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Home , Carlton Fisk, Dwight Evans (baseball), Eddie Kasko, Fred Lynn, I Like to Score, Ken Coleman

BASEBALL DIGEST  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 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 made a 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, 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, , . 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 fan because of While Cooperstown is hardly a metropolis, they learn baseball or were they born defense and . 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 . 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 and 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 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 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. 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 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. , education, but there was never any discussion or argument about my going “I stayed being a vendor at Fenway through to . I went to every opening day growing up and I’d always take the T my junior year in college.” in with my friends. Public transportation is great there. Seattle. I love how San Diego is situated of course, was a big deal. Did you go to other stadiums when downtown, it makes it very inviting. I grew up reading Joe Falls and you were young? Did you go to minor Those are probably among my favorites. all those guys. Sporting News, league stadiums? There are so many I like Pittsburg a lot. What is your now nobody knows what that was. of them up in New England. favorite place to sit at a ballgame? As Sporting News was phenomenal. It I didn’t. I got to a a spectator, where do you like to sit? was a baseball publication. couple of times because I had family in I don’t really care where I sit as long Well, you didn’t get only the box scores New York, but that was the extent of it. as I can see the entire field and I don’t either. You got in depth stories which Mostly, just Fenway. have a steady stream of fans in front of was great. I agree with you. As a youngster, what was your favorite me because I like to score when I go to So, where did you go to college and food at the ballpark? games. So, anywhere where I can really were you still following baseball when Wow, we didn’t eat a lot of the ballpark enjoy it is fine with me. It doesn’t need you were in college? food. Back then, you brought your to be a box seat. It just needs to be an Well, I was a vendor at Fenway Park food. Your mom packed the sandwiches. unobstructed view of the field. growing up and I took that with me when It was that kind of thing, but once in Who taught you to score? I went to college. I went to Connecticut 2 by Abe J. Schear

College in New London, Connecticut graduated college on June 1 and the Red What was your career path there? and majored in international economics Sox had a great year and I was able to I started in January of ’89 as the but I stayed being a vendor at Fenway have a number of assignments all the Assistant PR Director for Harvey Green through my junior year in college. I way through the World Series, which who is a legend in that in industry. He continued to follow the Red Sox. Fall gave me a lot of exposure to a lot of had gone to the Garden, the Cavaliers of my senior year in college, I went to other people within the industry. In ’87, where he worked with World B Free, career counseling. The career counselor there wasn’t a job available so I came then the Yankees and Dolphins. He hired said, “What are you going to do with back and was offered the job to produce me as his assistant and then, two months your life?” I said, “I don’t know.” She the Red Sox radio broadcasts. I sat in later, he quit. So, I went to not having a suggested that I go back to school and the booth with and Joe job in baseball for 2+ years to becoming get a masters in economics. I said, Castiglione for two years. the head of PR for the Yankees at age “No, I don’t really want to do any more Well, you clearly knew a lot about 24. I ended up doing that for 5 years and school.” She said, “What do you like?” radio! loved it, loved every minute of it. Then I I said, “I like baseball, I’ve been a Yes. So, Ken Coleman, who I grew just decided in the middle of my 5th year vendor and Fenway since I was 15.” She up listening to, and Ed Martin and Jim that it was time to do something else. At said, “Why don’t you apply for a job in Wood. Anyway, I worked with Ken that point I had just gotten married and baseball.” It never dawned on me. So, I and Joe producing and doing stats I wanted to start a family. I wasn’t from wrote a letter to , who was for them for a couple of years while New York, so, I left the Yankees and the scouting director of the Red Sox and I was applying for jobs and not able went to the World Cup (Soccer). It was had been of the team. to get anything. In the beginning of my only foray out of baseball. I went for 14 months. I built their dial-up bulletin “So, all of a sudden, I am working with the board system, which pre-dated the internet. While I was at the World Cup, I writers I grew up idolizing.” was looking at jobs in college athletics. I was talking to the New Jersey Devils. I He played for the Reds. ’87, January, the was thought about maybe working in hockey. He played for the Reds. Managed the looking for an assistant PR director and Then I got a call from Cooperstown, and Red Sox. I basically wrote a letter to I knew the PR Chief very well, Phyllis to get a call from Cooperstown if you’re Kasko and asked him if I could be an Merhige, having worked with her at the not a player is pretty unusual. They apprentice at scouting. He said no and World Series 3 months earlier and she asked me if I had any interest in coming connected me with Dick Bresciani, encouraged me to apply. I was going to up and potentially being their PR chief. who was the PR chief for the Red Sox be named assistant PR director for the So, I took a spin up and decided I liked and that’s how I got in. Baseball was American League in April ’87. The day it and wanted to try it. I took the job on obviously something that I always before they were to name me was the my 30th birthday in 1994 and started wanted to do and I made a career out of 40th anniversary of ’s about a month later, right in the middle it. breaking the modern day color barrier. of the baseball strike. When you went to the Red Sox and Al Campanis went on ABC Nightline, Had you ever been to Cooperstown you started a career, did you feel then I believe, with Ted Koppel, and talked before? that you found, sort of, the industry about how African Americans were great No, never had. I came up to look. you wanted to be in? athletes but did not have the capacity As big of fans as my parents and Absolutely. I mean, I have to tell you to work in front offices. So the next grandparents were, when you grow up Abe, I obviously had a number of temp morning, Dr. Brown, who was the in New England you tend to go north jobs and internships growing up and sat American League President, said we and south and you don’t go west. You in an office and worked on an assembly can’t hire this guy right now. There’s 6 either go to the mountains, to northern line but there was nothing better than people in this office and we are all white New England or you go to the beach being at a ballpark. I wasn’t only getting and it doesn’t look right. So, it took me on the Cape. My parents never came paid, but sort of getting paid to be at 2 years before I got a job in baseball to Cooperstown. I came here and said, a ballpark. And then, I knew nothing because of affirmative action, which is a man it’s just like New England, this is about PR because it didn’t really exist as good thing, and I was right in the middle gorgeous. It was not like New York City a major, but what I did know was how of it. I applied for 5 jobs but didn’t get and I fell in love with it. much I loved reading the newspaper. So, any of them and then, finally, after the It is a beautiful community, just all of a sudden, I am working with the ’88 season, 2 assistant PR jobs opened gorgeous. Okay, so now you’ve left the writers I grew up idolizing and for me up, Baltimore and New York. I applied Hall of Fame. that was almost as exciting as the game for both of them and I got a job with the Yes, with 25 years on the books. The last on the field. team I grew up despising but it was the 11+ I’ve served as President and decided From where you started, how did you best thing that could ever happen to me. it was time to do something else. So I move up in the organization? So, you started with the Yankees in… built a new program called Grassroots So, I started in ’86, five days after I ‘89 Baseball with a partner. That program 3 A r n a l l G o l d e n G r e g o r y L L P | October 2019 is about promoting and celebrating round. So, it’s a challenge. I don’t have game. Baseball has the opportunity the amateur game which isn’t getting an exact answer and I know baseball to play special games in different a lot of love these days, and growing struggles with it, as do other sports, communities. it in underprivileged communities, to because it’s bigger than any one thing. If you could be the baseball give kids who maybe don’t have that Just the other day we were talking commissioner for a day, not that opportunity to play baseball and grow about various problems with baseball. the baseball commissioner does not the game a little bit. So, my partner and Part of baseball’s problem is that these do great job, what would you do I are doing this in a not-for- profit way. are slow games and there are really differently? What would you want to We decided where we wanted to launch, bad games on TV. change? along Route 66. The reason we came The proof will come ten years from now That’s a good but tough question. I think up with the Grassroots Program is my or five years from now when you see my focus would be on the game itself partner is a photographer who put out how many tickets are sold. and maintaining the game’s integrity and a book on grassroots baseball, amateur Can baseball be a global game? working to assure that you always have baseball. We tied hall of famers into it. It can become more than it is. Nothing is your best talent, your best product, on It’s called “Grassroots Baseball - truly global like soccer or the Olympics. the field. The way pitching staffs are Where Legends Begin” and as I worked I think baseball has done a great job managed today I fear that your burn rate on this with her I realized how much I pushing internationally and trying to over ten or 20 years will be massive and was missing the amateur game as well. make it a global game. your level of competition will dwindle. So, after 8 years at the major league Could you see real exhibitions between I think, it’s not easy, and is obviously level, 25 years at the Hall of Fame level, US teams and international teams, in something Commissioner Manfred is I’ve gone all the way back to square one or at other times? focused on. To me, the game on the field and working in the amateur game. You could and it would need to be that. is what needs the most help right now. How much of the work that you will The Olympics has not worked. You One of the doctors for the Braves said do will be fundraising in order to see some of that with the WBC, and I he believes that children only have make this program successful? think the biggest challenge is to build so many throws and that’s one of the Some of it’s been fundraising. It’s infrastructures in other countries. problems with youth baseball is that a part of it. Having worked for the So as a long-standing baseball they throw too much. Baseball Hall of Fame, that’s a big part executive and manager, can you still go I concur. If you are repetitive in any of museum work. Right now, this is a watch a youth baseball game? sports, in anything, eventually it’s going modest program, so I haven’t done a ton Very easily, which is why Grass Roots to catch up with you, and that is true of fundraising, being that there are just Baseball is my passion. I get great beyond wearing out your arm. You are, two of us as employees, but as we grow satisfaction out of going to American hopefully, developing the other muscles, I think the business will become bigger Legion games, Pony League games, your arms and legs, but we get that by and there will be more fundraisers. talking with coaches and parents. I’m playing multiple sports. In your mind how does baseball really at home at amateur games. I think when you look at the best become as special for the youngsters So a lot of what you will do in the pitchers today, like Kershaw or today as compared to when you were future is interviews, trying to sell the Verlander, they are fundamentally young? game itself? pitchers and not throwers. They have It’s different in the demand, there’s a Yes, that’s the goal, and to sell baseball a wide range of speeds. different marketing approach, the way in underprivileged communities There are throwers in the game because people consume information is different Going back as a cousin to the issue of that is what GM’s want. from when you and I were kids and global baseball, it seems like some of I’m out of questions – what should I today there is so much competition for the sports, like football and basketball, have asked? sport and there is so much competition have almost twelve month seasons. That was pretty good. You were really from social media and marketing and the What about baseball? Can baseball be thorough. immediacy of needing success that the 12 months? Thank you – and good luck with your way the game is going today probably Well, it’s a challenge but the new initiative. appeals to the younger generation. infrastructure is there. You look at They are trying to speed it up. They baseball season right now, it goes from are trying to make the players the focus February to October. You’re talking as superstars and that’s attractive. I November through January. If you think to younger kids now a days, with look at Caribbean play, there’s a special the economy being 20 times what it series and all of the teams from these was when I was a kid, there’s way countries playing all winter long. That more travel teams. You have to sort of takes you to January. I still think they embrace travel ball though it is at the have the opportunity if you look at what peril of grass roots. Kids seem to want football did – London is now essentially to stay and continue to play baseball year a weekly event, it’s no longer a special 4