Mike's 3rd Post - Green Bay memories...

So over the last few months my blog entries have been about the great years I have spent in the Northwoods League and some of the more memorable moments I have experienced. In this final installment, I would like to talk about my time with the Green Bay Bullfrogs and the 2007-2008 seasons.

In the spring of 2007, things were moving a thousand miles a minute as we tried to prepare a ballpark, a staff, and a city for Northwoods League baseball. It was crazy. I was sleeping maybe 5 hours a night. Eating once a day. I would routinely wake up in the middle of the night and write two or three pages worth of notes on things to do the next day or over the weekend. One night, after a usual long and stressful day, I woke up after I realized that I was talking to the lamp on my nightstand trying to sell it season tickets! (As good of a salesman as I thought I was, I could not get the lamp to buy anything from me.)

Thankfully through all of the craziness we had put together a great staff to help accomplish all of the things that needed to be done in trying to make people aware of the Bullfrogs, where and when we played etc, and to also refurbish a ballpark that hadn’t seen renovations in the better part of 30 years! The field needed work, and all of the buildings needed to be gutted, painted, remodeled, etc. The bleachers needed extra work, the press box needed power and internet, and the outsides of all the buildings needed paint. We were basically working off a list that as soon as one project was crossed off, three more appeared.

About a month prior to the start of the season, we had interviewed a young man by the name of Kevin. (To be honest, I think the interview was the last time he was referred to as Kevin, but more on that later). He was a young, impressionable kid, who was willing to do whatever we asked of him to help get things done. We ran on a shoe-string budget at times, so some of the things we did may not have been the safest, however we always came away unscathed with a great story to tell.

Kevin, as it turns out, was once on a basketball team in the 3^rd grade with another kid named Kevin. Somehow, it was decided that he would be called “Lenny” way back then and it stuck with him his whole life. Friends, family, etc people just called him Lenny. Now, he didn’t tell us that, but we found out and from that point on Lenny was the only name we knew to call him.

One Saturday morning, the first item on my list for Lenny and I was to pick up a portable arrow sign from a local business and bring it to the park so we could try and fix it up, make it look presentable and put it on the corner to get our message out to fans. As we got to the business to pick it up, it was made very apparent that it hadn’t been used or moved in quite some time. The legs were rusted together. The trailer lights didn’t work. The tires had air, but looked pretty sketchy. The box of letters didn’t have a bottom on it but rather was placed ever so gently next to the sign. So there we were, trying to figure out how to get this sign across town to the ballpark without injuring ourselves or anyone else on the road.

Lenny and I looked at one another, laughed about the fact the ball-hitch on my truck was smaller then what was on the sign and decided that maybe, just maybe if we strapped it down tight with tow straps we could get to the park. We hooked up the sign and began to drive out of the parking lot, only to see the sign bouncing up and down on the hitch. I told Lenny, “keep your eye on the sign and let me know if it falls off…we’re on the move and not stopping ‘til we get there.” We made our way across town, both of us laughing hysterically as with every bump we hit, we were sure the sign would detach from my truck and slowly drift away. Amazingly, it never happened and somehow we made it and in one piece. As we pulled up and showed the rest of the staff the condition that the sign was in, they too couldn’t help but laugh at what we had just gone through to get this sign across town.

At the end of the season, we brought the sign in from the corner of the city park we had parked it in, but this time I had Lenny stand on the tongue of the sign to keep it from bouncing all over the place. It was quite the site to see as we drove down the road that time.

In another of our famous escapades, Lenny and I went to Menards to pick up PVC piping as we were trying to make a drainage line from behind home plate to the dugout and needed a way to move the water. As we finished loading up the top of my truck with the pipes, we realized, there was nothing to hold them together or on the truck for that matter. One thought hit both of us at the same time…DUCT TAPE and ZIP TIES! (I think our team single-handedly kept Duct Tape and Zip Ties in business that year.) At this point in time, I think the nerves about opening day being only a few days away were starting to get to me. Lenny and I were wrapping things to the best of our ability when I had to stop. A feeling of pure nausea came over me and I couldn’t do anything about it. There I was, middle of the afternoon, crouched over next to my tire in the Menards parking lot, getting sick for no reason at all. It soon passed, I cleaned myself up and again we were headed off across town, with nothing more than Duct Tape and Zip Ties holding 30-40 pipes on top of my car. Again, in another miracle, we made it to the ballpark and everyone was A-OK.

In the end, those were just a preview of some of the other crazy things Lenny and I found ourselves involved in that year and it was one I will always remember.

I can’t wait for the summer of 2009, a new crop of interns and another chance to make some great Northwoods League memories. Baseball is only 137 days away!