I have been spending some time lately working on a book about The Power of Fun. I thought it might not be a bad idea to include an excerpt from an early draft. This is about what it was like getting the job of a lifetime even before the Phanatic was born. I hope you enjoy it and please let me know what you think by e-mailing me your comments (david@raymondeg.com)...
The day to day work as the Phillies intern carried many surprises that first summer in 1976. Things got very busy for the promotions department from the time the gates opened until the ceremonial first pitch. All of my game day responsibilities were based on what type of entertainment was planned for that night and were defined by what most full timers didn’t want to do. If we were having ostrich races then for some reason I became the ostrich wrangler. This was because on that particular night the ostrich vendor didn’t have an assistant and asked the Phillies if they could provide one. The ostriches were smelly, ugly and down right mean so there was no question that “ostrich assistant” was a job for the promotions intern! As it turns out 12 ostrich assistants wouldn’t have helped that day.
The plan was to have Ritchie Ashburn and Harry Kalas face off in the first ever Phillies broadcaster ostrich race. Great creative stuff on paper and the fans seemed to like the idea because we had a better than average crowd that night. Believe it or not these ugly and mean birds were to be hooked up to harness racing seats called sulkies. The ostriches were staged up the ramp behind right field because there was a large truck size field entrance below. It was made for large vehicles to enter the Vet’s stadium floor because it was a multipurpose stadium that could be prepared for football and all kinds of other events. The ramp was pretty steep and seemed to get the birds even more agitated than they were in their cages. My experience with ostriches was, how would you say, somewhat limited but the vendor was a guy who reminded me of Mr. Haney from Green Acres and seemed to know how to handle ostriches as well as anyone. My direction from him was very simple. All he said was “try not to get them upset or they will peck you or kick you” depending on which end of the bird you are closest to. My first responsibility was to help “Mr. Haney” get the birds down the ramp and on to the field so that Ritchie and Harry could board them and get the race started. We got them down and in position without too much trouble other than a couple of peck attempts at my head. Dan Baker the long time stadium announcer was on the field and getting the crowd revved up. Harry and Ritchie were walking towards us and once they got a whiff of the ostriches they started to have second thoughts but being the troopers that they were on that night, both of them started to climb aboard. I was holding Ritchie’s bird and he got on first. Harry climbed onto the other sulky and for some reason his ostrich jumped forward and spooked mine. I lost the grip on his reigns and off Ritchie’s ostrich went without him having any control. Harry’s ostrich took off after Ritchie’s and because Harry wasn’t expecting the acceleration factor tumbled off of the back of the sulky. Harry’s bird took off towards center field and started to run in circles while Ritchie’s went toward the right field picnic area. The ostriches were of course highly agitated at this point and you can imagine how the Philadelphia Phillies fans were reacting. Loudly booing and of course with quite a bit of laughter as well. The crowd noise made Ritchie’s ostrich even more ornery and it took off after the crowd in the picnic area pecking away at anyone it could. Thank god there was a fence to protect those fans from the ostriches kick or someone could have really been hurt. Eventually Mr. Haney’s look alike caught both of the birds without much successful help from me. The race was declared a tie by Dan Baker and we got on with the first pitch. Looking back at it now an argument could have been made that the promotion was a better success the way it panned out rather than a “normal ostrich” race would have but I was really petrified that I had just got my self fired. That fear wasn’t calmed any during the post promotion meeting when the ostrich vendor was asked what happened and replied pointing a finger at me “he spooked the ostriches”. I surprised myself by blurting out, “hey what do I know about ostrich wrangling…you are the expert”. Bill Giles was at that meeting and broke the ice by laughing after my comment. Once he laughed everyone else thought it was funny and before long we were all laughing including ostrich guy. Upon reflection that was the first time that I realized what a great organization the Phillies had. Here I was a summer intern, the low man on the totem pole, that made, in my estimation, a major blunder that ruined a promotion and quite possibly could have taken out both of our broadcasters and a couple of fans to boot and the boss used humor and laughter to diffuse the situation. He and Frank also took the time after that to meet with me and let me know that ultimately it wasn’t my fault but theirs for putting me in that situation. The bottom line for Frank was that it was a wildly successful promotion because no one was hurt and we got a ton of great publicity just the way it played out. “The next time would be different”, Frank said. “The next time?” I thought…was this guy crazy? I guess I had a lot to learn about the power of fun.
There were a whole lot of other whacky promotions that year including cow chip throwing, bed racing and hot dog eating contests as well as one of my all time favorites…cash scramble. This was a great promotion that had thousands of real cash in ones, tens and twenties crumpled up and spread all over the in field in between the games of a double header so that a few lucky fans had the chance to “scramble” for as much cash as their hands or clothing could hold. The lucky fans were supposed to be picked by a random drawing but in reality the promotions staff put in the fix. A couple of scouts were sent out into the stands to find three specific types of fans and get their seat numbers. They were looking for a plump or heavy male fan, a cute little child and a beautiful woman who hopefully would be wearing a rather “small” top. You can imagine why this would be a fan favorite and it never disappointed. What was the intern’s responsibility for this promotion? I had to first crumple up all of the bills and then, when the scramble was over, I had to iron the wrinkles out of each and every bill in order to get it back to the bank. I kid you not!
The Power of Fun will hopefully be completed in the summer of 2010…looking forward to getting you an advanced copy!
