by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Almost 6,000 kids and a few hundred other fans invaded the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville Tuesday morning. Yes, Tuesday morning.
The Jacksonville Suns play several day games each year, but the businessman lunches usually start at 1:05 p.m. Tuesday’s 11:05 a.m. first pitch was great for the kids, but tough on the staff.
Although Monday’s game against Huntsville started at 6:05 instead of the traditional 7:05, it was still a long night for just about everyone that works for the Suns and the concessionaires at the ball park.
Still, many don’t mind the unusual schedule and actually found second winds as school after school filed into the park, grabbed their hot dogs and found their way to their seats. Rick Faulkner has been with the Suns as an usher for two years. He doesn’t mind early games at all.
“I just get up. I get up about 7 every day anyway,” said Faulkner, an usher supervisor who retired from Ericcson and also sells programs. “It’s a different crowd during the day. There isn’t as much rowdiness.”
There’s a good reason for that — during the school games a cold beer is hard to come by. In fact, there are no beer vendors roaming the aisles hawking Budweisers.
Faulkner, who also works at the arena and Alltel Stadium, said the Suns are good about early games, especially when they follow a night game.
“If you have school or a regular job, they don’t expect you back for the game,” said Faulkner, who is from Boston and grew up a big Red Sox fan. He also doesn’t really consider his part-time job work because of the perks. “I’m retired and on a fixed income. I get to see games and concerts for free and you can’t beat that. Motley Crue is next week, though, and I’m not too crazy about that one.”
Suns assistant general manager, Kirk Goodman, was dragging a little early in the day, but perked up as the kids rolled in and the last-minute issues arose.
“The best thing about day games are when they are over,” said Goodman. “We get off about 5 o’clock like a normal workday instead of 10 or midnight.”
Jessica Miller and Courtney Timmons sell pretzels, ice cream and cold drinks. They, too, worked Monday night’s game and were right back at the park Tuesday morning. Both are in school at FCCJ and both hold another job.
“It was hard to get here today because of the traffic on I-10,” said Miller. “Right now, I’m kind of energized, but sometimes it’s hard to work day games after night games.”
Timmons teaches extended day at an elementary school from 6-9 a.m., so getting up early isn’t an issue. She’s also a baseball fan with a brother who plays third base for the Mississippi Braves.
Hank Baltar owns Maui Wowi, the frozen drink stand that proved very popular with the kids (adults usually get the smoothies with alcohol, but Baltar left that out Tuesday). He also worked Monday’s game and said he enjoys day games, especially when 6,000 kids are in the park.
“The kids are absolutely fantastic,” he said. “Just like last year, it’s a vibrant atmosphere. Half of these kids have never seen a baseball game and the other half are really into it. They are all happy to be out of school.”
From a logistics standpoint, a day game presents challenges to the Suns staff. Many game-day employees are students or have full-time jobs, or both. Only a few members of the Sunbeams cheerleading team were able to make the game and getting the field ready was major undertaking.
“Today is a tough day for our grounds crew,” said Goodman. “Almost all of our grounds crew have day jobs. We only have two-full time employees and five part-timers. If we have a rain delay and have to redo the field, we are in trouble.”
Suns owner and general manager, Peter Bragan Jr., is very understanding when it comes to day games and realizes that without the help of volunteers, providing good customer service during a day game would be very difficult.
“I’m just glad we have people like the Pioneers who donate their time to help us,” said Bragan, adding that the team returns the favor by contributing to the Pioneers’ charity.
The Suns also work with season ticket holders who get displaced each year by the kids.
“We tell them they can sit down behind home plate in the $17 seats or upstairs wherever they want,” said Bragan.
Of everyone, Good man seemed to be the one that most fed off the energy the kids brought to the park.
“Any time you put 6,000 kids in the park, it’s a challenge,” said Goodman. “The amount of sugar they can consume is unreal.”