Notes From The Nat

C’s fans that came out to The Nat in season ‘04 will remember fondly the name of Mike McGirr [seen left], who lit up the Northwest League with a season that ended with a 5-0, 0.66 record after 7 starts. 

McGirr, an 8th round draftee for the Oakland A’s from 2003, was enjoying his second spell with the Vancouver Canadians organization, having pitched decently but not outstandingly a year earlier (5-4, 4.66), but during that ‘04 season, as he chewed up hitters and won game after game, it looked like his time had come. As he moved up to Kane County, it looked for all intents and purposes as if he was headed up the ladder in leaps and bounds.

And then, like Keyser Soze… [poof!] He was gone.

Rumour had it that McGirr had an epiphany at the end of his second season, and decided that he had a better chance of making a considerable amount of money with his business degree than he did throwing fastballs.

Personally, I thought the kid was loco. But then, I’d curbstomp grandma for the chance to make the Majors.

Well, it turns out that Mike McGirr wasn’t done with baseball after all. In fact, he’s just beginning his ‘professional sports’ career.

McGrrrrrrrrr is the majority investor and CEO of Real Sports Investments, a company that pays minor leaguers an up-front cash amount (let’s say $50,000), in return for a percentage of their future Major League earnings (let’s say 5%). If the minor leaguer doesn’t make the bigs, they pocket a nice bonus. But if they do, McGirr’s company makes a nice return.

It’s an interesting concept, investing in the future of a real life professional athlete on the rise, but what’s most interesting about the business plan is, McGirr is selling shares of each athlete to folks like you and me, for $20 each.

Co-founder and Cleveland Indians AA minor league sidearm pitcher, Randy Newsom, explained the genesis of the business recently to Baseball Prospectus:

Minor leaguers can make as little as seven or eight thousand dollars ayear. Some have families to take care of, some have to take jobs rightaway once the season is over to pay bills, and many of those that are alittle better off still can?t afford some of the things that could helpthem reach the big leagues, like hiring a nutritionist or going to someof those expensive training institutes. With that in mind, I wanted tocome up with a way that players could use their own upside earningpotential to try to help their financial situation in the present andkind of lock in some of that earning potential, like insurance.

Imentioned this to my friend and former teammate, Brian Pritz, and heput me in contact with another former minor leaguer, our CEO andmajority owner Mike McGirr, who actually wrote a business plan atCornell Business School along these same lines. We started talking,used his business plan as a model, worked some things out, and launchedRSI.

Right now, if you go to http://www.realsportsinvestments.com/, you can buy a share in Newsom, which is reportedly worth 0.0016% of his RSI contract.

If he makes the majors and earns over $1.25m over his career, you’re in profit. If he earns $20m in his life, you’ll increase your stake by 1500%. If he becomes a Barry Zito-like success story, you’ll be able to send the kids to college.

And if he doesn’t make the Majors? Well, it might be worth the $20 just to have the experience of ‘owning’ an athlete.

I’m in. 

We’ve said the words "Vancouver Canadians’ new GM" more times than we care to remember these past two years or so, because the position has been somewhat of a revolving door… and ’somewhat’ may be the biggest understatement since Marion Jones asked her dentist if she needed any work done.

First there was Dan Kilgras - the tassled loafer GM, who was eventually (according to unconfirmed reports) promoted to Team President to stop him from leaving.

Then there was Delany Dunn - the ‘doing the best with what we’re given’ GM, who was installed to run the team on a shoestring so Kilgras could concentrate on ad sales and sponsorships, until new owners came in with a big broom and let him concentrate on what he does best - the game day experience.

Then there was Aileen McManamon - the ‘bums on seats’ GM, who brought in the biggest crowd in ages for opening day last season, but badly miscalculated what it takes to feed such a crowd once they’re in the door, and was quickly shown same.

Then there was nobody, though Andy Dunn handled the job as a consultant for a while… but not really (shh, Immigration might be listening).

Then there was Andy Dunn - the ‘Major League experience’ GM, who would also be Team President, at least according to the info given to the press a few weeks ago.

And now there’s Andy Seymour [seen above] - the ‘fun is good’ GM, who has stepped into the GM spot that, apparently, Dunn didn’t want, nor actually agree to handle, despite what was said to the press… 

So who is Andy Seymour? Why, he’s the Vancouver Canadians’ new GM… and he’s not one to make short term plans, if his last gig is anything to go by.

From his days dressed up in an inflated sumo wrestling suit, to donninga trenchcoat, hat and sunglasses as the mysterious ?G-man,? to creatingaward-winning promotional campaigns such as ?Billy Donovan Night,?Andrew Seymour has been a fixture for the Fort Myers Miracle sinceSeptember 1995. Not anymore.

The Miracle enter their 18th season as the Class A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. Seymour has been there for 13 of them.

?Youknow what?s rewarding, is seeing the families growing up,? Seymoursaid. ?This community has been fantastic down here. But I?ll get to gonorth and continue to have fun.?

Get used to that word - ‘fun’.

A supporter of Mike Veeck?sworking motto, ?Fun is Good,? Seymour said he has been strolling downmemory lane as his last day with the Miracle, Wednesday, Jan. 23,approaches. Memories include:

?The Bobble-butt doll. Madein the likeness of Riverdale High School graduate Tommy Watkins, onlyabout 500 of the dolls were made.

?On June 4, 2003, the dayafter Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa was caught swinging a corked bat,the Miracle announced ?Sammy Sosa Night,? handing out pieces of cork tofans.

?In July 2003, less than a week after Pittsburgh Piratesfirst baseman Randall Simon swung a bat at a Milwaukee Brewers racingsausage, the Miracle held a ?Salute to the Italian Sausage Night? withrandom sausage giveaways and a ?Safe Sausage Race.?

?Lastseason, the Miracle had ?Billy Donovan Night,? at which fans whochanged their minds about attending the game could negotiate with alawyer for refunds, poking fun at the University of Florida basketballcoach who backed out of a contract with the Orlando Magic.

That promotion placed first in the inaugural Minor League Baseball Promotion of the Year Award.

Granted, such a promotion might not hold the crowd’s interest like a pair of three-year-olds building a giant Subway sandwich, or a ‘$1 off your next fish and chips’ voucher from Mr Pickwicks, but one would think we’re in for an interesting ride with Senor Seymour pumping out the bizarro promotions.

Pleasant side benefit: he’s not a pinball executive. That is to say, he doesn’t bounce around from team to team, like many in the minors. And by all accounts, he’s a heck of a guy.

?Asa fan, as a worker and as a friend, I?m dumbfounded to say the least,?[Fort Myers Miracle] season ticket holder Bobby] Izzo said upon hearing the news. ?Andrew?s an institution. He?s theface of the Miracle. He has been forever… There?s not much thatthe man wouldn?t do for anybody. In all the time I?ve known him, Idon?t think I?ve ever seen him have a bad day. I don?t think I?ve everseen a frown on his face. He?s been super… The dedication and the loyalty that I have for the Miracle comes from Andrew.?

It’s not often that when a pro sports GM leaves a town, that people are actually sad about it, and the local press writes glowing tributes of their time with the team.

Some background on the Larry Donovan promotion:

In this much-lauded promotional extravaganza, the Florida StateLeague franchise paid tribute to the painfully indecisive FloridaGators basketball coach (on June 1, Donovan signed a massive contractwith the NBA’s Orlando Magic, but backed out one day later in order toreturn to the University of Florida).

On "Billy Donovan Night," the Miracle did everything short of handingout flip flops to fans as they walked through the turnstiles. But atthe heart of the evening was this little nugget of genius — any fanwho had second thoughts about attending the game was given theopportunity to negotiate out of their ticket purchase by consultingwith a lawyer and then (in certain cases) shooting a basketball througha hoop.

"It was like — Bam! — there it is. There’s our hook. For us, thehoneymoon continued. We put out a teaser about the promo, and theAssociated Press picked it up and ran a story. After that, everybodyjumped on it. All of this occurred during a period when there wasn’tmuch happening in the sports world, so the timing worked out great."

Indeed, the Miracle’s unorthodox promotion received prominent local andnational media coverage, and resulted in a crowd that was more thandouble the team’s Wednesday night average. All in all, it was a fittingstunt for a franchise with ties to the most legendary name in the worldof sports promotions.

And finally, from Seymour’s own bio on the Fort Myers Miracle staff directory:

Often mistaken for THE ROCK, Andrew enjoys entertaining. An interestthat has served him well in his second career as a Motion Pictureaction & Stunt double where Andrew has done body stand-ins for VinDiesel, Sean William Scott, Will Smith and Jack Black. In his sparetime, Andrew enjoys watching infomercials, organizing his fridgemagnets and speaking of himself in the-third-person. Favorite MoviesInclude: Slapshot & House Party 1 thru 4. Favorite Players: PaulKariya, Michael Vick, Torii Hunter & Bill Bellamy. IQ:Self-described ? ?somewhere yo-yo?ing between Nickelodeon and C-Span.?Little known fact: Andrew has written songs for both Luther Campbell& Glen Campbell.

Methinks maybe we got a good deal here.

Side note: While I’m on the ‘good people arriving’ tilt, I should also mention that a good person is leaving the C’s. Long time pleasant person, Game Day Goddess, and Ticket Mistress, Lori Bonang, is moving on to opportunities new.

One of the last remaining folks on staff from the pre-ownership change era, she will be missed (especially by guys like me, fighting opening day crowds to find someone - anyone - who knows where my press pass is).

Be happy, Loz. 

From Sports Illustrated: 

What are all of Oakland’s dollar-conscious disciples to think of theA’s this year? What’s anyone to think? The franchise that made themodern blueprint for winning on a budget has spent the winter tradingaway what few marquee players it had and stocking up on unproven,untested, largely unknown kids. That is nobody’s formula for success.

In fact, if we didn’t know any better, we’d swear that the A’s are … are … rebuilding.

"We weren’t afraid of the word," says David Forst,the team’s assistant general manager. "There’s a negative connotationto it when it’s used by fans, who think they’re going to be watching ateam without any entertainment value. But if you look at it and what itleads to, it’s really exciting.

A likely story. But could it be that this rebuilding process, like just about everything the A’s do, will be less about what everyone else does, and more about thinking outside the box?

The new course of action was charted last October, shortly after theA’s had concluded their worst season since 1998. Beane sat down withForst and others and conducted a top-to-bottom organizational review,Oakland’s first in years. A new strength coach was brought in toexamine why players were having such a huge problem with injuries. TheA’s also hired five new area scouts, adding to a staff that had becomeone of the smallest in the league, and re-sectioned the country to getbetter coverage. They increased their scouting budget in Latin Americaand elsewhere internationally, and have earmarked more money forsigning bonuses.

In case you missed it: "earmarked more money for signing bonuses."

One of the big beefs with the A’s and their drafting philosophy has long been that they don’t pick the guy they want most with their early draft picks - they pick who they can easily afford.

Personally, I’m okay with that. The difference between a $3m 1st rounder and a $1.5m first rounder can often be nothing more than 1-2mph on a fastball, or one less injury in a senior year, or a school that’s in the national spotlight. I see nothing wrong with picks like Swisher, Blanton, Suzuki, Powell, Buck, Robnett, etc etc. For the most part, they do the job well.

But then there’s the Tim Lincecum’s [left] that, once in a while, pop up, destroy the local UBC Thunderbirds for a year or two, and make you think, "hmm… an extra mill in the draft signing budget would be a nice thing about now, so he could be wearing our colours and not steamrolling them…"

More scouts. More bonus money. No more ‘injury-prone’ gambles.

Looks like the C’s don’t just get new jerseys and logo this season… we’re also going to get a new level of talent on the playing field.

Regular visitors to Nat Bailey Stadium would no doubt be aware ofthe existence of the man they call ‘Dancing Hans’. You can see him tothe left there, stomping out some Chicken Dance love, and that’s longbeen the enduring image of the best darn cheerleader in minor baseball.

Hedoesn’t get paid to come out to every home game and entertain the fans. He’s not looking for a career change, or a way to work up through the system and one day be GM. He just likescoming out to the ballpark, dancing on a dugout, and getting the localyokels worked up into a tween-innings frenzy or seven. People like Hans are a huge part of what makes minor league ball so much fun, and that volunteer spirit is something we sometimes take for granted. We get used to having guys like Hans around, and it’s only when they’re not there that we realize what we’re missing.

Last year,unfortunately, Dancing Hans wasn’t dancing. He’d gone through somehealth issues, but was back at the ballpark as soon as he could walkagain (much to his doctor’s concern, I’m sure), and if not for his wifefollowing him around with a big stick, to be used with force if histoes started to so much as tap to the beat of YMCA, I’m sure he wouldhave wheeled himself around the bases on a hospital gurney during the7th inning stretch. Instead, he helped out with the webcast game call on the final day of the season with his son, Tim.

Anyhoo, the relevance of all this comes frommy having opened one of the local papers, The Richmond Review, only tofind myself face to face with a huge full color model shot of theHanster himself.

And darn it all if Hans has a lot more volunteer work going on than just Chicken Dancing at The Nat!

So as a tribute to the skinniest gams in pro sports, I give you Dancing Hans’ 15 minutes of (local) fame:

The text:

"I read The Richmond Review so that I can keep up with what is happening in our fine community." 

Hans Havas, President of the West Richmond Community Association [who knew?], and President of the Richmond Youth Concert Band.

See the Richmond Youth Concert Band in concert along with the Richmond Orchestra on Friday, Feb 25 at Gateway Theatre as part of the Music Lover’s Concert.

Call 604-270-1812 for tickets. 

What’s hilarious is, this ad runs right beneath a Letter To The Editor that complains that someone on JonesRoad isn’t picking up their dog doody. Seriously - they even describehow it’s a big dog, "judging by the size of what it leaves behind."

Some people change the world complaining about dog crap, others change it by giving and giving and giving.

Love your work, Hans.

Can the prospect of success for the Vancouver Canadians in season 2008 get any stronger than it is right now?

A true Canadian joining the C’s after a three-team minor league stint in the states.  Welcome home, Mr Seymour.

January 16^th, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CANADIANS BRING ON HOME GROWN TALENT TO FILL GENERAL MANAGER?S ROLE

VANCOUVER CANADIANS ADD CANADIAN ANDREW SEYMOUR TO FRONT OFFICE STAFF

 (Nat Bailey Stadium - Vancouver, BC) ? The Vancouver Canadians are proud to announce that Andrew Seymour has been named the 10^th General Manager in club history Wednesday.  Seymour comes home to Canadaafter more than a decade working with the Fort Myers Miracle (FloridaState League), Tyler WildCatters (Texas-Louisiana Ind. League) and theThunder Bay WhiskeyJacks (Northern Ind. League).

Seymour is a native of Toronto, Ontarioand has been a part of the highly successful Goldklang Group whichincludes mentor Mike Veeck who instilled his ?Fun Is Good? mentalityinto the C?s newest General Manager. 

Canadians President Andy Dunn looks forward to Seymour?sarrival later this month, ?Having known Andrew for the past ten years,I am very proud to have him join our staff in the General Manager?sposition.  Andrew will bring a ton of experience to our staff and astrong promotional background that will be enjoyed by Canadians fansfor years to come?.

Nominated for an Elaine McLaughlin award (Community Service Excellence), Seymourhas been a part of numerous Minor League Baseball awards including the?Larry MacPhail?, ?John Johnson? awards and the brains behind some ofbaseball?s greatest minor league promotions.  From Bobble-Butt &Bobble?ection to Mike Tyson Night where fans got a plastic ear with apiece missing, Seymours wacky and eccentric ways should make him an instant hit out at Nat Bailey Stadium.

?Vancouver has it all ? great people, stunning beauty and culture and tremendous opportunity with a really strong owners in Jake Kerrand Jeff Mooney.  I can?t wait to get started with President Andy Dunnand the Canadians crew and continue living out my dreams inprofessional baseball,? said Seymour who arrives in Vancouver in the coming days from his home in Florida.

Ticketsfor the 2008 Vancouver Canadians Baseball season are now on sale bycalling the C?s Front Office at 604-872-5232 or visiting http://www.canadiansbaseball.com.  The Canadians open up the 2008 NWL season on Tuesday, June 17^th vs. the Tri City Dust Devils at Nat Bailey Stadium. 

So we have the major league experience of Andy Dunn as President, and now the minor league experience and promotional showmanship of Andrew Seymour as General Manager.  How much longer until Mike Veeck jumps aboard to sell pretzels?

My first promotional proposal to Seymour is the following: An Anthony Recker Bobble-Butt. 

Oh come on, you know you want it.

All I can say, is wow.  The Canadians are going nowhere but up, and this just proves that statement!

(Pacific Coliseum - Vancouver, BC) - The Vancouver Canadians have ahandful of new fans as Country music sensation Big & Rich alongwith Cowboy Troy came out for the Vancouver Tour stop wearing VancouverCanadians jerseys and game hats.

The Canadians who will be changing their look for the upcomingseason saw 13-thousand Big & Rich fans go wild when Cowboy Troycame out with John Rich wearing Canadians gear and acknowledged the C’sseveral times during their finale which finished with the Troy signingthe shirt and the hat and giving it to lucky fans in the crowd.

The C’s have made great strides in increasing their public profile,but were humbled to see a Grammy award winning Music Group come out andsupport Vancouver’s baseball club.

Thanks to Country music’s BIG & RICH!!!

C’s Media Boss, Rob Fai, is not only a media genius - but a promotional whiz! If this is part of the Andy Dunn effect, we’re certainly getting a great first impression of how his staff will be working!

There’s been a lot of stuff written, and said, (and whined) about Oakland’s recent trades of former Vancouver Canadian Nick Swisher, and former ‘afterthought’ of the Mark Mulder trade, Dan Haren.

Some thinkers are liking the deal, understanding that the worst that will come of it is one player as good as Swisher coming through in the next season or so, while the upside could mean THREE Swishers dropping into the roster by 2009. Others think it stinks, and that it’s just a continuation of the Oakland habit of trading away stars for kids, being cheapskates, and looking towards a future that will never come.

One noted blog pundit, on Elephants in Oakland, thinks Oakland boss Billy Beane "has made so many bad moves that his ‘positive’ moves are really just scabs on the A’s organization wounds he himself inflicted," reasoning that  the two trades "are a stinging rebuke of Billy Beane’s management of the OaklandAthletics Baseball Club, and if you will - the populist Moneyballtheory."

Swisher was one of several first round draft picks for the A’s in 2002.While Lewis spent much of the book explaining (not very well) varyingstatistical analysis methods the A’s purportedly eschewed - NickSwisher was the player the scouting crowd and stat heads could ‘agree’on. The definable stats and the indefinable intangibles and the toolsin-betweens were all there with Nick Swisher.

What Swisherbecame for the A’s was a loudmouth, publicity-whore and/or the face ofthe A’s franchise. Swisher was not a disappointment if you read columnsby Susan Slusser and Mychael Urban. If you look at the projectionsbased on stats and the hopes based on talent and ability - Swisher hadfailed, to date, to live up to the expectations of both the stat headand scouting communities. Swisher’s ability and talent havedeteriorated into ‘old player skills’; power, walks, low average, lackof speed. In 2007 Jack Cust clearly showed that those old player skillsare not worthy of a 1st round draft choice - they could be had,twice-over, (the A’s had Cust in Sacramento for 2005) at the minorleague level.

Now, he makes a good point that the A’s got Cust for nothing, and ended up with someone as good, if not better, than first round draft pick Swisher when they did so. That, to me, would seem to indicate that there’s value in the A’s tendency to steer clear of big money draft picks, and find replacement parts on the market when the need arises.

But Mr EiO goes on to harp on the Octavio Dotel [seen right] and Arthur Rhodes trades (which nobody will deny sucked), decry Oakland’s scouts and draft team as being incompetent, and points out the obvious - that Eric Chavez is a giant hole of suck, in trying to demonstrate that Billy Beane is a very average GM.

In my opinion, he not only cherry picks his data, but he also misses some very important points.

The worst kept secret in Vancouver baseball has finally been confirmed, as Andy Dunn has put his John Hancock on an employment contract and settled in as the new (public) boss of the Vancouver Canadians.

Of course, this will be his second season at the helm, after he stepped in on a consulting basis last season when the Aileen McManamon experiment was shut down due to a lack of hot dogs, but ownership’s desire to keep their abrupt dismissal of the previous Team President out of the papers (and certain Immigration restrictions) meant Dunn stayed behind the scenes, didn’t put out any press conferences, and quietly lurked in the shadows making sure everything was ticketyboo, on and off the field.

From today’s piece by Lyndon Little in The Sun:

Dunn is already well versed in the running of the club. Introducedto the new owners by marketing guru Mike Veek, Dunn was employed by theclub as a consultant last summer. With the departure of McManamon, hetook on many of the de facto duties of a club president, but had tomaintain a low profile in order not to violate the terms of theconditional work permit with Immigration Canada.

"I had to becareful what I did," admitted Dunn, who is married with three childrenall under 10 who will join him in Vancouver once the school year isover in Florida.

"But I’m looking forward to being more visible to the public now."

So what comes next?

Firstly, celebration. This is a guy with baseball in his blood, who has run Major League stadium operations and farm systems, for several teams. He’s a guy who has the foresight to see what a success story the C’s could be with a little guidance, he’s a guy who clearly understands what a douchebag Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden is, and walked away from that outfit with his reputation solid and with several good people walking in his wake, and he’s someone who can shove his fingers into the dirt at second base and tell you if it needs watering.

Of course, he’s going to have a job in front of him to penetrate Vancouver’s terrible sporting press pages with any sort of consistency. Don Taylor doesn’t seem able to say the name "Vancouver Canadians" without shuddering for a second and blurting out "MARKUS NASLUND AND ROBERTO LUONGO!" to make up for it, but if there’s one thing that the Vancouver sporting public looks for more than anything else when deciding where to spend their dollars, it’s competency.

That’s why the Canucks didn’t draw for so many years. It’s why the Grizzlies were run out of town on a rail, and why the Vancouver Voodoo’s short life as a pro roller hockey team is still a running joke to this day. Give the people a solid product, good value for money, and a plan to grow both on and off the field (think Vancouver Giants and Vancouver Whitecaps) and they’ll show up in numbers.

In that respect, the Vancouver Canadians are on really solid ground. Especially now.

Again, from The Sun:

Dunn says he understands the challenges of operating a minor league baseball team in a major league market such as Vancouver.

"Iunderstand that Vancouver is a hockey town," he said. "What we want todo is make our team a premier summer attraction. Long after the scoreis forgotten, people remember the park experience. We want to creatememories. "

"We realize we’re now in somewhat of a uniquesituation," said Kerr’s partner Jeff Mooney, the executive chairman ofA&W Canada. "With the departure of the Ottawa Lynx, we’re now thelast minor league pro baseball team in the country with a major leagueaffiliation. We want to preserve the heritage of pro ball in Vancouverand build on it."

Welcome to the city, and welcome to the team, Andy Dunn. And may I be the first to apologize for the number of times both you and Delany Dunn will have to say "no relation" over the year ahead.

But hey, now that I’ve said all this nice stuff about you… can we have a stadium speed gun? Please?