December 2010
Children and Children and Children OH MY!
Happy Holidays!
We want to let you in on a great tradition that the Giants do for their employees. Around this time every year, the Giants front office puts on an event called the Giants Children’s/Toddlers Reception. The reception started 5 years ago because employees wanted a chance to meet all of the babies that were born that year in the Giants front office. Throughout the years, the party has evolved into somewhat of a social reunion, allowing fellow coworkers (with and without children) to not only gather and spend quality time together, but to watch each other’s kids grow up. Some employees have witness infants turn into 5 and 6 year olds, which is a pretty cool thing. On average, the 2-hour reception is attended by 60 adults and 30-35 kids. Needless to say, the clubhouse at times can feel like a daycare center.
One of the great aspects of the party is that it has no budget and is totally put on by donations made by the employees. The party is located in the Giants Clubhouse (which is donated by Clubhouse Manager Mike Murphy), and is dressed with holiday décor (borrowed from the ballpark). The children are given lockers (same lockers the players use during the season) with personalized name plates and small gift bags. The small committee of Giants staff that “run the show” make sure to know exactly what foods, games, and other donations employees are offering so that there isn’t too much or too little of everything. Some of the yummy “potluck style” snacks are animal crackers, fruit, juice boxes, crackers, chicken wings, veggie platters, M&M‘s, rice crispy treats, snowmen cookies, Capri Suns, lumpia, raisin boxes, small milks, and reindeer cookies. Murph also donates the player’s hot dog machine from the clubhouse kitchen, a favorite among both kids and adults. The event offers activities such as a crafts table, balloon sculptures, bounce house, Lou Seal appearance, ring toss, bean bag toss, and even a Wii. There are also things for the kids to do as well….jk=)
Does your work do something similar? How about a company BBQ? Tell us your stories!
News and Notes from Day 1 of the Winter Meetings
Pretty quiet day so far on the Giants front as far as trades/rumors go. We’ll see if anything picks up over the next couple of days.
Earlier today, Pat Gillick was elected to the Hall of Fame by the veterans committee, so congratulations to him.
Several members of the Giants organization, including Bruce Bochy, Brian Sabean, the baseball operations department, pr staff and top scouts, attended an awards luncheon today as Baseball America announced San Francisco as the Organization of the Year. It was nearly a two hour lunch with several awards being handed out, such as Scout of the Year, the best field and turf members at each minor league classification, Women of the Year, and finally the top minor league teams at each level.
Following the lunch manager Bruce Bochy did a one-hour media tour, speaking with local and national writers, XM Radio, cbssportsline.com, ESPN, MLB.com and then finally finishing with MLB Network.
Tonight, the Giants will host an organizational dinner in a ballroom at the Dolphin and Swan hotel with all their affiliates in attendance, including staff members from Fresno, Richmond, San Jose, Augusta and Salem-Keizer. It should be a fun night.
Inside the Baseball Winter Meetings
If you follow baseball closely, then you’ve probably heard of the annual baseball winter meetings. But, if you’ve never attended, do you actually know what’s going on?
The 109th annual Baseball Winter Meetings will be in Florida for the second time in five years. The annual gathering of baseball executives, player agents, managers, and occasionally players, will take place at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort near Orlando starting next Monday, Dec. 6 through Thursday, Dec. 9. More than 200 Major League and Minor League Baseball clubs, leagues and organizations attend these meetings.
The meetings are four days to plan for the 2011 season and to honor the achievements of the past year, but the biggest attention around these meetings centers on trades and signings by the MLB general managers. For Major and Minor League Baseball, league meetings for clubs and executives occur throughout the day behind closed doors. There are also other organizations that are affiliated with MLB and MiLB that hold meetings, including the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) which holds its annual meeting to determine which applicants may or may not gain inclusion into the Association.
The organized events surrounding the industry include the baseball Trade Show, Awards Luncheon banquet and the main social event, the Gala. The trade show attracts nearly 300 exhibitors and includes a lot of different items pertaining to baseball. Companies such as Rawlings or New Era show off what’s new or what’s hot and try to get baseball teams to upgrade and make purchases.
The events are covered by the media who usually hang in the hotel lobby waiting to report on the signings and trades that go down. MLB Network, ESPN Radio and Sirus XM Radio are also there reporting any breaking news.
Officially, the Baseball Winter Meetings are not open to the general public. To gain access to the media workroom where press conferences and announcements take place, you’ll need a credential from MLB. You’ll also need a separate credential from Minor League Baseball to gain access to the Trade Show, or you have to register to attend the Job Fair.
Stay tuned as next week I’ll write another blog post with updates/photos from Orlando. And for all Giants developments, make sure to follow us on Twitter @SFGIANTS.
sfgiantscoop
Recent Comments