A couple of years ago I shared a post about the education days held each summer at FirstEnergy Stadium. “Field of Learning” talked about both the ups and downs of working on education days. With the 2019 season only 8 days away, there is one aspect of education day that I am looking forward to experiencing again.

Each education day before the game, two or three Fightins players participate in a question and answer session with the students in attendance. The host of the session, Mr. H., asks a few basic questions and then they take questions from the students. Seeing as it is education day, one of the questions Mr. H. always asks is what was each player’s favorite subject in school and were they good students. This question received one of the greatest answers I have ever heard and it is one that I remember each summer when the question arises again.

It was a beautiful day and the question and answer session had just begun. My sister and I were listening in as we always do – we’re in the perfect location for it – and quietly giving our own thoughts on each question. That is, until we heard an answer that blew our minds.

Mr. H.: “Were you a good student?”

Player: “Well, I had a 4.0 in college so I guess you could say I liked school.”

I’m pretty sure this is the point when my jaw hit the counter. A 4.0?!

Obviously there are people who finish with 4.0s in college all the time and there are many, many intelligent athletes out there, but I think it was the fact that he was so nonchalant with his answer that threw us for a loop. He wasn’t bragging or trying to get any sort of praise for his answer, but said it as calmly as someone might ask for a glass of water. What made the moment even more amusing was the fact that his teammate followed it up with “I like numbers” and then said nothing more.

If he talked about being a great student and made a bigger deal about it, I don’t think it would have been as entertaining or as memorable.

Now, I know there are professional athletes who have gone to Ivy League schools and finished with fantastic grades and are incredibly intelligent people. Still, most of the answers we hear to this question are “I liked lunch” or “Gym class was my favorite” or “I didn’t do that well in school because I didn’t enjoy homework.” The last thing you expect to hear is a player calmly stating that he graduated with a 4.0.

I don’t know if many of the kids in attendance that day truly understood what having a 4.0 in college meant. The majority of them hadn’t even finished elementary school yet. They just wanted to know his favorite color. However, the teachers in attendance and those of us in the UIC were very impressed. To this day, we haven’t heard an answer as good as that one and I don’t know if we will.

Confessional: Were you a good student when you were in school? What was your favorite subject?

I’m guessing some of you clicked on the link for this post expecting to read about people dumping buckets of cold water on their heads and challenging friends and family to do the same.

I hate to disappoint you, but that is not the story you are about to read. Instead, this story focuses on an ice bucket on wheels and the trouble it caused for the Longstrike deck stand.

One of the pregame jobs working at the deck was to make sure there was ice in both soda machines and extra ice in the large ice bucket. This required rolling it to the ice machine in the buffet area next door, coming back and filling the soda fountains, and then filling the ice bucket once again and leaving it at the stand for later.

Everyone hated having to get ice.

For starters, the ice “bucket” looked more like a trash can that you might put out at the curb on trash day. Secondly, it was no easy task getting to the ice machine and back. It required crossing the deck, carefully maneuvering down the ramp to the main walkway, and then making it to the back of the buffet area to the ice machine. Then you had to make the return trip. It sounds easy, but there was once small obstacle in our way.

There was a roughly one inch lip at the bottom of the ramp. This wouldn’t have been an issue if it was because of the ramp being higher than the walkway.

This was not the case.

The end of the ramp was at least an inch lower than the main walkway and this caused problems for whoever was responsible for filling the ice that night. Going up the ramp was no problem. It was going down to get the ice that caused some near accidents and one truly memorable moment for us all.

I remember it was before a game in the middle of the season so everyone working in the stand had experience with getting ice and dealing with the end of the ramp. Except for one girl who only joined us halfway through the summer. On that fateful night, she volunteered to go for the second round before the game and no one stopped her.

She was doing well until she hit the bottom of the ramp.

Even when it was empty, that thing could pick up some pretty good speed going down the ramp if you weren’t careful. As she got to the bottom, she was moving pretty quickly and when the ice bucket hit the lip of the walkway it kept moving, but instead of continuing over the lip and onto the walkway, it fell forward. Not knowing what to do she tried to hang on and stop it and before we knew it, she was sitting on top of the fallen ice bucket and there was ice all over the ground around her. We all burst out laughing to the point where it was hard to breath – don’t worry, she was fine and she was laughing too – and then we realized something that made the moment even funnier and slightly more embarrassing for her.

Standing on the other side of the walkway in the midst of taking batting practice in the visitors’ batting cage was the entire visiting team, standing in shock and clearly trying not to laugh.

To their credit, they regained their composure quickly and got around to seeing if she needed help before we had managed to stop laughing. In the end, our supervisor scolded us for watching and laughing instead of helping – even though she was laughing too – and made one of the guys go down and help her up.

From that point on, it was usually one of the guys who was forced to make the ice runs both before and during the games. And to this day, this is one of my clearest and fondest memories from working in that stand.

Confessional: Have you ever had an embarrassing moment at work? What happened?

If you’ve read any of my previous posts on Confessions of a Concessions worker – especially DIY Ceiling Fan – you know that when I worked in the Longstrike deck stand, we always had a good time.

One summer, we took the idea of working as a team to a whole new level.

We decided that we would treat the stand as if it was a baseball field and each job was assigned a field position:

The Longstrike deck stand is located behind the left field foul pole at FirstEnergy Stadium. (Photo: Amanda Cain/2008)

Registers: Pitcher and Catcher

Hotdogs: First Base

French Fries: Second Base

Funnel Cakes: Third Base

Cheesesteaks: Shortstop

Nachos/Ice Cream: Center Field

Sodas: Left and Right Field

Whatever job you were assigned for the night, that was your position. Our stand supervisor was the team manager and she was in charge of calling strikes when someone messed up. You called the wrong order? Strike one. Not paying attention to your job? Strike two. Dropped food? Strike three.

Three Strikes? You’re out.

Of course, being the mature teenagers that we were, we did everything we could to make each other mess up – without causing problems for our customers. We would question the orders and try to tell each other the wrong number of hot dogs or french fries. The whole point was to try to get someone to three strikes. Striking out, we decided for some reason, was equivalent to being fired without actually getting fired.

The game became even more serious when we started keeping track of how many times each person “struck out” and the person with the most strikeouts had to do the worst job at the end of the night: either washing dishes or scrubbing the hot dog rollers.

I don’t remember how we came up with this idea, but it made working the long nights a bit more interesting. Everyone got into seeing who would end up scrubbing dishes at the end of the night and it was a way for us all to have fun together while still getting our jobs done. One of the guys got fired so many times each night that it became a running joke and everyone would add outs to his tally any time they walked past the score sheet. Even the assistant concessions supervisor got in on the game and would add outs to the score sheet.

Surprisingly, during the three or four years we all worked together, none of us actually “struck out” or got fired. By the end of that season, we got tired of playing the game, but it was still entertaining while it lasted.

Confessional: What is something you have done at work to make your job more entertaining? Did you make up a game with coworkers? Did it get anyone in trouble?

Everyone has seen the clips on the news or gotten lost among the hundreds of videos in the YouTube universe, but seeing a surprise military homecoming in person is a different experience.

Even knowing about the surprise, I still got swept up in the emotion and the intensity of the moment. We learned about what was going to happen during the office pregame meeting, and I, of course, was extremely excited and already getting chills just imagining the moment and immediately made my way to the upstairs ice cream stand to tell my sister what was going to happen. After that, it was a typical game day pregame program.

Then it was time for the first pitches.

I made sure that when the time for first pitches came, I was in one of the best spots to see the field, at the top of the main grandstand. The plan was for a military wife to throw out the final first pitch in honor of her husband who was serving overseas. What she did not know, was the man behind the catcher’s mask was her husband. He had come home on leave and she had no idea.

She was also nine months pregnant and due to give birth any day.

With fingers crossed that the surprise would not send her into labor right there on the field, the first pitches took place as they do every night, with a small break before announcing the final first pitch. After being introduced to raucous cheers and applause in support of her and her deployed husband, the mother-to-be threw her first pitch without giving a second thought to who was behind the plate waiting for the ball.

While the unsuspecting crowd cheered for her pitch and she attempted to make her way off the field, everything seemed to slow as the catcher made his way out to the pitcher’s mound and took off his mask. You could see the moment the recognition hit her as she realized the face behind the mask was one she didn’t think she would see in person for a long time. As the returning soldier was introduced and the loving couple shared a moment on the field, the cheers of the crowd increased ten-fold. It was a touching moment and I will admit that I got chills watching it all unfold.

I also think some dirt must have blown off the infield and into my eyes because for some reason, they started watering.

Oh, and don’t worry, they walked off the field a family of two for at least another day. Baby stayed safely inside mom’s belly.

Confessional: Have you ever witnessed or been a part of a surprise homecoming? Was the surprise a success?

Players, coaches, and fans stand during the National Anthem prior to the 2012 All-Star Classic home run derby at FirstEnergy Stadium. (Photo: Amanda Cain)

For the 2012 season, the Reading Fightin Phils had the honor of hosting the Eastern League All-Star Game and home run derby. Dubbed the Baseballtown All-Star Classic, preparations began well in advance of the event and based on the reactions from fans and teams around the league it was a huge success.

To be completely honest, I don’t recall much of what happened during the home run derby. I remember there was a trampoline in left field, a dunk tank in right field, an intern in a crane suspended about center field, and a man singing and playing his guitar on the pitcher’s mound.

The derby line-up included three special batters including former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher and current baseball broadcaster Ricky Bottalico.

There were also people everywhere.

My job during the home run derby and the All-Star game was the same as any other game day, only the number of incident reports I filed between the two nights was the highest I had over two seasons as an intern. Surprisingly enough, none of the home run or foul ball related injuries took place on the field, where visitors could participate in a VIP party all across the infield.

There is one incident report from the All-Star Classic home run derby that stands out in my mind to this day. I was making my rounds visiting all of the ushers when the call for the EMTs came over my radio. Someone had been hit by a home run ball out on the deck in left field. I checked in with the EMTs to make sure they had received the call and we headed out to left field.

It was slow going with the number of people who were walking around the stadium, but we eventually made it out onto the deck and found our guy. Let’s just say the fact that it took some time to get through the crowd did not make a difference to this gentleman. He was there with a group of friends and they had been enjoying themselves at the deck beer stand for quite some time.

I don’t think he even realized he had taken a baseball to the face.

When the EMTs walked up to him on the deck to talk to him, he gave them a huge smile, said hello, and even shook their hands. The only visible signs that he had been hit by a ball were the ball itself sitting on the table in front of him and a bruise that was starting to form on the side of his face. He continued to laugh and joke with his friends and the EMTs while they checked out his face. When it was time for me to ask him the questions necessary to fill out the incident report, his friends had to answer most of the questions because he didn’t know how it happened. All in all, it was probably the most pleasant incident report I filed over those two years.

I wonder if he remembers getting hit or even being at the home run derby.

All in all, I don’t remember which player won the home run derby and I don’t remember who won the game the following day. I do know there was an overall feeling of excitement around the ballpark for those two days and it was an event that is still talked about today.

Confessional: Have you or some you know ever caught a home run ball or foul ball at a baseball game? 

During the 2011 and 2012 seasons, I took a break from concessions and worked as a game day intern. My main responsibilities included working with the ushers and security during games and also filing incident reports when someone got injured while at the ballpark. Other than that, I would do whatever I could to help other people out whether that meant refilling paper towels in the restrooms, laying out programs around the park before a game, or retrieving a lost shoe from under the right field stands.

Yes, I said shoe. And yes, I actually had to get someone’s shoe back for them from under the bleachers. Let me start at the beginning.

On a typical game day, I would spend the majority of the night making my way around the ballpark and checking in with the ushers throughout the night, giving them breaks and talking and just making sure everything was going smoothly.

The night of The Great Shoe Rescue, the ushers had all left for the night and I was standing in the plaza talking to some of the other interns. I was then approached by a front office member who said they needed someone to crawl under the stands and retrieve a lost item. Since I was the smallest person there, they chose me.

We walked the short distance down the plaza to the storage closets under the right field stands – the same closets that years before had held the cash register I carried on my first night of work – and that is when I realized that I knew the person who lost the shoe. There was one of my good friends from college, standing in the plaza wearing only one flip-flop and a rather sheepish look his face. I started laughing and just shook my head.

After establishing where his seats were located in regards to where I would have to crawl under the stands, I began my adventure. I walked into the storage closet that was closest to his seats and, using the flashlight on my phone, began to scope out the easiest route. I started climbing over and under the metal beams of the stands, moving towards where my friend was standing above me at his seat, and prayed that I wouldn’t hit my head, fall, or rip my pants. I was also wary of what I might find under the stands other than a lost shoe.

Eventually I made it to the spot he was standing above, and lo and behold, there was a lonely flip-flop lying on the ground. With the way the right field bleachers are built, I was able to pass the sandal to him from under the seats, and made my way back out towards the storage closet where I had entered.

The Great Shoe Rescue was a success!

Believe it or not, this was not the first, nor the last, time that I would adventure under the stands to retrieve a lost item. This is one of the downfalls to being one of the smallest people working in a location where items get dropped much more often than you would think. Over those two years I retrieved shoes, cellphones, sunglasses, and even a sock. It was always an adventure.

Oh, and don’t worry, I didn’t let my friend forget the fact that he lost his shoe at a baseball game.

Confessional: What is one of the strangest things you have ever lost while out somewhere? Did you find it? Have you ever had to help retrieve any odd items at your job?

14. Opening Day 2005

Over the past 14 years I have had a number of wonderful experiences at America’s Classic Ballpark and I am sure season 15 will bring even more. Even with everything that has happened and that I have been able to do, I can still remember my first day at the stadium as though it was yesterday.

It was in April of 2005. I was in high school and my only previous job had been as a counselor at a summer arts camp for a month. I was excited to work at the ballpark because I loved being at games and my two older sisters made it sound like so much fun. I was also extremely nervous.

That night I was scheduled to work in the Grand Slam Grill, which at that time was one of two main stands located in the right field food court. After being led to the stand and introduced to the supervisor, I remember standing awkwardly in the corner not knowing what to do. Eventually someone took pity on me and gave me a job.

“You can come with us to get the registers.”

What?

I thought maybe I had misheard him, so I followed a few people out of the stand and across the food court to a storage closet located under the right field bleachers. I was at the back of the group and when I finally got to the door of the closet, I was told to pick up one of the large cash registers on the shelf and carry it back to the stand.

Sure, why not.

So there was little old me, on my first night at a new job lugging a cash register across an open food court, praying I didn’t drop the thing. I’m not sure how much those registers actually weighed, more than the flat screen tablets we use now I am sure, but somehow I made it back to the stand with no problems. Thankfully, the food court back then was not as large as the plaza is now.

Honestly, I don’t remember much about that night after carrying the register to the stand. I know that I was put on soda duty, which meant that all I had to do all night was stand next to a register and fill drink orders as they came in. I also know that I was set up at the soda fountain right next to the bell that was rung every time someone order a Grand Slammer, which was pretty often, so it was a very loud night. Other than that, I don’t remember who the Reading Phillies were playing or who won the game, and I honestly don’t remember what I was feeling at the end of the night. I must have had a good time, because I’ve been at the ballpark every summer since then.

I will say that I have only worked one other game in the Grand Slam Grill and, no offense to anyone who likes working in the grill, it was rather begrudgingly. I quickly discovered that the grill stand was not the place for me, and not long after that fateful first night I found my way up to the Longstrike Deck Stand where I would spend the next few years before a brief stint selling pizza, two years outside of concessions as an intern, and finally making it to the Upstairs Ice Cream (UIC) stand.

Confessional: What is one thing that you remember about your first day at a new job? Did you have fun? Learn something new?

Happy Opening Day 2019!

In honor of baseball season starting, I thought that I would once again attempt to post daily leading up to the Reading Fightin Phils home opener. I know it has been some time since my last post, so I am hoping this will get me back into the habit of writing regularly.

Since the Fightin Phils’ home opener is April 12 this year, that would make it 15 days away from today. This will also be my 15th season with the organization. Judging from the title of this post, I am sure you can see where this is going. I thought it would be fun to share 15 memories from my 15 seasons for the 15 days leading up to Opening Night. I will share a different story each day and they will be shared in no certain order. It will be hard enough to pick only 15, let alone putting them in order of importance. In the midst of enjoying the return of baseball season, please enjoy some of my favorite memories from my experiences in the sport!

I feel the need to preface this first memory by saying that when I worked in the left field deck stand, we got away with more than we should have in terms of things that went on inside the stand. We always did what we were supposed to, but we may have taken some things a bit too far.  Just keep this in mind for the following story and future posts that will appear on this page. Anyway, here is the story about how there came to be a ceiling fan in the Longstrike Deck Stand.

15. DIY Ceiling Fan

It was the middle of the summer and we had reached the point where it was still very hot and humid at night during games. As with any outdoor concession stand, the only means of “air conditioning” that the stand had were the open door and the two large windows where everything took place. We also had a large floor fan that we would stand just inside the door in the hopes that it would pull in some cooler air. In a stand that housed two standing fryers and a countertop fryer along with two rolling grills, this did not provide much relief on a hot night. Being the mature group of high school teenagers that we were, we decided one evening that this was not sufficient enough and we needed to find a way to cool off the stand more. This is where things got a little out of hand.

We decided to see if there was a way we could suspend the floor fan from the beams of the ceiling because in our minds that would make a big difference. Now, this fan had already been knocked over more times than we could count and it had definitely seen better days. I will say that before deciding to attach it to the ceiling, we did attempt to place it on top of a freezer and on a rolling cart, both of which did not work out so well. Why we thought hanging it from the ceiling was a better idea, I will never understand.

That being said, we began to look for a way to hang the fan from the ceiling. After an in-depth search around the stand for hanging material, we settled on a spare microphone cord that was stored in the corner of the stand. The cord was there in case the microphone used for the Highstrike game set up outside the stand stopped working and needed to be plugged in. Seeing as it had never been needed before, we decided we could use it to hang our fan from the rafters. While it was an innovative idea, we were not thinking about all the ways this could turn into a potential disaster.

After we settled on using the mic cord as our hanging material, things got interesting. We managed to hook the cord through the top of the fan and then threw the ends of the cord over the rafter of the ceiling, resulting in a floor fan that was indeed hanging from the ceiling. Here is where the plan went wrong.

The only place that we had an open outlet to plug in the fan was right inside the door. As a result, the fan ended up hanging right inside the door. Since the fan was built to sit on the floor and not to hang, it was a decent size and weighed a decent amount so we were not able to hang it very high off the floor. It hung about chest high on an average height person. We were very proud of  the fact that we had managed to pull off what we thought was a brilliant plan, and were congratulating ourselves when the assistant concessions director decided to walk through the door, nearly decapitating himself on the fan that he did not realize was there. As a result, he bumped the fan which caused the entire contraption to fall to the floor.

After that, we not only had no ceiling fan, we also no longer had a floor fan.

Surprisingly, not one person ended up getting in trouble. We were told to never attempt something like that again, but since no one was hurt and we didn’t break anything except the fan, the rest of the night continued as normal. In the end we left that night feeling proud of our short-lived victory. We did not expect that feeling of pride to carry into the following night. Imagine our surprise when we walked in the next night and found a brand new ceiling fan installed in the stand – no mic cords needed.

That ladies and gentlemen, is the story of how there came to be a ceiling fan in the Longstrike Deck Stand.

Confessional: What is one of the craziest things you or a coworker have done at work that you did not get in trouble for?

Many of you know how I feel about young children at baseball games – I shared my feelings in a previous post about Education Days – and during this season’s Education Days and Camp Day, I once again found myself fascinated by one aspect of dealing with children and money that I normally wouldn’t think about.

Children – especially those in elementary school – have very limited concepts of money and how money works.

We do have kids who come up to the stand on their own during normal game nights, but typically the majority of our interactions with kids who are handling their own money occur during Education and Camp Days. While most of the kids have no problem figuring out how much money they need to hand over and what change they should expect to get back, there are many that seem as though they don’t truly understand how the different values of the different bills work.

Let me provide an example for you.

“Johnny” comes up to the window and asks to order some ice cream – he appears to be around the age of nine or ten. He decides that he would like a miniature batting helmet with chocolate ice cream and rainbow sprinkles. I tell him that his total is $5.50 and in return, I receive a blank stare. For a brief moment, a look of confusion flickers in his eyes and he lays a crumpled bill on the counter while saying, “But I only have $20.” It becomes my job to explain to him that it is ok, $20 is more than enough to cover the cost of his ice cream and he will even get money back. He continues to give me a confused look as I put his money in the register and hand him $14.50 in change. After a brief glance at the new bills in his hand, he mumbles a quick “thank you” and moves over to collect his ice cream.

This scenario happens more often than you would think and I always find myself biting my tongue in order to not laugh or make some sort of comment about the fact that they don’t know that 20 is higher than 5.50.

Now, I was definitely never the greatest math student and I am still not a huge fan of solving math problems, but when I was in elementary school, probably starting around 3rd or 4th grade, I could pretty much figure out that if the number on my money was higher than what I was told my item cost, I knew I had enough to purchase said item. It just boggles my mind sometimes that kids cannot figure out if they have enough money.

Confessional: What is one thing that happens to you at your job that still catches you off guard every now and then?

While I don’t think sending a young child under the age of 10 or 11 up to a concession stand at a crowded stadium by themselves is a good idea, I do know that there are many children who like to be independent and want to do things for themselves. (My niece is one of those children – however she is only 2 so her days of handling money for herself are a long way away.) Giving your children a chance to be independent is fantastic and I wholeheartedly agree with the idea, but there are some instances where their independence may need some help from you in order for them to succeed. I have helped plenty of children who come up to the window with a parent or chaperone and the child does the ordering and handles the money, but the adult is there to make sure they understand how much money they have and whether or not they can afford what they want to order.

Maybe it’s just me and maybe it’s because I grew up in a household of educators, but I seem to remember that money is something that they begin teaching pretty early on in school and if a parent believes their child is old enough to go to a baseball game with a certain amount of money and be able to handle that money on their own, they should make sure that their child understands how money works before they try to make a purchase.

In the end, I always make sure that every child knows exactly what they are paying for their food and how much money they are getting back in change. What happens to that money after they walk away from my stand is a mystery, but I will make sure they understand that $20 is enough to cover their $4 ice cream.

For this post, I decided to take you through a night of work so you can get an idea of what it is like in the Upstairs Ice Cream Stand. From the drive to work to selling ice cream to cleaning up at the end of the night. Don’t worry though, it is a very condensed version of a night in the UIC. If I created a video of the entire night, it would be three hours long and I wouldn’t make anyone sit through that! Enjoy this short inside look at what it is like working in the UIC!

Confessional: What is one question you have always had about working in a baseball stadium or in a concession stand?

Did you like this type of post this week? Let me know in the comments below if you would be interested in more video posts and what types of things you would like to see.