"What the heck is a 'Ralphie'?" wondered the front office staff of our one Major League award winner at a dinner for the club during the MLB Winter Meetings.

The movies have the Oscar®, TV has the Emmy® the theater has the Tony®, and our hard-working, much under-appreciated media relations directors, public-relations staffs and broadcasters who work in minor and independent sports have the Ralphies™.

This was a watershed year for the Ralphies. We rolled out the new RalphieDEX™ to showcase the talents of all media relations and broadcast personnel at the teams. We extended the search time a bit longer this year to give our friends in hockey and basketball more time to be seen in the current year rather than the prior year.

Who gets considered? There are a lot of very deserving, hard-working media relations people at the hundreds of professional sports clubs across the US. Everyone that submits press releases, or broadcasts for a minor league or independent sports team is eligible.

It's not just about the press releases, though. Our Ralphie winners generally do that something above and beyond to stand out. They are people who reshape the way that fans view our niche of the sports world, or develop new ways to improve how the word gets out about minor league sports.

Our top master of the media hails from one of the big bergs for music. Another has had a 'devil' of a time in a season full of player PR challenges. One continues to innovate his league to new heights, and another launches an exciting new career more than a thousand miles from where he calls home.

And the winners are....

(Click on their photo to see their full award presentation:)

PR Director of the Year Doug Scopel Nashville Sounds Triple A Pacific Coast League Minor League Baseball	League Media Director of the Year Jack Carnefix ECHL Class-AA Hockey
Major League Media Director of the Year Carmen Molina Tampa Bay Devil Rays American League MLB	Broadcaster of the Year Mike Capps Round Rock Express Pacific Coast League Triple-A Minor League Baseball
The 'CHEWY' Award Rising Star of the Year Zack Bayrouty Stockton Ports California League Class-A Minor League Baseball

Top of Story | PR Director | Major League Media Director |
| League Media Director | Broadcaster of the Year|
| The 'CHEWY' Rising Star Award |