Transcript

Tony Buccilli · WashCo Insider

speaker-0: There's a lot of energy around baseball in Western Pennsylvania this year. With Team USA's performance in the World Baseball Classic, some new bats on the Pirates roster, Pony Baseball and Softball International is celebrating their 75th season, and of course the Pony League World Series will return to Lew Hayes Pony Field in August. But while much attention is focused on the national stage, one of the region's most unique and beloved baseball experiences is happening right here in our own backyard. The Washington Wild Things are a franchise that have become far more than a baseball team. From family traditions and fireworks nights to future big league talent and unforgettable moments at the ballpark, the Wild Things have carved out a special place in this community. Today, we're going behind the scenes with Tony Buccilli to talk about the team, the business of independent baseball, and what makes the Wild Things experience so special. Tony Buccilli president and general manager of the Washington Wild Things when we come back. Tony, I know this is a terribly busy time for you of the year. You've got just had opening night, things are starting to ramp up. It's May 21st. this is, I don't know, is this maybe your busiest time of the year? speaker-1: ⁓ We're getting there probably. ⁓ I wouldn't say the busiest, usually June and July is where I've hit rock bottom in terms of energy levels and ⁓ maybe it feels like the busiest when we start juggling a lot of external events. I think right now is kind of the most exciting time. It's where we can hit the ground running, we can build a lot of momentum as long as the weather agrees with us and we can see some lasting impact. ⁓ every year I've been doing this for... 14 years now, so every year has, and I'm not sick of it yet, so right now it's still an exciting day to get out there at the ballpark. speaker-0: Well speaking of weather, you guys are a little bit more weatherproof than others with Turf Field that you just replaced last year I believe. Tell us about some of the other improvements that have happened over the last six months or so. speaker-1: Yeah, we're exciting, obviously. mean, as we approach 25 years, we understand like there's the ballpark's going to show a little bit of an age, but being able to update it and bring it into this century a little bit ⁓ and keep it going. So, yeah, we did the turf last year. Great, phenomenal. My feet feel amazing compared to previous years with ⁓ the turf seeing better days. But we introduced LED lights to the stadium. So. Gonna be a blast to kind of unveil those on a nightly basis, seeing fans react to kind of the light shows, the home runs, catching people off guard. I'm already having a fun time playing with it and that ooh and ⁓ sensation. ⁓ We have new stadium seats, our seats for people, it's an interesting story. Our lower level seats were from Three Rivers Stadium, 1994, installed for the All-Star Game at Three Rivers and they were then donated. when the stadium opened. So they've seen a lot of games, a lot of history from our stadium, A and Three Rivers, and finally put those babies to bed as parts were very tough to get replacements and all that stuff. So brand new stadium seats in our lower level. I mean, those were nice upgrades for the fans. I know they were really excited to sit in them and experience them for the first time. A little less of a sexy one, but structural steel. We painted this structural steel just to maintain the integrity of some things. Things moving forward here, trying to get ⁓ some tech stuff, some video boards upgrades, some other digital stuff to keep up with the Joneses in the industry. But ⁓ yeah, it's exciting. I think our fans react to it and ⁓ you know us, like our fan experience is ⁓ something we hold in high regard. everything we do is kind of in benefit of them. speaker-0: Well, speaking of the industry, take us back a bit to kind of your career path into the industry. I know you were at IUP. know you had a master's in sport management, as do I. But your undergrad didn't necessarily point towards baseball, yeah? speaker-1: No, yeah, that's always an interesting story for people when they realize what I've done, I come across as a straight baseball person, which I am. ⁓ But ⁓ previously, my undergrad and my longest job prior to working in baseball, I worked in retail pharmacy, my undergrad in pharmacy. So I've done anatomy, physiology, microbiology, all the crazy stuff. ⁓ I've experienced it, learned it. ⁓ and try to forget as much of it as I can. started having nightmares of counting pills and I was like, all right, that's enough for me at that point. But I still loved it. I was still coaching, still involved with the game. I've been involved with the game since, I mean, obviously when I was back playing, but my family stayed involved. I stayed coaching even through pharmacy stuff and did the pharmacy school testing, interviews, applications. And I'm like, listen, I can't shake my competitive nature still. I want to get back and stay involved on the baseball side. So. I got my master's interned for the Wild Things in 2012 and that internship transitioned very quickly into a career and a lifestyle. speaker-0: Well, let's talk about the Frontier League. Let's talk about independent baseball. Give us an idea for those that are not familiar with the Frontier League about the geographic footprint of the league, ⁓ kind of how the wild things fit into it, and just give us a background on the league. speaker-1: So our league is the oldest, the largest of any kind in the country. We span from Quebec City, Canada. We have three teams in Canada at the moment. We go as far south as Pearl, Mississippi, which is a new addition. The Mud Monsters were added last year. And then we go coast to coast from New York City all the way out to St. Louis. So ⁓ it is a massive footprint. We are all largely in kind of shadows of major cities. ⁓ which has its unique niche to kind of the demo and the crowd base and travel methods. yeah, mean, for me, always teaching people kind of the industry, because I mean, I'm perfect example. I grew up here in Pittsburgh. I didn't really have an understanding of minor league baseball until I started working in it. And for the education piece of, these guys are what, I mean, the level of play that they are. You've seen it, we've had guys. throwing 100 miles an hour who made the big leagues in a calendar year. ⁓ We have D1, D2, D3 All-Americans, first round picks, second round picks, top prospects nationally and internationally from clubs that for whatever reason play out their free agency or just need a ⁓ fresh start somewhere like anyone in a career path. And ⁓ we're a great springboard. So I think we're really proud of our role in educating the tri-state about minor league baseball. When I worked for the Rangers, I traveled the country and certain pockets of the population, understand minor league sports a little bit differently than such a pro, NFL, MLB, NHL city like Pittsburgh and the county. So there's always that learning curve because it is just kind of a, it's a major sport, but it's ⁓ minor league athletes and we've shown a good history of kind of seeing guys climb the ranks. speaker-0: Yeah, and the Frontier League has been around since 93, right? And there was just a big announcement that came out a week or two ago. Tell us about that. speaker-1: Yeah, so we did a rebrand of a name ⁓ of the league will go into effect next year. National Association of Professional Baseball. ⁓ Kind of the decision making or kind of the talk about why they were doing that. When we first started, it was like the new frontier pushing into the Midwest of a lot of ⁓ baseball in our industry. And now we've become a national, national and international ⁓ footprint. So I know we're only going to continue to grow. We're already at 18 teams, which is a lot for our travel schedule, the guys jumping on buses and going out and playing series. But ⁓ there are new markets, new cities, new stadiums that are looking to be built or renovated and to join it. So ⁓ we continually grow. I think, ⁓ yeah, hopefully one day the national development of kind of what partner league baseball and our league impacts is ⁓ something that just can positively impact. ⁓ A lot of communities around the area that don't have baseball. think that's growing the sport and growing that family experience is a big thing. speaker-0: Absolutely it is. Now, I know about that much about your job because I spent a short time with the Altoona Curve, just enough to kind of get a taste for it and a little bit of a background. But you know what? I love baseball, grew up loving baseball, and my singular purpose of getting a sport management degree was to work in baseball. And when I did, still loved it, spent time in Cooferstown at the Hall of Fame and with the Altoona Curve. speaker-1: was enough for you. speaker-0: But what I realized was that if I'm going to continue to love baseball, I need to continue from the outside. Sure. You know, you guys work crazy hours. Yes. Totally respect that. ⁓ But I've maintained my love for the game from the outside. ⁓ you know, I think mentioning that, tell us about, you know, what does it take? I've seen it little bit in the back end, but what does it take to operate an independent professional baseball team in Washington County? What does your day to day look like? speaker-1: Well, that's probably why I stay in it or I got in it. It's my day-to-day is completely different every day. like obviously when I was working in pharmacy, it was the same routine. Shipments came in, counting pills, running prescriptions, blah, like all day, same thing every day over and over. ⁓ Now every day is a unique challenge. Every day I can have a plan of what I'm going to go with for the day and it takes one phone call, one email, one MLB team calling us to sign one of our players. And then my day goes completely sideways, which is... is good and bad, but I find that to be a fun challenge that there's always something new to uncover or learn working in the industry. It is crazy hours. I guess right or wrong, I still enjoy it. I still wake up and it's not a job for me. It's a lifestyle choice, working 9 a.m. to midnight and then doing it all over again. There's a lot of sacrifice. Whether it's hours, vacations, family, all that stuff. It comes with hopefully doing a greater good or being able to benefit the community. I think that to me, where I'm at with my career and guys always ask me, do you want to go back and work for an MLB team? No, not really, because you're just a cog in the machine. In Washington and what I'm able to do in being here 13, 14 years is I can make direct impact. Last night we were able to talk to a couple of season ticket holders and talk to a kid who started coming to games when he was six years old. Now he's, I don't know, 16, 17. And seeing those kids grow up and the memories that they're able to create, and you're still making positive impacts on people's lives, and whether it's businesses or groups or kids and families like that, you feel like your time and your efforts are actually rewarding somebody beyond yourself or beyond the paycheck. Because yeah, if I wanted to go make more money, I would... could easily go to different industry and work a nine to five, but ⁓ still being able to see the positive impact the organization and myself and our staff can make ⁓ to people is, keeps our sanity going, I guess. speaker-0: I can imagine that walking out of your office and hearing the crack of the bat is a pretty good wake up call. speaker-1: Yeah, I have the window there out to the field. So that's a nice kind of setup that I can look out and there's the ballpark or yesterday or yesterday I can go out there on the deck and eat lunch and sun's out there 80 degrees and guys are on the field. I mean, it's a there's there's way worse jobs out there than ⁓ I couldn't imagine myself in a cubicle nine to five I would probably lose my speaker-0: Well, speaking of having a direct impact on the community, on the team, you're building the roster every year. You guys have had a lot of success over the years and you've been a big part of that. Can you talk to us a little bit about what it takes to build out a winning roster? speaker-1: It's as much of a daily grind as anything else. ⁓ We get calls, like I just got a call yesterday about one of our guys that a team was interested in taking and you kind of monitor that situation. It's a great opportunity for a guy to climb the ladder, but that it creates an immediate hole for me. Hey, we lose one of our best players. What are we going to do? How do we replace them? It's not like another club where I got... 60 guys sitting in Florida waiting for that phone call. I have to always have names in a Rolodex, have contacts on the coaching side in college or in the MLB front offices that say, hey, this guy's available, he's looking to play. I recommend him to come to you. As you can imagine, the market is so not saturated, but it's aggressive. There's 18 teams in our league. There's another 30 out there in other leagues that are all like going after high level players. And what we've been able to create in Washington with the Wild Things and our brand is, I mean, we lean heavily into a winning product, multiple division titles over the past couple years. I think our fans are starting to get nice and spoiled of that. It's like, now we expect to be in the playoffs. We expect to be division titles. Like, if we're not that, what are we doing? It's wrong. So I'm glad to kind of... spoil a little bit on that front, but it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of relationship building. mean, agents, players, those guys are our best resources, our coaches. Fortunately, I've been there long enough and our manager has been with me for six years now. So we're able to lean into that and show success, show successful guys in the big leagues, show stadium upgrades, show the fan base and what the county and the region, the support that these guys get. They love that. ⁓ They love that connection with the community. ⁓ It's definitely a different nuance of these guys. They go out to eat at the same restaurants. They're going to the gym. They're normal guys that ⁓ just are pursuing baseball because they love it and they look at this as a great platform and a great community that supports them. ⁓ That's the challenge, that's the fun side of it. As much as we hate to lose guys, it's a great thing for the brand and what we do. Just keep chasing division titles, playoffs, and kind let the chips fall where they may from there. speaker-0: What does it mean to the team, to the community, when one of your guys, either current or past, gets called up to the show? How often does that happen? speaker-1: Crazy. ⁓ More often now post-COVID than ever before. it was, I mean, I don't know if it was just circumstances or what the organization or dynamics changed. Pre-COVID, I think we only had like four big leaguers in like, what is that? 16 years or something. ⁓ Cause odds are tough. People don't understand really that even when you're in a minor league affiliated system, only 5 % of the guys in the minor leagues make it to the big leagues. Everyone goes into the perception, well, if you're drafted in the first or second round, you're a big leaguer, everybody, if you're the elite of the elite, you're going to make it to the big leagues. 95 % of those guys who are drafted, signed, brought in from Venezuela, Dominican, they never touch MLB big league rosters. it is not just, there's so much luck, there's so much health related, there's so many factors. So to go from four pre-COVID, and then I know, I think we have like another six since then, we had post-COVID like 2023, we had four guys all in the same calendar year ago. Really special for me, like I had finally like one of the guys that I personally signed made it, which is a really cool thing. Local kid, we actually had two local kids, a Lebo kid, a North Allegheny kid make it with us, which are doubly special. Like, hey, these are whippy old local kids that are able to use our platform post-college, climb the ranks and make the big leagues. Super special. ⁓ Now, obviously, the one that's kind of got a lot of notoriety because he's in Pittsburgh and he's front went to University of Pittsburgh. We have Isaac Mattson with the Pirates. ⁓ Isaac came to us after his time in the big leagues with the Orioles. Just one of the love baseball games. The amount of stories of guys who just get burned out of what it's like being that corporate machine of Major League Baseball clubs. Just to go and play and have fun again is such a lost art. But Isaac, obviously being with the Pirates now, and fans love him, and anytime he pitches, it's kind of no to, Isaac, former Wild Thing. Former Pitt Panther, great. Former Wild Thing, great. ⁓ And he's a very humble dude, appreciates the platform. And I'm sure all those guys said, hey, if it wasn't for the Wild Things, they would have never made it back. We're a small part in the journey, but I'm glad that, hey, we're able to kind of flip that coin for you to kind of get back to where they belong. So really humbling, really special, great emotional things of those guys being able to reach the pinnacle of their dream, whether they're there two weeks or two years. It's still very special to say you've been there. speaker-0: You know, when you mentioned fun, it reminds me of a book that I read in college called Fun Is Good by Mike Beck, right? And I think it's infectious across the organization, the team culture. I've always let you guys do a phenomenal job of hiring Game Day staff and just, you know, your internal crew. Talk about what it's like to build that. I mean, you have talented people doing pregame, ⁓ you know, in-game promotions. You guys have always done a great job of that, but talk a little bit about what that looks like for you. speaker-1: Well, it's definitely those are where the offseason creative meetings happen. I'm the first one to say I have zero artistic ability. Like if you gave me scissors or I couldn't draw or cut anything straight to save my life. But my mind is wired for like a lot of baseball creative promotion stuff. So when we do the beer batter, things that I've taken from other places and implemented here to be a lot of fun, ⁓ those things are, I mean, we have to do that. We understand, and especially me as a base, someone rooted in baseball, we always say about a third of our crowd actually are invested pitch in, pitch out, inning in, inning out about the baseball side of it. The majority of the crowd is there for the entertainment, the music, the games going on. They're there with family, friends, neighbors, groups, youth sports associations of bringing people together. ⁓ We are going to put high level baseball out there. We want to win. We want to entertain. We're not going to skimp on those efforts or dollars to allocate putting a winning product. But we understand where the majority of the fan base leans into and what's going to keep them entertained. I mean, for us to have staff trained our interns, we try to give them a really good crash course. And when we have interns work for us, we give them, say, hey, you guys are on the front line. I'm behind the scenes, our full-time staff are behind the scenes largely because we just out of sheer manpower. We rely so heavily on our seasonal staff and our interns to take responsibility and take a love of kind of the product. So we try to do a very good job training them and making them feel like they're a part of it. And their efforts are a reflection of the brand. So I think that's a really meaningful piece of them is these people take ownership in the organization. hey, what I do actually has meaning. I'm not there working and... making copies or grabbing cups of coffee for people. What I'm doing actually has meaning and has real ramifications and it's been great. mean, interns that have gone from us or even seasonal staff have gone from us to bigger and better places, ⁓ working in big jobs and being able to take things that they've learned from us and kind of carry that over into their next careers. So ⁓ it's been special. ⁓ It's probably one of the unique things about the Wild Things because I've traveled. not everybody does it the same as us. We're probably top two or three in the league in terms of our show, our entertainment. There's a reason why I run music during the games. It's a very important aspect ⁓ for the show to be a really positive ⁓ contributor to why, what makes us special over any other entertainment choice that people have in the region. speaker-0: I can tell you how it's impacted our family. So I've got a 12-year-old son, 14-year-old daughter, and I don't remember when it was, maybe five or six years ago. It went from my wife and I saying, hey, let's go to the Wild Things game, to somewhere in there there was a change to the kids saying, hey, let's go to the Wild Things game tonight, right? And I think there's a lot of things you guys do that have kind of pushed kids into having fun, right? ⁓ Think about milk and cookies. I mean, it's a buck. Get in line. speaker-1: I've seen your kids dressed up in Star Wars, superheroes, like, so yeah, just feeling like they're part of it. You're not there, you're not there just to blend in with the masses, like your son dressing up in ⁓ the Star Wars gimmicks and all that stuff and him walking around and people, hey, look at this kid. Your character, while you're at the ballpark too, we all dress up, we encourage all that stuff. It's way more personal, way more... romantic in that atmosphere. speaker-0: And listen, here's a pro tip, right? First baseline concession stand, I'm hoping that you still have these. They have a pretzel that's about that big. And it will feed your whole family. You got like three dips, it's unbelievably good. The mustard plus the sweet one, yeah, it's all good. It's all good. speaker-1: The mustard, the mustard's the speaker-0: Now, you know, we mentioned a couple of the promotions. You've got some kind of almost always on promotion. like Select Tuesdays this year for the evening games. You've got 250 Tuesdays. Tell us about that. speaker-1: Yeah, brand new. We've been talking about rolling this out. A lot of other clubs use it in other cities and communities with mixed results, but we wanted to lean in. our things very important to us are the military, the kids, first responders. We've always said like those are our core ⁓ people that we want to celebrate, listen to, acknowledge, do everything we can to get them part. So when the 250 ⁓ celebration of America We're like, this is a perfect time to do it. Let's roll out the 250 Tuesdays for a couple of the Tuesdays that we have ⁓ open. Let's give every, especially locally. To me, that is a very local ⁓ play within the county is, hey, Tuesday's not always the easiest day for us and or consumers to go out ⁓ with weekday, getting off work at five, swinging down there, but let's make it financially like a no-brainer right now. Tickets, parking, food, beer, soft drinks, hot dogs, ice cream, 250 ⁓ each. And just go out there and, I mean, we're gonna do a lot of cool promotion with it. like, here's what a $20 bill can get you these days. It's like, hey, now you get a full platter of what 20 bucks is versus, hey, what are you gonna get now? Like four gallons of gas? especially has that become a challenge of driving and... Expensiveness, parking and all that stuff. I mean, to go in the city and to fight traffic and tunnels. We want to make the financial, I mean, that's a big thing personally for me with a lot of the programs I run. Eliminate financial hurdles for individuals and families to experience the ballpark. That's how it was created. Those, you look at the old school photos, black and white of like, everybody would be able to sit in the stands. It wasn't the corporate community only. wasn't. $100, $200 tickets to do those things. ⁓ So I lean heavily into that old tradition stuff of like, the family memories are so important ⁓ at the ballpark. So if we do these 250 Tuesdays, if that helps 50 to 100 people to experience the ballpark for the first time or a kid's first game, great, it's a win for us and we'll have a lot of fun doing it. speaker-0: Yeah, not just financially, but I think it's, you know, as a parent from a planning perspective, you just don't even have to think about it. Like, I don't have to plan, you know, is the traffic going to be bad? Where am I going to park? How much is parking going to cost? It's easy in and out to the stadium. ⁓ You can make a decision that day, which is, you guys just make it easy and you make it fun. speaker-1: Yeah, it's, ⁓ I mean, for us, like you said, making it a no-brainer, avoiding every hurdle, any challenge. We want to make it for everybody. There are too many people that, I guess, in my opinion, are just stuck on the couch. They can't do certain things, or they think, hey, I'm not part of that crowd who can go to this event or this restaurant. Everybody's welcome at the ballpark. We'll do everything humanly possible to make sure the experiences are very special. Not everybody's gonna come six, seven, eight times a year, but if it's something that we can put in place where, hey, it's a yearly tradition. Those things have meaning. Those things are what I think baseball is way more of a memory building sport. So ⁓ let's lean into it. Let's make it an all inclusive thing. speaker-0: Yeah, and you can, you know, for those of you who haven't been to the Wild Things site yet, it's washingtonwildthings.com. They have their normal schedule, but you can also look for their promotional schedule to see what's going on. So we talked about 250 Tuesdays. You got fireworks, I believe, every Friday, right? Kids get in and eat free on Sundays. My kids love it. It's hot dog, chips, and a drink. But then you've got other nights like Polish night. You've got Italian Heritage night coming up. Jimmy Buffet night's always a huge speaker-1: Friday. speaker-0: ⁓ Christmas in July, you mentioned Star Wars nights, so I mean, if you can't have fun at the Washington Wild Things ballpark at EQT Park, it's time to check for a pulse. speaker-1: Yeah, well, we lean into it. We're always open to ideas. So once you start pitching me some other promotions or so, we've talked some fun giveaways over the years for people and yeah, the giveaways every Saturday for the first thousand fans. And I like to do the more off the wall fun stuff. That's way more of my personality. speaker-0: That's baseball. Now, let's talk about EQT Park. ⁓ Much more than a baseball stadium. It's truly a community venue. You guys host all kinds of different events. know ⁓ you've got the Washington Antiques Market that's coming up here next Sunday, May 31st. ⁓ Tell us about some of the other non-baseball events that you have coming up this season. speaker-1: Yeah, so a wide variety. Like you said, we're a community asset. We're there for the ballpark to be utilized, the stadium to be utilized. ⁓ It is genuinely there to connect people and bring a spot for everybody to utilize and hopefully explore trying to utilize whether it's baseball or non-baseball. ⁓ People always look forward to the second year now, the Taco and Tequila Festival. That's always a good party. A lot of... 90s 2000s hip-hop kind of throwback music ⁓ yeah, we'll do that with the talk. I mean obviously talk is margaritas. You never really can go wrong with that stuff speaker-0: August 1st. Well next weekend you've got IWC bass bra, right? speaker-1: Yeah, we always do a bunch of wrestling shows. We'll have like two or three this year spaced out over the summer. Just affordable outdoor as much as for the fans. Outdoor wrestling is cool, man. Like being able to get out of a gym and do that stuff and sit there in the stands. it's regardless of you're at WrestleMania or our stadium, outdoor wrestling is just a different vibe. And I think everybody, talent and the fans enjoy kind of just being under the stars like that under the big lights. ⁓ But yeah, we mean. We'll have the Wippio baseball championships always a really good time. have ⁓ get the high schools best college best ⁓ at the field. it's really cool for the Wippio side of it to see kind of all the all the students that typically, yeah, they don't go to the high school baseball games, but they see them show up and cheer there in the stands and those stands get packed for for that environment. It's really special. Talk, yeah, talking tequila is always a big one. That will be the big party. Celebrity softball is always a good play. So that's going to be on July 18th. I've been fortunate. We work with Cam Hayward benefiting the Hayward House. Celebrities, athletes from across the country come in, keep tickets really affordable, 15 bucks for people. you get to be, mean, for the no helmets on. ⁓ These guys are, they're right there. You're never going to get closer, more interactive. ⁓ lot of them just have a good time. speaker-0: fun event. speaker-1: being in a sport that's not their own too. I mean, the amount of them that laugh that they can't catch a softball or hit one, it really humbles the athleticism really fast. But yeah, we'll have a circus introduced as well in August, a weekend set of a national traveling circus that's passing through. They're based out of Paris, so we'll see what that's like. Yeah, we'll have a full slate of things, a full... There'll be other things randomly added, a lot of community-focused things, like the Antiques Fair, that just open to the general public to hopefully experience. speaker-0: Well, you've got in June, I think it's the 5th through the 7th, the MLB Play Ball. Yeah. this year. boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 14. And I took my son a couple years ago, I think it was tied in with the Ponyleg World Series, but it was hosted at EQT Park. Yeah. Just a blast. So you can sign your kids up, maybe check out the Wild Things Facebook page. They've got a registration link on there, but definitely something to take a look at. All right, we like to wrap up our podcast with ⁓ a series of rapid fire questions. ⁓ speaker-1: I've been waiting to do some of these before. speaker-0: Perfect. Best ballpark food item go. speaker-1: Ooh, so this year for us, I'm gonna say the Eisley's Chip Chop Ham Sandwich, brand new. I've been pushing for this thing. Pittsburgh. Very Pittsburgh, we're leaning into it. speaker-0: Alright, favorite promotion night of all time. ⁓ speaker-1: We did a prime wrestling night years ago where we had town, we all dressed up, we had like 30 people dressed up. So that wrestling night we had some steel chairs signed and some bats signed it. That was a good. speaker-0: Alright, if I'm gonna watch a game at the stadium, what is the most underrated view for me to watch from? speaker-1: Cool, perfect. We were just there yesterday. So out in left field, we have a drink rail set up. ⁓ Icy Light sponsors it. And it's a drink rail that looks toward first base. You have great sunset views right there. ⁓ The guys were just like, this is why we play baseball. This view and this look. ⁓ Everything was dark. We had a little bit of the purplish reddish out there. Stand at the Icy Light drink rail when the sun goes down, have a beer there. Watch the game, it's truly special. speaker-0: That's the spot. All right, you joined the Wild Things in what year? 2012. 2012. All right, so in those last, what is that? I can't do math very quickly, 14, 15 years. was the loudest crowd moment that you can remember? speaker-1: 2012. That's an easy one. So ⁓ I brought Pat McAfee in to play a game. ⁓ you would think it would be when Pat McAfee got in at bat, but the loudest moment and the biggest pop I've ever heard at the stadium, and we've had bigger crowds than the Pat McAfee night, but there was a great fly ball to Pat in right field. And he didn't have to move, nothing, was like in a movie, catches it and the place exploded. Everybody jumped up and yeah, I've never heard. or felt something like that at the ballpark since. speaker-0: What an awesome idea. I didn't get to go to that game, but I did watch it on the live stream. All right. Current player most likely to become a coach. speaker-1: ⁓ Andrew Check. So Andrew's been with us six, seven years now. right? No, he's first baseman. Big first baseman. So he's actually doing some coaching ⁓ and he's already super into it. mean, now he's the old man vet on the team and ⁓ he's just already kind of taken on that leadership stuff. So he'll do that. He's set a bunch of records with us in the league already. So building that coaching resume. speaker-0: So as the general manager and the one who builds the roster, what has been the most stressful inning you've ever had to watch? speaker-1: Well, on the negative side, ⁓ so I was up there when we ended up losing the championship series to Quebec, so I was there for that painful one, which never felt real. ⁓ Most fun one for me, positive, that I stressed out probably more personally. ⁓ The wild things went through a stint where we didn't make the playoffs for a while, and ⁓ even when we did, I wasn't there, I was working for the Rangers in 2014. But I was in... I was in Traverse City when we were about to clinch my first physical one there in person and I couldn't sit down, I was pacing. I was superstitious that year. I was wearing a jersey, I don't know why, it was just a traditional thing. I'm wearing a jersey, we need this, we need this game and I was just pacing and sweating it out and then we clinched and nothing beats a clinch party. So I enjoyed that day. speaker-0: Well, Tony, I can't thank you enough for taking time at this busy time of the year for you. Appreciate you coming on the podcast. speaker-1: appreciate it and anything we can help, we're always here. speaker-0: All right, tonight the Wild Things return to EQT Park to wrap up their series against the Florence Yawls before kicking off a three game home stand against the Joyette Slammers. Starting tomorrow and running through Sunday, the Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival returns to Hollywood Casino at the Meadows. Next Saturday, catch the Sunset Music Festival at South Point Town Center, just about a block from where we're at. Until then, thanks for joining us. We'll see you at the ballpark.