Randall Stewart: Preseason | Week One
Chelsea France: Week One | Midseason
 

Diary of an Intern—Preseason
Randall Stewart

The day has finally arrived. The day we’ve spent the last month working toward. Opening Day is upon us. All the phone calls, all the miles logged on my poor car’s odometer, all the businesses visited, all the strangers we’ve tried to sell tickets to, all the emails back and forth trying to get news coverage, and all the long hours in the office will all come to fruition tonight.

Being an intern for a summer collegiate team hasn’t been as easy as I expected. The biggest challenge we’ve faced is simply letting people know who we are. It’s amazing the number of people who had no idea the Blue Eagles even existed when we contacted them about sponsorships or tickets. We’ve gone back to square one in a lot of ways, treating this season as if it was our first and working hard to “get the word out” about who we are. We’ve put up posters all over Spartanburg with our schedule, distributed 16,000 fliers to school children across the county, and called countless churches, daycares, Little League programs, news outlets, businesses, non-profit organizations, and restaurants, all in an effort to sell tickets and let people know that high-level competitive baseball has returned to Sparkle City.

This job has definitely been a challenge, but a very rewarding one for me. The Phillies left town before I went to kindergarten. I have no memory of going to any Phillies games (although I am told my parents took me to a few during their final season); a dream of mine has always been to see baseball once again legitimized within the city of Spartanburg. Working for the Blue Eagles gives me a chance to take an active role in making that dream a reality. In order to do this, we need loyal fan support from Spartanburg and the surrounding areas. Nothing would be more fulfilling for me than to see the stands packed out with blue-clad fans—not just tonight, but for every home game. Bring your families, relax in the tranquil setting of Russell C. King Field on Wofford’s beautiful campus, and enjoy an exciting season of Blue Eagles baseball.  (Back To Top)

Diary of an intern - Week 1
Chelsea France, Marketing/Public Relations

For a month us interns have been busy calling businesses and groups to sponsor our team and to come enjoy some ballgames. The process has been frustrating with the constant phone calls and freezing temperature in the office, but also exciting.

Coming into the office at our first staff meeting I didn't know what to expect. Mistakenly I thought I would be bringing in all of these sponsors, I quickly realized this when, during the first couple weeks, I continually heard the response of, "No." Finally, the tables changed again. Although I didn't bring in my goal for sponsors, I do believe the Blue Eagle staff overall is successful with the number of sponsorships we have for the 2010 season. We have brought in a little over 20 sponsors. It's great at games to see the signs and hear the announcements of all of the sponsorships, and soon different company games nights will occur. Chick-fil-a Hillcrest's game night will occur on Friday, June 18th and Coca-cola of Spartanburg's game night will be on Friday, July 9th. Outback Steakhouse; who is providing free dinners for our players, coaches, and staff twice; will also be having a game night in July.

While I did have high expectations for myself to bring in sponsors, I did not have high expectations about the friendships I would gain from working with the Spartanburg Blue Eagles. Being an intern with this team, we know to get work done, but we also know to have fun while doing so. Our General Manger, Daniel Assey, likes to keep the interns happy. I think this is a smart business tactic because, honestly, I would rather work hard when I'm liking where I'm at and what I'm doing than if I'm frustrated with what's going on behind the scenes.

Being an intern is really just filled with laughs and excitement. My co-workers are my friends. Some of us have been bowling before and we usually go out to lunch daily. I have laughed many times such as seeing how Cam bowls, hearing how Daniel wakes up Cam every morning, and listening to Randal drop into daily conversations how bad he wanted a Blue Eagle polo. Some of the best moments have been our lunches, dancing in the press box, and of course the time a visiting player locked himself in the dugout's bathroom.

The days working in the office have been a little slow and early at times, but when we step out at Wofford's Russell C. King field to prepare for games it's all worth it. We see the banners hanging on the outfield wall, we set up the merchandise, and we prepare for the rest of the day's activities. Sitting at the merchandise/ticket table I get to see the fan reactions. It's fun to see the mothers, fathers, siblings, and grand parents cheer for their player and always rush to turn in their answers to trivia questions. I look forward to seeing these continuous fans through out the season, but all of the interns also hope to see more people come out to the games.

People who haven't come out yet to the games are missing out. Just read the news on our website, www.blueeaglesbaseball.com, and you will see. Last night's game against the Tennessee Tornado ended as one of the most exciting games I've witnessed. Being down 9-3 at one point, tying up in the ninth, and winning in extra innings off of a wild pitch. Last night was a miracle game and so was another against the Carolina Chaos, the newspaper headline even reading, "Blue Eagles pull off miracle."

Through the sponsorships the staff has brought in, the friendships we have made, and the games the team has won propelling themselves to first in the division at 5-2, this season seems to be bringing many miracles to the Spartanburg Blue Eagles. (Back To Top)

Diary of an Intern - Week 1
Randall Stewart

A week has gone by since the season has gotten underway, and what a week it’s been! On our third attempt, we finally got to play our first game of the season, splitting a doubleheader at Morganton. Our first home game was a Saturday doubleheader against the Chaos. We had a successful night, teaming up with Impact Sports to promote the game. Sunday we swept a doubleheader against the Chaos, making up for the games we couldn’t play Tuesday and Wednesday. But Monday night’s game against Tennessee was clearly the highlight of the week. There were so many wild things that happened during that one. A Tennessee player that has asthma got locked in the bathroom in the dugout for half an hour, and an ambulance was called. The Blue Eagles were down 9-3, but scored 3 runs in the 7th to close the gap. We had scored two runs in the 9th to cut the deficit to 9-8. With a man on second and down to our final strike, Tyler Miller ripped a double down the first base line to tie the game. Then in the 10th, after George Schaefer’s fourth inning of pitching in relief, keeping the dangerous Tennessee lineup at bay, Gaither Bumgardner scored on a wild pitch to win the game 10-9.

Working in the office all week and not having a weekend was extremely tiring, but the win on Monday night made everything worth it. Now we’re hoping to have a big crowd on Saturday. I learned this week that it’s not a good idea to pick and choose which games to “go all out” and promote and which ones to relax on a little bit. Inevitably, the ones you promote hard won’t work out, due to rain or indifference. This may make for some longer days in the office in the future, but it will all be worth it when those stands are filled and the Blue Eagles continue winning games (Back To Top)

Diary of an Intern - Midseason
Chelsea France

Now that we are a few weeks into the season, all of the interns are becoming more comfortable with their new game day duties. I'm not going to lie, mine are pretty simple. Game days I sit at the ticket/merchandise table. I also still keep in contact with the sponsors I brought in to make sure we are fulfilling our promises and to check up for when their game nights are. I am looking forward to Coca-Cola of Spartanburg's game night on July 9th. They are bringing out t-shirts and making the night focused on Mello-Yello. Fans should get very excited for this night while it is also Mascot Night.

Things that have happened within the past few weeks:

1) Blue Eagles didn't score a run for 28 innings. This finally changed on Wednesday June 23rd with a win against the Carolina Stingers.

2) I drove to Statesville with another intern, Cam Aiken, for an away game in which I managed to lose his phone on our way back. We had to turn around, drive back to the high school, check his car, check the stands and parking lot, and check his car again. We didn't find it. Turns out it was right behind my seat the whole time. Again Cam, I'm sorry.

3) We had our highest attendance yet with around 215 fans. This was on Daycare Day. This day I also had to run along side the Chick-fil-a cow mascot as he lost a race against the Monkey Joe's mascot.

4) We had our first Outback night, which I would like to thank Michael Hanna for being so cooperative with us.

5) And of course all South Carolinians know the University of South Carolina won the College World Series defeating UCLA, winning their first NCAA baseball championship. (Back To Top)