Our award winners at the team level were selected from a more robust list this year than in 2003.
There are media relations people in class A who stepped up to the plate to knock out some great copy. One would think that with great stadiums come new people and more great PR to help fill them. Sadly such is not the case.
The spottiness of greatness in AAA and AA baseball continues. The NBDL produces great product from its national offices, but lacks pulse at the team level.
Some of the best stuff, though continues to come from hockey. Not just anywhere in hockey, either. Sure you get great stuff from the big three: The AHL (AAA), the ECHL and CHL (AA) all have great national media people and past Ralphie winners.
What is interesting is how many of the most troubled teams and leagues hire some of the best PR people (See When Good Media People Happen to Bad Teams & Leagues). So does the tobacco lobby. Go figure. To quote Maxwell Smart: "If the same level of energy could only be focused to the forces of good, and not evil."
Our first award goes to a true Man for all Seasons....
Many people in PR say: What to do with my off-season? (Actually, that's not true. Most of you burn rubber out of the parking lot on the last day of the season, catch up on paperwork, take a vacation, or just do enough therapy to stop those involuntary hand tremors.)
Then there are the masochists. You know who you are. You work for an owner with multiple teams, and you do all of them.
Our winner of the "Ralphie" for Best Team Media Relations Director, Joe Dominey, is a man for at least two seasons, hockey and football.
Dominey rides the range with the Laredo Bucks of the Central Hockey League (CHL) and the Laredo Law of Arena Football 2 (af2).
Joe is what we all hope for in a team's media person. He is responsive when the phone call comes. He is easy to find, a pleasure to deal with, and makes his team, whether they're slapping pucks or passing pigskin, look good.
His press releases also feature more players, rivalries, insider tidbits and things that the MLN reader want to know. Things of interest beyond the local market that would bring fans in other cities out to check out his clubs.
For a guy who works most of the year, he seems to maintain a good sense of humor about it all. He hasn't made (that we're aware of) a reel of COPS: When PR Guys Go Bad.
Not that his GM in Laredo would like to lose him, but we think that he should make the short list of any league looking for a great media guy who showcases the talent and the product well.
2004 introduces a new award: The "Chewy" is named in honor of CHL great Steve "Chewy" Cherwonak, the Godfather of Minor League Hockey, the hardest working living PR guy in the minors other than perhaps the great Ralphie himself.
The Chewy will be given each year to that bright young talent in the obscure lower depths of the minors who continues to get the job done and shine beyond mopping the men's rooms after games, cleaning the GM's car, and the many other "priorities" that come before the PR of a Rookie or Class A level team.
This year's Chewy goes to Jared Rose of the Spokane Indians Baseball Club. Jared is a go-getter and a rising star of the first-order.
Not only does he write great press releases for his team, but he even plugs the Northwest League (NWL) when they can't seem to get around to doing it for themselves.
In a league where media relations seems to be more a happy accident than active thought, Jared provides the kind of national quality, MAJOR ATTITUDE™ coverage of his club and his league that puts players and events on the radar.
His writing of game releases is the best that we've seen in Class A sports. He sticks to the facts, presents the game clearly, draws in relative points of interest with excellence, and remembers that the story, not the plugs for future events and games, is what the media want to read first and most. If there was a handbook on how to do Class A media relations right, they should feature the collected works of Jared Rose.
Keep him if you can, Spokane. This is a young man on the path to greatness.
