Jeff Idelson
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BASEBALL DIGEST WORLD SERIES EDITION A Special Publication of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP By Abe J. Schear Jeff Idelson October 2019 “Hall of Fame Perspective” * * * I am here with Jeff Idelson and What may have been different with me Timing is everything (along with a little I’m really pleased to be doing this than other kids was that I remember luck). One of the goals of this now 15 interview. Jeff, where did you grow vividly about this first game is nothing year old baseball series of interviews was up? that anybody on the Red Sox did, but to gather perspectives from a broad range Abe, I grew up in the Boston area, that Brooks Robinson made a number of people, a task that has become more Jamaica Plain specifically. Then, when of great plays and I wondered who he difficult as the series has continued. So my parents had four children, we moved was. So, the first player I really became (the luck part), I was talking with my friend Shaun Clancy (who knows everyone), to Newton, Mass. familiar with, more so than just hearing and he asked if I wanted to interview Jeff And you must have grown up a Red the name, was Brooks Robinson. Idelson, the recently resigned president of Sox fan? Well, he was a pretty classy third the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Oh yes. When you grow up in a city baseman. On the early teams, when Museum. Of course I did. with a major league team, you don’t you were 5 and 6 and 7, who were your really have that choice if your parents favorite players? Driving to Cooperstown from Albany, NY are baseball fans. So, from the moment Growing up, I was a big Carl is a pleasant ride, one I first made in 1995 of birth, I was told that I was a Red Sox Yastrzemski fan. When I was a little why our son, Adam, took ten (10) of his fan, even though my parents were very kid, Carlton Fisk was one of my heroes. friends to Cooperstown for his Bar Mitzvah democratic. As I got into my late grade school, early party. Arriving early I feted myself to lunch Were both of your parents baseball middle school, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn. I at the Otesago Resort Hotel where a perfect hamburger (ballpark food) was available. fans or did they come to baseball? Did was a big Dwight Evans fan because of While Cooperstown is hardly a metropolis, they learn baseball or were they born defense and Rick Burleson. I primarily the Hall of Fame is like a ball inside a well- into baseball? liked the guys with who excelled worn baseball glove in this beautiful little They came to learn baseball at an defensively because I was a very community, one where people walk around, early age. My mother’s dad was a big mediocre little league player who was mostly in baseball logoed clothing. baseball fan. My dad learned it on his good defensively but couldn’t hit. own. He was left handed. He grew up My wife and I, before we got married, Jeff made arrangements for us to use a in Providence. His favorite players were I was rooting for the Reds and it was a hotel conference room and the conversation Stan Musial and Ted Williams and my great series in 1975 with the Red Sox. began, essentially him talking and me mom loved everybody. The first game We went to two games in that World asking a few questions. Jeff’s experiences I went to, at age 5, was with both my Series too, the 4th and 5th games. have been fascinating and his career routing a lesson on how we can challenge and parents and my grandparents to Fenway I’ve got a great memory sitting on my reinvent ourselves. Park and I still remember it well. living room floor with my parents, game And you sat where at that game? 6 which the Red Sox won. I remember I don’t remember the exact section, but them wanting me to go to bed, but my we were in the right field grandstand, complaining that there was no way I was beyond first base, between first base and going to be going to bed. I was 11 and Abe J. Schear is an attorney with Arnall foul pole. And I remember, as every I have great memories of watching, you Golden Gregory LLP and is a member of kid does, you come in and you see the know, on the snowy television, Fisk’s the firm’s Real Estate Group. Contact Abe expansive green, you can’t believe it. homerun and then going to bed. at 404.873.8752 or [email protected]. I was no different than any other kid. Probably Bernie Carbo won’t be A r n a l l G o l d e n G r e g o r y L L P | October 2019 known for anything else. You played a while I would splurge. I liked the I think I learned to score with my dad. baseball as a youngster? Fenway Sports Bar which was an ice My dad taught me to score right away. I I did and I peaked at age 12 like most cream. It was vanilla with a chocolate remember getting the program and we’d kids. I did love playing little league ball. stripe down the middle. That was pretty fill up the score card and, you know, It was a very important part of my life. tasty and once in a while I’d get a hot then as I worked in baseball, it became And you played what position? dog, but the ice cream bars were my something I did every day. I still love Center-fielder and, you know, a marginal favorite. keeping score. It keeps me involved. hitter, good defense and speed. What’s your favorite ball food now? Do you keep score on your own score Fenway Park is remarkable. Tell me, Ballpark food today? book or do you buy score cards? why is that ball park so special? What Beer doesn’t count. I have a score book now. I used to do score cards. I have a score book that I got the last year I worked with the “I even got a paper route when I was young Yankees and I just use that. When you were a child, did you collect so I could see the box scores even earlier.” memorabilia? No. I mean, I collected pictures of my is it that makes it so remarkable? No. I mean ballpark food has become favorite players. The local supermarket What makes it remarkable is a number incredible. It’s representative of the would have a deal where you spend $20 of factors. Number 1 is its location local fare which is nice. So, there and you got an 8x10 of your favorite in Boston in the Kenmore area. It’s a is nothing better than a bratwurst in Red Sox. I was constantly trying to eat downtown ballpark. Number 2, it’s the Milwaukee. Chicago dog in Chicago. If as much as I could so my mother would smallest ballpark in the majors, or it you are going to go sodium nitrate, those have to buy more food and get more was when I was growing up with 33,583 are the stadiums to go to. of these photos. But I never collected seats, not including standing room, and Since you’ve been to so many anything. A few autographs like the that made it intimate. The Red Sox ballparks, how would you critique the other kids did, but I was just more were not good, which most people don’t ballparks today? Which ones do you concerned with following my team in the realize, until this millennium. So, they really like? newspapers. were lovable losers. You rooted for Well, most of the reasons I love ballparks In the mornings, did you read the them. They were your hometown team. is just for the feeling I have when I am paper, did you look at all the box And the audience that went to Fenway there. Fenway ballpark is a feeling scores? seemed very familiar. You felt like you of home. AT&T, the Oracle in San There was nothing better. For me, I even were part of a big family. Francisco. The difference between got a paper route when I was young so The fact that there was no parking Fenway then and now is that I am 50 I could see the box scores even earlier. around there made people just kind of years older. I mean the same fandom, You know, that was kind of important wander in from all directions together. same interest, but beyond Fenway, to me. Nothing beat the Boston Globe They still do. it’s AT&T, Oracle, Camden Yards in every morning, their stable of incredible They do. As kids, we went in by the Baltimore, Pittsburgh’s ballpark is writers in all sports, but the box scores T. My parents were really strict on absolutely gorgeous. I love going to were my favorite page. Sporting News, education, but there was never any discussion or argument about my going “I stayed being a vendor at Fenway through to opening day. I went to every opening day growing up and I’d always take the T my junior year in college.” in with my friends.