When you are a young boy the only place you want to be in the summertime is a baseball diamond, shagging fly balls and taking your cuts at home plate. Our diamond was not a fancy place, with raked infields and immaculate green outfields, marked off by clean white lines of chalk. Ours was a stretch of blacktop with painted on bases and a rusted backstop that sagged from all the foul tips and passed balls that had bounced off it. Yet we derived as much enjoyment there, slowly coming to terms with this demanding game, as those who played in palatial stadiums in the major leagues.

(more…)

Hoping for a Michael Jordan-like move, the Huntsville Stars are enticing the Green Bay Packers to trade 3-time NFL MVP Brett Favre to the Class AA Southern League baseball team.

Offered in return are “two Stars interns, one intern to be named later, and a game-used Matt LaPorta jersey.”

Huntsville intends to change the team name to the Stavres if the swap for Favre succeeds.

Perhaps the Milwaukee Brewers affiliate Stars can leverage their parents’ club Wisconsin ties.

More information on this trade offer and other team plans can be found here.

Mike Veeck, part owner of at least five minor league and independent league baseball teams, will host the “Fun Is Good” Veeck Conference this year in Fort Myers, Florida.  The conference will be held at the Sanibel Harbour Resort and Spa on October 23-24, 2008.

The principles behind Veeck’s well-known ballpark promotions can be applied throughout the business world.  Who couldn’t benefit from a philosophy that is subtitled “How to Create Joy and Passion in Your Workplace“?!

Mike is the son of Bill Veeck, the famous Major League Baseball team owner and innovator.  The senior Veeck might be best remembered for pinch hitting 3-foot 7-inch tall Eddie Gaedel for the St. Louis Browns and for an out-of-control Disco Demolition night at the Chicago White Sox’s old Comiskey Park.

More information on the conference can be found at www.funisgood.net.