L'Ville Bats Front Office Journal--Baseball Digest Daily

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Svend Jansen: Louisville Bats Front Office Journal #1 http://www.baseballdigestdaily.com/bullpen/images/M_images/pdf_button.png (javascript:void window.open('http://www.baseballdigestdaily.com/bullpen/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=54', 'win2', 'status=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=yes,titlebar=no,m enubar=no,resizable=yes,width=640,height=480,direc tories=no,location=no');) http://www.baseballdigestdaily.com/bullpen/images/M_images/printButton.png (javascript:void window.open('http://www.baseballdigestdaily.com/bullpen/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=43&pop=1&page=0', 'win2', 'status=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=yes,titlebar=no,m enubar=no,resizable=yes,width=640,height=480,direc tories=no,location=no');) http://www.baseballdigestdaily.com/bullpen/images/M_images/emailButton.png (javascript:void window.open('http://www.baseballdigestdaily.com/bullpen/index2.php?option=com_content&task=emailform&id=54', 'win2', 'status=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=yes,titlebar=no,m enubar=no,resizable=yes,width=400,height=250,direc tories=no,location=no');) Contributed by Svend Jansen Tuesday, 07 March 2006 Ahhh, I know baseball season must be getting close if I am writing a journal entry for BDD. It’s amazing how fast the off-season goes, especially after January 1. That is when it truly starts to pick up. Now we are exactly one month from our Opening Day, April 6, and I still feel like there is a lot to do. In this journal entry, I am going to try to describe what the off season is like for me here in Louisville.

Our season ended early for the second straight year, not making the playoffs again. Basically the months of September and October are used to catch up on things, mostly rest for me, and do some end of season stuff. There isn’t much sales work to be done since most people are thinking football and since our season is seven months away, they are hardly thinking baseball.

In the off-season, everyone in the office works in sales, whether our GM is selling a $25,000 sponsorship or an intern is selling a $63 mini plan, every person does sales. I do a mix of things, mostly focusing on season tickets and sponsorships.


Around the holidays, things are pretty slow around here. Around Christmas, the office is given from December 23 – January 1 off, which is very nice, especially for me since my family lives in Connecticut and I get to spend some time up there with them.

After the first of the year, things kick into high gear. I get into the media guide full speed, updating all of the record information that has changed from the past year. Jim Kelch, our radio broadcaster, helps me tremendously with his “yellow sheets” on which he has gone through our media guide and given me all the new record holders and updated statistics from the past year. It is a great help and I couldn’t do it without him.

Once I am done with those, I work on the player bios, the front of the book. I do it this way because when I start the guide in late December, most of the players have not been signed yet. The Reds help me tremendously with this section of the book, as they send down their 2006 media guide bios on a CD, which I then am able to paste into my book, with some adjustments.

I try to devote two hours a day to the guide, usually in the afternoon from 3-5. This is when we have the least amount of sales, and the office is usually pretty quiet. Now on March 6, the guide is off to the printer and in record time. I should have it back in a week or two. It’s always a great day when they arrive.

For the next month, it will be a mix of things getting ready for the season. Getting credentials out, finishing up our catering schedule with the restaurants that cater for the press box, selling more season tickets and just anything else that comes up. It’s a fun time and we even have a little March Madness to look forward to. GO HOOSIERS!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at sjansen@batsbaseball.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it anytime.


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Journal #2



Svend Jansen: Louisville Bats Front Office Journal #2 PDF Print E-mail
Contributed by Svend Jansen
Wednesday, 22 March 2006
Only two weeks until Opening Day. Scary stuff. Luckily we open on the road this year so that gives us a little extra time to prepare and have things ready here. We open with an eight game road trip in Ottawa and Syracuse before coming home for our home opener on April 14.

Things are coming along fine. The media guide is off to print, and we should have it back by next week. Some unexpected changes to our team caused a delay in the book, but everything is set now. We found out last week that our bench coach, Alonzo Powell, was being reassigned as hitting coach of Single-A Dayton…which leaves us a coach short. Also, our pitching coach duties may be up in the air due to Reds current pitching coach Vern Ruhle being diagnosed with cancer. The Reds bullpen coach Tom Hume has assumed Ruhle’s duties as pitching coach, and Lee Tunnell, who was set to be our pitching coach, has been serving as the Reds bullpen coach. Things are all still up in the air, but as of right now, we don’t have a pitching coach.

Back here in Louisville, we had our annual open house for our season ticket holders this past Saturday. We started the event about three years ago, and it has become a huge success. We basically open certain areas of the stadium (clubhouse, dugout, press box, luxury suites) that our season ticket holders probably have never seen before and let them get a “behind the scenes” look at Louisville Slugger Field. We also offer free hot dogs and soft drinks to all in attendance and allow them to pick their tickets up while they are there. We had a crowd of about 2,100 people which was fantastic.

Another big event which took place last night was our annual fantasy baseball draft. Working in baseball, I get very into this and do a lot of research to prepare. Being that I am the defending champion, I had the last pick. I wasn’t too comfortable with that position since I have to make back to back picks. There is too much time in between picks. It went fine, and I was happy with my team despite my dog Rudy driving me nuts the entire time. I only have one Red (Brandon Claussen) and he was a late round flyer.

Off to a safety committee meeting. It’s something we had to create because our front office has a proclivity of hurting themselves carrying tables, pulling tarp, etc. Unbelievable. Until next time.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me anytime at sjansen@batsbaseball.com .

Last Updated ( Sunday, 09 April 2006 )

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Journal 3#



Svend Jansen: Louisville Bats Front Office Journal #3 PDF Print E-mail
Contributed by Svend Jansen
Monday, 22 May 2006
May 19, 2006

End of May already. Seems pretty crazy. Tonight we play our 23rd home game of the season, right about 1/3 of the season behind us already. It's been an up and down year for the team. We've had over 50 roster moves already, and there doesn't seem to be any sign of slowing that down.

The oddest of all the moves came last week when OF Rob Stratton was given his release. Our roster was full at 24 when the Reds optioned Chris Denorfia down to us to make room for Ken Griffey Jr. This obviously necessitated a move from us. Instead of sending someone down to Double-A, the Reds went the route of releasing the team’s leading home run and RBI guy. This came as a shock to everyone…the team, the coaching staff, the media and the front office. Everyone was shocked. Rob was a very well liked guy and was really one of those players you don't want to miss seeing play.

Stratton began his legend in Louisville back in 2001 while playing for the Norfolk Tides. In a playoff game at Louisville Slugger Field, Stratton belted what he believed was the farthest ball he's ever hit, clearing the entire stadium and landing on the street behind the left field wall. Since then, he has played parts of the last three seasons with Louisville, battling through injuries, but being a very solid player when healthy. Just a week before his release, Stratton hit a home run estimated at 490 feet, the longest home run in Louisville Slugger Field history. Despite the fact he was hitting just .250, the coaching staff really felt he was getting ready to come around.

Our manager Rick Sweet said it was the toughest release he's ever had to make, stating that he and hitting coach Smokey Garrett took the news worse than Stratton.

Less than 12 hours after his release, Stratton was signed to a minor league contract, and ironically enough, is now playing for former Bats manager Dave Miley at Triple-A Columbus. I hope he does well. He deserves it after everything he has been through. (Just hopefully not against us).

Well as I am writing this, we've made another move, as the Reds just signed Joe Mays to a minor league contract. Supposedly he will coming to us sometime in the near future.

It's been a while since writing so I don't really know where else to go. The Kentucky Derby was this past week. We were out of town like we always are during Derby week. It's a good thing because people in this area are horse crazy. It's good to get the Derby behind us and get people thinking about baseball instead of the ponies.

The International League All-Star game is coming up in July in Toledo and the Mud Hens PR Director Jason Griffin, who does a fantastic job, asked me to come help him deal with the media for the three days. I was planning on going anyway, but this is even more of a reason. I really appreciate him asking and am looking forward to getting up there.

We've had some odd media requests lately, not really having to do with the baseball side of things, but with the team not playing as well as they can right now, I guess that's good. One local TV station did a story on the player's wives and what's its like having their husbands on the road all the time, coming to the games, etc. It turned out to be a pretty interesting piece.

The other off the wall story was on the players’ intro music as they come to the plate. It was basically about how players go about picking their songs. The reporters talked to our organist Bob Ramsey, who also controls all of the music at the stadium, about some of the strangest songs we've had over the years. It should be a good story. You can check it out in the upcoming issue of Velocity Weekly.

I think that's all I've got. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write to me anytime at sjansen@batsbaseball.com