Instead I came home to news that there was another possible move for the Hagerstown Suns-this time to a county in Virginia outside of Fredericksburg.
Bruce Quinn claims to put 18 million dollars in the pot for such a field,David Gysberts couldn't be reached for comment (although he made sure to be seen at the opener and commented later) and Kristin Aleshire made sure to toss his opinion in,so a lot of the same old stuff,but this time,something unusual happened.
I just didn't care.
Oh,I want to see the team stay,but dealing with the day to day grind has just worn me down.
It gets old watching employees harass the fans that do come and strut around with their head in the air.
Ridiculous behavior that you rarely see at other ballparks-ballparks that offer a superior experience both in facility and baseball.
Please allow me to offer you a contrast between Hagerstown on Tuesday and Harrisburg on Wednesday.
I was not a participant in either of these events,just an interested observer from afar and I didn't speak to either employee involved,but I watched with some interest.
In Hagerstown on Tuesday,two elderly gentlemen sat as a Suns employee walked around with a bag to gather recyclables and one of these gentlemen offered to recycle a can of A&W Root Beer.
I watched and knew this would be trouble because I had seen this employee (I'm not naming them) berate friends of mine on two different occasions and turned to Cherie and said "They aren't going to take his can because they didn't sell it here".
Sure enough,she didn't and I went down and asked this man if indeed that was how it went.
His reply was "yes,she told me she wasn't taking it,take it home and recycle it myself and never to bring things into the stadium again"
These two fellows then asked me about what a game in Frederick was like as they weren't likely to return to the Muni.
Now,this person did violate a rule,but recycling is recycling and I might have said how she spoke was just opinion since I didn't hear it personally,until I returned to my seat and passed a young couple with two small children and the lady said to me "I just apologized to the gentleman FOR her for her rudeness and the way she talked to him".
I didn't know these people,but in one swoop,the Suns might have lost six customers that aren't likely to return-all due to one employee with an inflated opinion of their position and not the customers.
They could have simply said "Oh,I didn't know we sold those here" and it would have gotten the same point across,especially if done with a smile instead of a sneer.
Now compare that to this today-an elderly gentleman had a question and a need (I didn't quite hear the need) in the last inning of the game.
Derreck had went to wait for post-game graphing,but I was keeping the book and needed to finish watching the game.
The employee (I looked at her badge to get the name) was Blair Jewell and I watched her stop what she was preparing for at the games conclusion in order to address this gentleman,help him get the information they wanted,and say if they needed further help,they would be right here to do what she could or she'd find someone that could.
There is your difference between valuing your customer and showing contempt to them.
One team wants people to return,the other could care less.
One is about the customer,the other is about their own ego.
To be fair,I am not saying this is a universal style with every staff member in either organization,but it's about the customer in any business.
It is why my hometown team is the least enjoyable team/stadium that I go to and still I always try to hope things work out.
Now,I'm getting worn down and the worst thing that you can have is setting in-Apathy.
When I'm getting apathetic,you know you have done something and to those that feel things aren't bad,allow me to say this-Whenever the day comes that this team leaves,it's leaving you too.....
It's a sad night,indeed when one loses,yet isn't sure they have really lost.....
Until then,I can practice rooting for Keys,Senators and others for the eventual day that I need to find a new team...
3 comments:
Does this make you long for the days of Kurt Landes, Will Smith and Bob Flannery of the Mandalay regime?
LOL!!I always liked Bob Flannery.We got along quite well.
I see a ton of similarities to the Will Smith years-lots of attention to self-ego,worrying about dealing with ridiculous issues instead of the important ones etc,but I will say this-Mandalay seemed to hire a better quality of employee and they did actually try a thing or two even if they were bad ideas.
My take is that in the Mandalay days,the arrogance came from Will Smith,now it is more of the middle to low management types as the current GM is a quiet,low key person that knows the constraints that the team is under from the budget side...
Just reread this tonight. Funny & yet sad how little has changed since.
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