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Cubs fans, keep an ear out for this name: Kevin Vicker
Mesa State alum Kevin Vicker is one of those students you don’t forget. When others did the minimum amount of work to quietly get by, he challenged himself and the material, and if something was eating at him after class he’d track you down and want to debate more.
He had a big voice and a big love for the Cubs, so I was pleased to receive this email (posted with Kevin’s OK). With this kind of focus, determination and hard work, I have a feeling Kevin’s going to make it all the way to the big show.
Note to job fair recruiters in Vegas: You want to hire this kid.
Hey Ms. Davis,
So, I landed an opportunity in minor league baseball. It’s a little disappointing in that it took over a year after graduation and it’s unpaid. But there was an immediate opening with the Daytona Cubs, a minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, in Daytona Beach, FL that opened up in mid-July and I took it. It was pretty crazy, in that I applied, was interviewed and was hired in less than three days. I had one day to pack and then I had to drive out here solo because my car is needed. I’ll be all done here in mid-Sept. and then I’ll be going back to Colorado. My hope is to attend a big pro baseball job fair in Las Vegas in December and land a paid position with a new team for the 2009 season, which would mean I would probably start work in January.
They keep me very busy, but, so far, it’s already been a great experience. I work at the stadium offices from 9-5 weekdays and help out w/ media relations stuff, like typing out game notes and preparing program inserts. I also get to do some of the less glamorous work, such as helping the grounds crew pull the tarp on and off the field (and in FL, it rains almost everyday), running errands around town, and cleaning the press box. I’m also working on getting some sales for the team, but I’m still not clear as to how much time I will have to devote to that. I’m still glad that I am learning, though because collecting sales is a part of the job throughout the minors.
All this so I can practice my broadcasting work. After 5, I get a team provided meal (if it’s a home game) and then I have to leave for the radio station at 6, so I can get there and get on air at 6:45 to host the pre-game show, which is 15-20 minutes long. Then I run the audio board for the game. While I run the board, I am responsible for doing two in game updates with scores around the league, so I have to track 11 other games. I also have to be writing the game recap story for the website, which needs to go up as soon as the game ends. Then, after the game, I take callers and host the post-game show, which has to run at least an hour.
One thing that made me think of you is that I made a major mistake my first day. I misspelled one of the player’s names in the game story. I was mad at myself because I know better than that. Yeah, it was my first day and it was on the heels of a three-day, 1800 mile trek across 2/3rds of the country, but those are just excuses. Fortunately, because I was new one of my bosses checked the story after I posted it and corrected the error. They were not as upset with me as I thought they should’ve been, but I’ve been triple checking each name now ever since. And, yes, that incident reminded me of you because I thought, “Jeez, Ms. Davis would’ve slapped me upside the head for that.”
I remember that I had the opportunity to talk to Thomas Harding, who writes the game stories for the Colorado Rockies website, on one of my trips with Prof. Evers and the sports reporting class to Coors Field. I remember Mr. Harding saying that he would write his story and then start writing a comeback story in the last inning, so he’d be ready if a late rally occurred. Knowing that helped me, although I have more going on during the game than he does, but I always keep that in mind. That being said, I hate writing this way. I feel like everything is so rushed and I know I could write better pieces, but the deadline doesn’t allow for much editing at all. The part that bothers me the most is that sometimes I come up with some really clever leads, or headlines or sub-heads, but then something happens in the game to where whatever I wrote no longer applies, so then I have to delete it all.
One thing that I think is really good is that after my first week, my boss said that it felt like I’d been here all season, so I must be fitting in as well as expected. I think I’m picking stuff up relatively quick, but it’s tough because everyone else is in their groove and actually kind of burnt out at this point. I’m fresh, but also unfamiliar with everything. Not the just the job, but the town and surrounding area too. I’ve been here for almost two weeks now and it feels more like two days, but things are starting to slow down, which is good. My actual first couple days felt like all this stuff was just being thrown at me and I was fighting to keep up. But that’s just the nature of how demanding the job is and during the season is the worst and everyone else started in January or is year-round, so under any circumstances it was going to be challenging to start in July.
Being a Chicago Cubs affiliate is an added bonus because I actually have to do a report on around the Chicago Cubs organization during my post-game show. Also, I was told early on that it would be fine, and maybe even encouraged, to include a topic about the Chicago Cubs during the show. I take advantage of that, but have yet to receive any local callers that want to talk about Chicago.
If you want to check out some of my work, you can go to http://www.daytonacubs.com/ a lot of the stories under “News” will have a familiar byline. Also, if you look on the right, and click the “Listen to the Cubs Live on 1380” box, it will bring up a live 24/7 stream of the radio station. The pre-game show is kind of boring because it is mostly me just reading script, but the post-game show is kind of fun because that’s where I get to take over basically all of the editorial content and also I get to interact with callers. If you tune in on a week night between 8-9 mountain time, there’s a good chance the post-game show will be running. The team is rarely off and game times are not as consistent on weekend days.
If you can’t ever peek in live, but still want to listen, you can go to http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/clubs/ip_index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=t450 to hear archived broadcasts. You must register to listen to the archives, but it is free. Unfortunately, MLB often calls in after my pre-game has already started and they tend to hang up early in my post-game show because they are pretty much just interested in catching the game. Daytona is not a high priority for them, and actually, some teams in the Florida State League don’t even have broadcast teams, and we are one of only two broadcast teams that travel with the ball club. Of course, I never get to travel because I’m the studio guy (back at the “Cubs Den” as we call it). But again, I just hope this brief internship deal leads to a job where I can at least make some money. I think I have some skills and I want to start working for money at some point, even if it’s not a lot at first.
Anyway, it was my name gaffe that made me think of you, so I thought I would take a minute and get you caught up on what I’ve been up to.
— Kevin
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