Introduction to #Boomerica: 107

Every Second Counts

My college class schedule for this fall is crazy because I don't have a single regular class time. Each one is at 4:30 p.m. or later, with the exception of a 7:50 a.m. time slot.

Lucky me.

My first frightening thought when I looked over this scary schedule was the realization that I would need to learn how to be productive before the p.m. Like most college students, I go about my classes in the day, eat dinner and relax in the evening, and save all that glorious homework for nighttime... if I ever get around to it.

So far this summer, I've been thrown into the fire with daytime (but also still nighttime) productivity, with the paradigm shift coming to its pinnacle yesterday on my rare day off.

I had things to do, people to call, blogs to write, research to... research, and errands to run. But I had gotten precious little sleep in the previous week. It would have been very easy to sleep in until noon, lie in bed and watch Gossip Girl Pretty Little Liars my very manly favorite TV show all day. But, despite my lack of energy, yesterday, and during several other days after work this summer, I brushed the tiredness away and tried my best to be productive and enjoy life outside of work.

This, like pretty much everything else I've been through this summer, has taught me a lot about life. During those tired moments, I've found myself longing for the sweet release of schoolwork, realizing now how much free time I'll have compared to working for the Boomers. So not only will I enjoy the free time I have more, but I'll make better use of all my time as well.

I'm blessed enough to have both a job (actually, all of my jobs qualify here) and a personal life that I love. As hard as it is sometimes to be away from one or the other, I think I'm learning to do a better job of balancing it this summer. And that might be the most valuable lesson I learn in this crazy class called Intro to #Boomerica.

Introduction to #Boomerica: 106

Extra Credit

When I signed on with the Boomers, I anticipated 90% of my duties would revolve around writing and social media. I was about 50% right. When I signed on with the Boomers, I thought I would be almost completely immersed in tasks that were directly related to my major and PR. When I signed on with the Boomers, I just wanted to hop on my typewriter and show everyone what I could do.

So then why am I so excited about spearheading our new lost and found policy?

Because about two weeks ago, I saw a need in our office. We had items being left in the stadium on an almost-nightly basis (that tends to happen when 4,000 people frequent one place) and we had people calling in looking for things they misplaced, but we had no real way to connect the two.

So I saw a need ad created an Excel Spreadsheet to make our system efficient and help our fans recover anything they leave at the stadium. Three days into the implementation, we already had five people matched to their item.

I felt like an eHarmony administrator.

Even though this little initiative had nothing to do with Journalism or Media Communications, it does have everything to do with being a good worker who takes... well... initiative at work. And that's another skill I want to get better at this summer.

Introduction to #Boomerica: 105

General Office Duties

Don't you just love it when you see that term? Basically it's job application speak for "anything else that pops up." I'm not complaining about this term, I think it's a good term. But it also applies to my entire summer.

Thus far (Wow, you know you're getting old when you say "thus," I'm sure I'll offset it with something immature later) I've done a little bit of everything with the Schaumburg Boomers. While the bulk of my responsibilities revolve around assisting the media relations director with his work, live tweeting games, writing game reports and press releases for the website, and running paperwork to coaches and broadcasters before the games, I have encountered many other duties (haha... there it is).

Most gamedays my schedule is pretty set. Get to work, start assembling the daily program insert with stats, standings, and rosters. Then it's on to the stat packs, 30+ pages of everything you could want to know about the Boomers, their opponent, and the rest of the Frontier League. Next, let's make sure I have the most up-to-date Boomers roster as well as that day's foe. Then, hopefully, the broadcasters have their daily reports done, and that the coaches have their starting lineups ready. After distributing these materials to the proper people, then it's on to game prep in the pressbox, including cleaning it and making sure the food is there and ready for a hungry staff to eat. During games, I live tweet and take notes, getting ready to write the story.

But non-gamedays are different stories. I don't have those set duties and schedule, so sometimes my day is a mix of different tasks. Like the other day, when I took a bride-to-be and her parents around the park and showed her how she could get married at Boomers Stadium. And then I tidied up the website and made sure the promotions page looked good, as well as answering phone like everyone does. Sometimes I've cleaned bathrooms, tested inflatables, rolled t-shirts, and a bevy of other tasks.

My favorite was probably working on the team's media guide, which is allllllllmost done, as it gave me a chance to work with my secret love, InDesign.

And that's just a taste of what I do on a daily basis.

Introduction to #Boomerica: 104

Going down a peg.

I'll be completely transparent, there have been times in the last couple years as a writer where I've been overconfident in my abilities. Call the been-there-done-that syndrome, but occasionally I've felt like I've reached a certain level of competence as a writer, and foolishly allowed myself to hit the cruise control.

As a senior in high school, I was in an English class with a teacher who liked me, a curriculum geared toward the students in the class who weren't going to college, and a couple years of experience writing. This was the perfect storm of apathy. I cruised like Florida Georgia Line in that class, half-hearting far too many papers because I knew I would get an A with even the slightest amount of effort.

After an experience like that, this summer's internship has been quite a nice wakeup call.

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem, so here goes: I knew/know nothing about how to write for a professional baseball team. I was used to writing both and all sides of a story, using short, thought-provoking sentences that tell a story.

Now, I'm learning how to write long sentences with lots of exciting adjectives and verbs in it, using capitalization as liberally as a Kennedy, all with the intent of getting inspiring people to buy tickets.

I wouldn't say I have a favorite style of writing between the two. Truthfully, I'm hoping to combine the two for my own style and implement it no matter where I go. This way, I can truthfully, artistically, and aesthetically tell stories.

If this summer accomplishes nothing else, it will be a humbling learning experience, reminding me that to be good at anything (including something I've been paid to do for 5 years), you have to put in 100%.

Always.

No matter what.

In everything you do.

"The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint. The greats were great because they paint a lot." -Macklemore

Introduction to #Boomerica: 103

Remixing Relationships...

I chuckled at the start of my first workplace meeting with the Boomers. As someone who has mostly worked for Christian organizations in the last four years, I'm simply used to meetings starting with prayer. I was laughing because this meeting began almost awkwardly with the person in charge basically saying hi.

Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this, it's completely normal, and I'm perfectly fine with meetings starting either way. It simply made me chuckle because that's been one of the only differences I've found between the two kinds of workplace environments.

And that's a good thing.

Isn't it? It seems like so often, the "secular world" is solely out to get Christians in every aspect of everyday life. But what I've encountered so far is more of a live-and-let-live mentality. No one really cares where you come from or what you believe when you're in the office. As long as you do good work and are a nice person (it would be hard to overstate the importance of that second bullet point) everyone is equal.

That's quite refreshing.

At the same time, I do feel like I'm standing out from the crowd as a person. That's not meant in an egotistical way, merely in the sense that I'm known as the perpetually happy guy at work. And isn't that how it should be as well?

Without sounding overly preachy (dear gosh, please don't sound overly preachy), I think Christians should be different in the workplace. Not by brow-beating people with the Bible or acting offended when someone shares a worldview that differs from your own, but by simply displaying the joy and the peace that comes with our faith. That's how people will notice there's something different about us, and that's how they'll want to know what it is.

Okay, Sunday School is over. Now is when we'd rewind the Veggie Tales VHS or take down the felt storyboard. I realize this has little to do with baseball, journalism, or my internship, but as a perpetual student of life and interpersonal relationships, it's one of the biggest things I'm learning in this crazy class called Introduction to #Boomerica.

Introduction to #Boomerica: 102

Stylistically Speaking...

That's been the toughest transition for me so far this summer. The style minor league baseball teams write in is completely different than the style I've been taught, learned, and tried to hone since I was 15 years old. I've written things so publication on our website that I would have scolded writers for had they done it for an article at my university's newspaper.

So here I am, one of the more conversational newspaper writers you'll find, but even that is too stiff for the constant excitement and upbeat nature of PR sports writing.

Over the last week or so, I've been able to change my writing style (or at the very least what comes out on paper) to match more of what my supervisor is looking for. In the process, I've written things that fly in my current field, but made me literally cringe because of my background. One of my favorite examples and possibly my proudest moment so far is a recap of a game we played on Disney Theme Night, where I snuck in a dozen references to Disney movies in just 200 words.

That was fun.

Another quirk of the trade that I've been trying to pick up is the initial capitalization of words just because they're important, which has always made me think of a very specific, hilarious line in National Treasure that I couldn't find a YouTube video of. But possibly my favorite is the inexhaustible use of alliterations.

This is all very new to me, but I'm so excited to hopefully start nailing down another form of writing. I'm just glad I was able to take PR practicum last semester. I think I'm finally starting to understand what that class was all about.

Introduction to #Boomerica: 101

I learn the most by doing. And that's a good thing, because "doing" is one of the main responsibilities here at the Schaumburg Boomers. No matter where you are, what time it is, or what you THINK you have to do... you're doing something.

Whether it's writing a press release, greeting fans on the concourse, or the always-loved tarp pull, there's never a dull moment at Boomers Stadium. A lot of my work so far has been simply learning as I go, figuring out some of the intricacies on a daily basis. I realize my descriptions of my duties so far has been vague at best, so here's a basic rundown of what a regular days looks like.

That is, if there were such a thing as a regular day.

Website management: Everything about boomersbaseball.com is about selling tickets. If someone happens to stumble upon our humble domain, they need to be wowed and presented the opportunity to purchase seats within 60 seconds of seeing our beautiful orange text. One of my biggest (or at least most time-consumiing) tasks has been making sure everything on the website looks pretty, is up to date, and directs people where they need to go. Whether that's changing the roster when the team signs a new player, updating the information, pictures, and links on our daily promotions page, or taking down outdated ads and stories, I do my best to make boomersbaseball.com the most attractive and profitable website in the Frontier League.

Pre-game information: This part is fun. I track down all of the stats in the league for the coaches, radio broadcasters, and media every day we have games. I bogart the priner most of the day, as I run dozens of copies of everything for lots of people. Let's see if I can remember everything off the top of my head...
1) Update program insert with names/stats for new visiting team, include Frontier League Standings. 100 copies.
2) Update home roster, run 15 copies to coaches, press box.
3) Update away roster, run 15 copies to coaches, press box.
4) Assemble stat pack. These are usually 30-page booklets of all the information about the Frontier League stats that change on a daily basis. Tedious, takes forever, but must be done. Printing a dozen of these massive books shuts down the printer for a good 10 minutes, almost always to the dismay of the full-time staffer whose office is across from mine.
5) Acquire home game notes from broadcaster, print, distribute to press box.
6) Acquire away game notes from broadcaster, print, distribute to press box.
7) Somehow pry the starting lineups from the clubhouses, type up, distribute to pretty much everyone in the stadium.
8) Somewhere in there, post something on Facebook and Twitter that reminds people there's a game tonight and entices them to come out.

During the game: Watch. Keep detailed notes. Update social media. Start writing game report. Boomer Dance.

Post-game: Write game report. Find photo to go with it. Run box scores to press box, coaches.

General duties: Dress up as mascot, clean, answer phones, pull tarp, etc.

Daily: Write press releases about events and player signings, plan a special event, etc.

As you can tell, my detail and enthusiasm toward writing this is dwindling as I go on. So I'll just leave it at this.

Needless to say, it's not hard to fill up these 70-hour weeks with a lot of work, and of course, a lot of learning.

Introduction to #Boomerica

I truly had no idea what I was getting into.

It would be easy to say that my first month-and-a-half as a media relations intern at a independent league baseball team has been difficult at times. It would be harder to admit that I wasn't expecting it.

After more than five years in journalism, sometimes I get caught in a cycle of repetition. It would be a miracle if I didn't deveop some tendencies following more than 250 combined articles at two different newspapers. Rightly or wrongly, I have a certain way of doning things, a defined style in progress, and a fair amount of confidence in my abilities.

This summer is going to change all of that.

Minor league baseball teams have a very different style than newspapers (who knew?) and the hours of this job... oh, the hours.

Now, all of this isn't to say that I don't like my job. On the contrary, my job rocks. However, this summer has been, and will be a tough test of many skills. Not only will I need to improve my writing speed, and hone my PR writing style, but I'll need to do it on not a whole lot of sleep.

Bring it on, summer. Bring it on.

This is going to be a great experience. It's going to be hard at times, but I'll learn a lot, and be more prepared for "real life" because of it.

And I think that's exactly what an internship should be.