Baseball is like Beer

  For me baseball is like beer; it's an acquired taste. I now know more about baseball than I had ever previously cared to know and found truth in the statement that people who work in baseball drink more than any other sport.

Archie 

 So it unfortunately has been quite some time since I have sat down and written about my life out here in Reno; despite my good intentions. Several things have changed and most of the changes are good if not great. I am now officially Assistant Director of Merchandise, my job title is essential the only thing that has changed really. My responsibilities at work has steadily grown and expanded throughout the season and for right now reached a peak. Reflecting back on the season, 72 regular season home games and 2 play off home games I find that I am once asking myself; why do I always end up in customer service jobs?

Archie ringing up a customer one game.

 
  Working in the store during every game has its pros and cons. In the early part of the season the games were freezing cold, windy, and miserable, we even had a game snowed out Memorial Day weekend! (So as I read about my friends and family enjoying the Keys all I could think about was that I was wearing a parka and how wrong that was.) Although when the weather is miserable, hot or cold, it makes for a store crowded with non-buying customers, huddled around our TVs and watching the game. Which eventually leads to me turning off the TVs, seeing as I can only have so many people in the store at once. You can imagine how much the fans love that, I don't have to imagine they tell me. We have a one sided relationship the fans and I, they are very honest about how I should/could be doing my job and I smile and nod. As everyone knows the bad experiences very rarely outnumber the good, but the bad are more fun to talk about and usually funnier.

This is the Triple Play mentioned in the Commercial.

  So the only real con about being in the Team Store all game is that I do not get to watch the game. I watch as much as I can on out TVs in the store but its not the same especially when the game is all of 30 feet away. I only got to sit down as a spectator to one Aces game, and I had to drive to Sacramento to do it, haha. The real kicker about that though is that as a full-time employee I have season tickets, two really sweet seats that I never get to enjoy.
  Check out this video that the Aces put out; commercial for 2011 season. The Aces do a good job of keeping the crowd entertained with Archie and Ball on the Wall. Speaking of Archie, if you think you recognize him and you watch ESPN you might have seen him here. It made the 'Not Top10' in 2010. Of course we also do things to involve the fans, this is from the first year and they happen to be two of my co-workers. We have things like .50 hot dog nights, $1 rib nights, promotional nights of course. My favorite thing we did this year was Johnny Cash Weekend. The players had special black jerseys, the full-time staff was offered the chance to purchase our own which I did. Cash's son and daughter-in-law/former band member were in attendance. His son threw out the first pitch on Saturday and she sang the National Anthem. It was a really awesome weekend and very busy one too.  

My Johnny Cash jersey.

  For those of you who don't know, or didn't catch the '72 home games and 2 playoff games' earlier, the Aces made it to the playoffs this year for the first time in franchise history. Winning the title of Pacific Northern Division Champions of the Pacific Coast League, quite a mouthful right? Try putting it on a hat. We did end up losing the 5 game series for the Conference Champs against Sacramento.

  Now that the season is over I have much easier weeks ahead of me, and a lot more time on my hands. I have made some really good friends out here