Major League Media Relations Director of the Year 2006

Carmen MOLINA Tampa Bay Devil Rays American League Major League Baseball (MLB)

This was a particularly tough year for the minor league system of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. From Delmon Young's ill-tempered bat toss to internal club house issues in Durham, frustrations aplenty were brewing down on the farm.

It is in those times that you see what the PR people of a club are made of. Some get testy with the barrage of questions that the media peppers them with. Some gather the wagons and go into 'no communication' mode.

Carmen Molina tried an entirely different option: Tact, grace, and style.

Molina, entering her tenth year with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ Communications Office, takes one of the more difficult jobs in MLB media and transforms it into a model for what major league media should be more like.  

Even though it has been years since the last expansion franchises were awarded, legacy expansion teams still are the Rodney Dangerfields of baseball. The Devil Rays have had, arguably, one of the best farm systems in baseball. Their farmhands like Baldelli, Young and B.J. Upton have been consistent top five MLN FAB50 Baseball choices, and top picks in other polls. Building a strong farm system was an answer to the criticism that the Rays didn't have much organic talent at home, but prefered using retiring players with marquee names.

Molina has lead the charge to change that image. Her press releases have done an outstanding job of making sure that the club's minor league assets remain showcased as they make their major league debuts. Beyond that, she has always tried to make sure that the media should know that Rays fans can expect great things from such an amazing farm system.

Carmen serves as a primary contact for media inquiries and media credential requests; assists with arranging media interviews and with writing releases, advisories and media guide information.  

Of Mexican descent, Carmen, 35, was born in Los Angeles and lived as a youth in St. Louis, Missouri and Atlanta, Georgia. She oversees all of the Rays Hispanic media relations, and has traveled with the team to special international pre-season games in Venezuela and Mexico.  She also has served as a liaison with the team’s Hispanic radio affiliate.

It is her convivial, open personality, and her ability to positively sell the Devil Rays image, even in the most troubled of times, that impressed us so much. Working with the more relaxed minor league media departments, it is very clear to us in the MLN editorial department how hard the major league side can be. MLB media relations are pressure cooker jobs, and too many of the major league media bosses get caught up in the stress and daily grind.

Molina has the gift of allowing who she is as a person to set the tone, rather than the job. For that reason, the high quality of her work, and her exceptional professionalism, we can think of no one more appropriate to bestow our 2006 Major League Media Director of the Year.

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