Hard-working group keeps Pirates playing
PITTSBURGH— There are nine positions on a baseball field, but many more in a professional baseball organization. Cranberry Township is home to many of them for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
From payroll administrator to head groundskeeper, broadcaster to head trainer, account executive to director of player development, numerous Pirates employees live in Cranberry.
Alumni affairs liaison Sally O'Leary has worked for the Pirates for 42 years. Director of business communications Brian Warecki has been with them six months.
From top to bottom, the ball club could not function on the field without these people plying their trades off it.
Particularly critical to the players' on-field performance are the efforts of head trainer Brad Henderson, head groundskeeper Steve Peeler and field maintenance supervisor Andy Bartley.The former gets and keeps the players healthy to take the field. The latter pair makes sure they have a healthy field to play on."I arrive at the ballpark by 12:30 p.m. for a 7 o'clock game and I'm here until an hour and a half after the game,"Henderson said. "The biggest part of my job is the prevention of injuries."We pay the most attention to shoulder care for pitchers because that's the most common injury in baseball. Three times a year, we monitor each pitcher's range of motion in the shoulder and elbow to make sure it's where it should be."Henderson is involved in decisions concerning players going on the disabled list, treating physical ailments resulting from wear and tear, taping and icing players before and after games."From spring training to October, there's not much free time,"Henderson said.Armed with the responsibility of keeping wealthy players healthy isn't bothersome to Henderson."I'm fortunate to work with professional baseball players," he said. "The guys are good. They know we have their best interests at heart."When it comes to pre-game exercises and stretching ... there is no one way to do it. If a player comes here from another team and he's used to a certain routine and has had no injury problems, we'll leave him alone. If he's had injury problems, we'll change his way of doing things."
One thing that rarely changes is the way Peeler and Bartley take care of the playing surface at PNCPark.The outfield grass is mowed every day. The infield receives the most time and attention because "That's where most of the baseball game is played,"Bartley said.Peeler is serving as head groundskeeper with his fifth major league team, having served similar roles with the St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros and Florida Marlins."Ibelieve a field should be rebuilt every fifth season or so,"Peeler said. "Just tear it up and put it back in. That's what we've done at other parks and we'll probably do it here."When they had the Rolling Stones concert here, the field took a pretty good hit. That was late September. ... We did some patchwork repairs in center and right field to get through the final three games of the season, then tore it up."Peeler said organic matter builds in the grass after a few years and the weed infestation becomes too hard to kill."You can't use illegal pesticides, so it's best to just tear it up at that point," he said.On game days, Peeler and his staff arrive at the ballpark as early as 8 a.m. and work on the field up until late-afternoon batting practice begins.
Once the game starts, Peeler pays close attention to the spin of a ground ball, making sure the bounces are true."If a ball takes an awkward carom, Steve takes it to heart," Bartley said. "He's out there after the game, checking the landscape and the texture of the field.""A ground ball will first hit right in front of the plate,"Peeler said. "That part of the field has to be perfect because it determines the backspin on the ball."I watch the game intensely, but I'm looking for different things. If an outfielder stumbles on the warning track, the pitcher's body language on the mound, a hitter fidgeting in the batter's box — all of those things can tell me if something's not right."Peeler's crew monitors the size of the mound every day and measures the day's humidity level to make sure proper moisture is maintained around the plate area.Work on the infield clay begins at 10:30 a.m. and lasts for nearly five hours. It takes 90 minutes to mow the PNC Park grass."The grass grows an eighth to a quarter inch every night,"Bartley said. "We spray the field every 10 days with insecticides and fungicides, apply fertilizer. ... It has to hold up through a hot, busy summer."<b>On the road again</b>Brian Graham, the Pirates' director of player development, takes care of the current Pirates in the organization. O'Leary takes care of the 700-plus former Pirate players who have since retired from baseball.Graham attends most of the Pirates home games and travels to each of the organization's six minor league affiliates — Indianapolis, Altoona, Hickory (N.C.), Lynchburg (Va.), Williamsport and Bradenton (Fla.) — at least four times each season.He also oversees the ball club's Latin American Academy, which features teams in Venezuela and San Pedro."I'm on the road quite a bit," Graham said. "I work with (general manager)Dave Littlefield and the minor league managers and coaches to see who gets moved up and when."I'm responsible for every player's progress. It's a daunting task. You have to relish that kind of a challenge."The Latin American Academy educates players along with developing their abilities."We teach them how to speak English, how to survive and act in the United States as a professional athlete," Graham said."Seeing the cultural changes in them, watching them mature into men and succeed in professional baseball is very rewarding."
O'Leary has the longest tenure of anyone in the Pirates organization, working on her 42nd year of service with the team. She retired from working in media relations in 1996 and has been the club's alumni affairs liaison since.Working out of her home office in Cranberry, O'Leary produces the Pirates alumni magazine twice a year and prepares the mailings to all 700 alumni."We have them all over the country,"O'Leary said of retired Pirates players. "There's quite a few in Venezuela, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Canada."The first alumni magazine was 12 pages in 1987. It grew to 36 pages before being reduced to a 32-page full-color publication last November.The oldest living former Pirate is Ray Berres, 99, who played for the team in the 1920s. He succeeds Howdy Groskloss, who recently died at 100.O'Leary compiled her alumni list over a number of years."I went through our own files first, checked with the Major League Alumni Association, the pension office, Society of Baseball Research, any place that might have addresses,"she said."In the first few issues, I ran a list of names I was still trying to track down to see if any other former players kept in contact with them. A lot of them did."The information in the alumni magazine comes from the players' submissions."If they didn't write or call me, I'd have no news,"O'Leary said.<b>From batter to broadcaster</b>John Wehner has gone from providing news as a player — he was the last man to homer at Three Rivers Stadium — to describing the action from the broadcast booth.Wehner provides color commentary for TVand radio during road games. He spent parts of 11 seasons in the big leagues as a player before spending three years with Class AA Altoona as a batting coach."I played baseball my whole life and that led to coaching because of my experiences in the game,"Wehner said. "Broadcasting was something I never prepared for, never went to school for."I saw an article in the paper stating there was an opening on the broadcast team, so I made some phone calls, got an audition and got the job. It was a whole different profession, but a way to stay in the game."
In only his second season as a broadcaster, Wehner admits he's learning on the job. But he has certain advantages his colleagues in the booth do not have."I played eight different positions on the field and I know the young players on the team and in the farm system from coaching them," he said."The toughest thing about this job is finding that fine line. The team hasn't been playing well. I work for the Pirates, so I don't want to be too critical, but I want to be honest as well."I want to keep my job, but my job is to describe what I see. ... I still consider myself a rookie at this, but I hope I'm doing it for a long, long time."<b>Manning the payroll</b>Laura Kallop oversees the payroll of the entire Pirate organization, including major and minor league players, front office and game-day staff, right down to the batboys.She monitors the bi-monthly paychecks for nearly 1,000 people."It can get pretty crazy, especially with players going back and forth between the major and minor leagues, trades, etc.,"she said.Kallop keeps a spreadsheet for each player, determining what days or weeks that player spent with a certain team in the organization during each pay period.Players receive a different level of pay depending on the level they're at:Class A, AA, AAA or the big league club."Players can start out in the lower minor leagues making as little as $37 a day,"Kallop said. "It's fun watching them climb the ladder to a major league salary. Each one is his own success story."Kallop has been with the Pirates since 1988."I'm able to work from home quite a bit, so I can find a nice balance between work life and home life," she said. "I'm there when my kids need me and that's important to me."<b>Taking care of business</b>Warecki, Joe Kapp and Gerald Jones take care of business every day.As director of business communications, Warecki helps arrange game notes and player interviews for beat reporters covering the Pirates. He also does some work in ticket sales and the club's marketing program."If it happens outside the field, I may be involved in it,"Warecki said.As an account executive, Jones generates revenue through signage on the walls of PNCPark, radio and print advertisements. He works from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, but also has game-night responsibilities."During the games, I have to make sure the signs in the ballpark are rotating properly,"he said. "We meet and greet clients and somebody's always involved in a (ceremonial) first pitch of some sort."A client relations specialist, Kapp deals with season ticket and single-game ticket holders on a daily basis."On a game day, I may take 150 to 200 phone calls," he said. "Some fans want to know how big a bag they can bring into the ballpark, some want to know how to get their broken bobblehead doll fixed."Some of the callers may be really upset because of a trade the team made and their favorite player's no longer here. We'll pass along phone numbers of the upset callers to (general manager)Dave Littlefield. He's good about getting back to them."With my job, generally, when the phone rings ... It's not a good situation,"Kapp added.<b>No place like home</b>All of these Pirates employees enjoy calling Cranberry Township home."People suggested I look to live north of the city when I came here," Henderson said. "My kids go to Seneca Valley and they love it.""We used to live in a rural area in Butler County with plenty of land, but we were so far removed from civilization,"Wehner said."I wanted more community-style living, and Cranberry gave me that along with being close to the city."Graham said the crime rate in and around the Cranberry area is "incredibly low considering the amount of people who are here."Warecki said Cranberry is a reflection of Pittsburgh in terms of its friendliness."When you approach a merge sign on the highway, cars let each other in, one at a time, without horns blowing like in other cities," he said."People are courteous to each other here. I'll never forget my first drive through the Fort Pitt tunnel, seeing the city for the first time, how beautiful it was," Warecki said."People who don't live here have no idea what this town is like."He said the same about Cranberry."Family friendly neighborhood, great school system, easy access into the city, it was a no-brainer for us,"Warecki said of his family's move to Cranberry. "I can't believe everybody in Pittsburgh doesn't live north."
