville. On behalf of the organization, Redbirds broadcaster Steve Selby was on hand to pick up the Redbirds award as one of two Professional Teams of the year for the state of Tennessee. The other team honored was the Knoxville Ice Bears.
The Redbirds open defense of their PCL crown on April 8th at Omaha. They return home on April 16th to face Oklahoma City at AutoZone Park. For ticket information call 901.721.6000 or visit memphisredbirds.com.
*************************************************
Q&A with Kyle Parkinson:
For many of the bloggers in Cardinal Nation, your job might be called a "dream job,” but I'm sure it involves a lot of work. What did you do before getting the Redbirds’ job that best prepared you for your current position?
I do have a dream job, but it is a ton of work. This is the only job I’ve had since I graduated from the University of Arkansas, but I started here as an intern in 2005. While in college I worked for the Athletic Department in coach’s video so that definitely helped get my internship with the Redbirds. I also wrote for the school newspaper, The Traveler, and served as the Sports Director for UATV, student television. I had plenty of experience when I started here in ’05.
What piece of advice were you given that has helped you the most?
I don’t know if there is one piece of advice that I can point to, but I was told several times in college that I wouldn’t get a job in sports and here I am. So that was definitely motivation. I try to take something from everyone I work with or do business with good or bad and apply it to what I’m doing and what I want to do in the future.
What advice would you give our readers who have a desire to find a job in minor league baseball?
Get an internship. It’s by far the best way to get into sports. There are 159 minor league teams in 44 of the 50 states and almost every one of them has some kind of internship program. It’s the best way to find out if you actually want to work in baseball, which is unlike any other sport because we play every day. An internship gives you a leg up when you’re trying to get a full-time job.
When does the hiring process begin for the organization in getting ready for a new season?
For our internship program we’ll start getting resumes as early as June or July for the next season. We typically fill those spots starting in September and try to be finished before the Winter Meetings. For full-time positions, it just depends on need.
Besides getting to watch baseball all summer for “free,” what are some of the perks of your job?
I tell people all the time when they ask what I do that I get to do all the fun stuff. I’m responsible for the day-to-day operations of our baseball team and all of our public relations efforts. The variety of what I do during the day in season and the daily challenges of trying to move our team around the Pacific Coast League is what I enjoy most…other than getting to watch free baseball.
Will you or your staff be heading down to Jupiter this year? Any advice/suggestions for first time visitors to Jupiter?
Our broadcaster Steve Selby and I will be down there for a few days at the end of March. If it’s your first time going to Jupiter, go early and stay late because you will never get more open access to players, coaches and front office staff. If you’re a baseball fan, you owe it to yourself to go at least once to your team’s spring training because you’ll never forget it. As for advice, check out the minor league games. They’re free and resemble a little league tournament with four games going at once on four fields. It’s mind blowing to think not much changes from T-ball to the pros.
How would you describe an average AutoZone Park visitor for a Redbirds game?
We have a wide variety of people that come to our park, but the majority of people that come here through the week I would say are couples and friends that have older kids. Then on the weekends that completely changes with families bringing their young kids to the park. Some of the fans that I think are the most fun are the people from Europe. With Elvis’ Graceland just down the road Memphis is a tourist attraction for a lot of Europeans, who have no idea what baseball is or how it’s played. Those people have a blast when they’re here.
Minor league baseball is known for its between-inning entertainment. What are some of the entertainment highlights at a Memphis ballgame?
Traditionally we haven’t done much between innings, but that’s going to change this year. You’ll have to come to a game to see what we’re doing this summer.
How many special nights per year do you typically have? Like the Tipton County night coming up April 18?
We like to think all 72 home dates are special, but we are having 14 fireworks shows this year, which will be the most-ever. A lot of our fans will be excited about our championship ring replica giveaway on July 8. We will have 11-12 community nights as well.
What other events (besides baseball) are being held at AutoZone Park this year?
Over the last few years we’ve really tried to expand the use of the park to 365 days a year. We’ve had Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews Band and a displaced VooDoo Musicfest in 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina. This spring we’re having (the Memphis) Brewfest, which is a beer festival, on April 24 (from 4-8PM). We have a game on April 23 against Iowa (Cubs affiliate) with post-game fireworks and Brewfest the next day so it should be a big weekend at AZP.
When did you or your staff decide to create the “Chirp Chatter” blog for the Memphis Redbirds?
We created Chirp Chatter last spring. My interns at the time, Ben Spradling and Alex Wassel, came up with the name and did an outstanding job with it, including their epic Hot Dog Race entry. We really dove into the entire social media thing last year with twitter (twitter.com/memphisredbirds), a new Facebook page (facebook.com/nostalgia.man) and the blog.
Who decides on the content for the blog? You, your staff or a combination of both?
Dave Portney and Jordan Johnson have complete creative reign over the blog this year. I’ll make suggestions from time-to-time but they’ve done an outstanding job creating content on a regular basis. They also enjoy feedback and comments, so feel free to express your opinions.
With social networking becoming bigger and bigger, how do you plan on taking advantage of some of the things that it has to offer? (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace)
My favorite social network is twitter (twitter.com/memphisredbirds), hands down. We were one of the first teams in the PCL to get a twitter account and then it blew up and now everyone has it. We’ve taken a little bit different approach than some of the teams I’ve talked with. We’re not out there following every person we can, hoping they’ll follow us. We have over 2200 followers and probably 90-95 percent of those followers I would say are legit Cardinals or Redbirds fans, and that’s who we’re trying to reach. It’s a free way to reach out to the people that have some kind of interest in you, so there’s no reason not to do it. I think we’ve only scratched the service of what social networking can do for us.
What kind of public response have you gotten for the naming of your Game Day program, which you ran through your Twitter and Facebook accounts?
We had nearly 600 entries for the program name which was more than I expected. The suggestions varied from good to weird to completely absurd. (Editor’s Note: Voting on the final name is open till 5 PM today – March 5, 2010. Go to the Memphis Redbirds site, locate the poll midway down the far right side and cast your vote for one of the five finalists: The Bird Feeder, The Free Bird, Dugout Dirt, Words of a Feather or Redbird Rambler.)
Do you plan on running any other “special” events through Chirp Chatter, Facebook or Twitter this summer, where fans can win free tickets for games? (contests, Redbird trivia, etc)
We’re actually kicking around several ideas to interact with fans through Facebook (facebook.com/nostalgia.man) and twitter (twitter.com/memphisredbirds) this summer. Tickets, autographed items and all kinds of stuff will be up for grabs.
As defending PCL champs, what is in store at the park this summer to recognize last year’s team?
Nothing is set in stone yet, but the plan is to honor all the returning players and coaches, and we’ll also have a championship flag raised on Opening Night.
Who are some of the players you anticipate returning to the Redbirds this summer from last year’s team?
Well thanks to the Cardinals being loaded that helps us bring back a lot of guys that played here last season. We never want to see guys here more than one season because that means they’re not in St. Louis, but we’re definitely glad to have them when they do get sent here. Selfishly I would love to have Allen Craig, Tyler Greene, Nick Stavinoha and Jaime Garcia all back with a healthy Joe Mather, but we’ll see how the spring shakes out.
I know it’s early, but who are some of the “new” players (like Daryl Jones) that the Cardinals could be stocking the Redbirds with in 2010?
Daryl Jones is an interesting case because one thing the Cardinals have in the system is outfielders, and we’ll likely have four or five guys that expect to play in the outfield every day. Former Ole Miss Rebel Lance Lynn will likely be in the rotation at some point, and he was pretty impressive in his lone outing for us last summer. Eduardo Sanchez is another arm I’m excited to see.
In all your years with Memphis, what players have been the most fun to work with?
For the most part we’ve been lucky to have a great bunch of guys, but over the last few years my top five (and I know I’m going to leave someone off and catch flak for it) in no particular order would be Blake Hawksworth, Nick Stavinoha, Joe Mather, David Freese and Jason Motte. Honorable mentions go to Brendan Ryan because you never know what he’s going to say or do next and Skip Schumaker is one of the best guys we’ve ever had here.
Strangest request that you ever got from a media person?
Probably one of the strangest was when we had our former Director of Marketing wear a skirt for a photo shoot for a local women’s magazine. He did not have the legs to pull it off.
What question are you asked the most, that you wish you had a card written out with the answer, so you could just hand it over and wouldn't have to reply?
How do I get my son a tryout is the one I get the most and the most annoying. We have nothing to do with any player decisions for the record.
A Redbird Repeat in 2010?
That’s the plan, and we should have a really good team with a lot of guys that have been around this league at least once. I’ve already stopped wearing my championship ring on a regular basis because it’s time to go get another one.
***********************************
I’d like to thank Kyle for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions and to congratulate Kyle, Jordan, Dave and the Memphis Redbirds organization on becoming our Sports Hot Corner “Cardinals Blogger of the Week.”
If you want to nominate a “Cardinals Blogger of the Week,” please submit your choice to BleacherBum593, ArRedbird or Tulcard via a PM on the Sports Hot Corner site or send an email to BleacherBum593@aol.com.
If you’re a blogger and would like to have your blog listed on our link page, let us know via PM or Email.
Check back every Friday to see which blogger is featured. Hopefully, you’ll make a connection with one or more of the men/women who write about Cardinal baseball.
Previous featured Cardinals Blogger of the Week:
02/26/10 – Cards Cove - http://sportshotcorner.yuku.com/topic/510
02/19/10 - Cardinals Best News Links – http://sportshotcorner.yuku.com/topic/506
02/12/10 - C70 at the Bat - http://sportshotcorner.yuku.com/topic/497
