Talk of the County Podcast | Swing into the Season: Columbus Clippers’ Ken Schnacke and Mark Galuska

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:00:14

I'm Kenneth Wilson, your county administrator and host of Talk of the County. I'm excited, this afternoon to be here at Huntington Park, with the Columbus Clippers President and General Manager, Ken Schnacke, and Assistant General Manager, Mark Galuska. Gentlemen, so much excitement about having baseball in Huntington Park. Spring training is over, and the players are where are the players right now?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:00:51

The players right now landed in Saint Paul, Minneapolis a couple of hours ago. We're supposed to open the season there tomorrow night, but they had 10 and a half inches of snow earlier in the week. So we're not sure if we're gonna get to play tomorrow night or not. That's still to be determined. So we're there for the weekend. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we'll travel home Sunday night and then open the 16th season of Huntington Park on Tuesday, April 2nd. Wow. 16 seasons already.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:01:21

I can remember just standing in a in a parking lot on a on a hot day.

Mark Galuska [: 00:01:27

Really hot day.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:01:28

That was a hot August night. It's still

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:01:30

raining. Hot. That was a hot day.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:01:32

I mean, hot.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:01:34

And I was in a soup all as I always am, and I wanted to break out of it that day. So it's amazing that we are in our 16th year. And, I'm biased, but it's the greatest ballpark that, I know of, anywhere. And this, the Columbus Clippers have to be the oldest operating professional franchise in Columbus. It's definitely not the new kid on the block.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:02:00

Well, no. We're not. But the, you know, the Ohio State Buckeyes has been around a long time

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:02:04

too. I said but I said professional. Professional. You're the oldest professional franchise around.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:02:10

Not only are we professional kids on the block. Back in the 18 eighties, Columbus was actually a major league city for a small period of time.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:02:18

And and what's even cooler is the fact that, we have an affiliation with the Cleveland Guardians. So it's that whole o h I o all the way around, that connection there. And one one of the things I love most about Huntington Park, it is, with our theme of every resident every day. Huntington Park is belongs to the people, and it's very family oriented. So I think that, that's something that we all are proud of.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:02:54

Our charge is to be affordable, wholesome family entertainment. And one of the great things that we talk about, this is 48th year of the Clippers, my 48th year with the Clippers. When we started in 1977, a general admission ticket was $5. 48 years later, it's all the way up to $8. Now that is well below inflation. Fall inflation, like,

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:03:21

no one's business. And we also have Diamond Dog Night. How how old is Diamond Dog Night? You know, I think, you know, I hear of other businesses that brag about keeping prices down, but to still sell a hot dog for a dime.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:03:42

Actually, it started out as 10¢ hot Dog Night. You weren't even there then. No. About our 2nd year, and over time it became Diamond Dog Night. We've actually have trademarked that. And there was a period of time, probably in the mid to late eighties, where I was getting concerned about a Diamond Dog Night. So I tried to go to a 2 bit dog night, you know, the old 2 bit, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar. I thought I was going to get run out of town.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:04:09

So we went we went directly back to 10 Cent Hot Dogs and stayed there forevermore.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:04:14

I'm glad it's Charlie Mark. Speak to tenure. We talk about, you know, in in professional sports, teams leave cities, general managers come and go. Go. Team presidents come and go. Teams are bought and sold every day, but what's special about Huntington Park is that Huntington Park is an asset of the taxpayers of Franklin County. And you've been here, as you stated, almost 5 decades.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:04:46

How did it stop? Longer when you're saying that. Stop? How did it start? Well, way back when I graduated from Ohio Northern University in mechanical engineering, and they brought me to Columbus in 1973, I think, when they created the Ohio EPA. So being an engineer, I was in charge of air pollution control for the state of Ohio. Worked on the what's the old Seneca Hotel on West Broad Street East Broad Street. I'm sorry. Had that job. It was a pretty good job. Had about 20 some engineers in secretarial pool.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:05:28

We would go around trying to help companies solve their application problems. The problem we had is the US EPA was created ahead of us, and their goal was to, solve 200 years of air pollution in 200 days. That really didn't make a lot of sense. Spent most of my time in court trying to fight for the permits that we were writing. And, Dave Mellenthau, very important man in Columbus, was our PR guy at that time representing us and trying to trying to keep us out of trouble. So I just didn't wanna stay in engineering, and I had an opportunity to move to Texas and get into baseball, and that was the year they started this movement to bring, baseball back to Columbus because as Harold Cooper wound up his tenure as general manager of the old Columbus Jets, the stadium on Mount Street was deteriorating. And finally, the Pittsburgh Pirates packed up and and moved their team out of Columbus because there's no provision for fixing up the stadium and modernizing it. So as you know, Harold became a Franklin County commissioner at that point in time with Mike Dorian and and Bob Southwick.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:06:44

And this movement gathered over 85,000 signatures of people who wanted baseball back. Baseball had left Columbus after the 1970 season. So in 1975, the commissioners united, and they declared imminent domain on the old ballpark on West Mound Street, which really almost became the code of depot that's now on Harmon Avenue. Oh, wow. So the commissioner stepped in and did that, and they started, started refurbishing the ballpark to create the Columbus Clippers and, you know, we opened our doors in 1977. So Harold Cooper and the other 2 had a lot to do with it, and they hired George Sisler to be the general manager. In that first year, there were 4 of us in the office, and I was a little kid on the totem pole. I've been the last guy hired, but 48 years later, I'm I'm the only guy standing.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:07:43

So I guess some things do work out.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:07:45

How many, what how does your tenure compare to other, executives in triple a baseball? I'm the longest.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:07:53

The next one is Don Logan of Las Vegas. He's starting his 41st year, and he wants to know if he's gonna catch me

Mark Galuska [: 00:07:59

or not.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:08:01

I bet they they, a lot of these general managers call you for advice on what to do. No. They don't. They feel they know it.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:08:09

All these young people today, they they think they know the score the minute they get out of college and in the business. You've gotta see that in your business.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:08:17

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I I always set them straight. I set them straight. See how

Ken Schnacke [: 00:08:22

you choose it now? They just don't ask me anymore so they can they can go their own way.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:08:27

Mark, talk about you your, tenure here with the Columbus Clippers. When did it start? How did you you didn't just walk in the door as assistant general manager, didn't you?

Mark Galuska [: 00:08:38

No. I'm just a baby at this. It's only been about 30 years. I'm a young buck compared to Ken. But, you know, I started, you know, my back backstory, I guess, as Ken shared, is is is I was at at Ohio State and I was a computer science major. And I was sitting in class one day, and I I I didn't understand what the professor was talking about, and and I really didn't care. And I knew I was in the wrong place. And I had heard about the sports management industry and and said, wow.

Mark Galuska [: 00:09:18

That's that's a job? You get paid for that? That sounds like me. And especially when you're you're a terrible baseball player that you can still be part of the game in a different way. So, you know, I I switched that day and became business major and and got my master's in sports management, and I was fortunate enough to catch on as an intern as a lot of our staff did. That was back in 92. And, I was hired, when a a gentleman named Rob Butcher who just retired from the Reds, when he left, that opening, was the opening for me to come in. And aside from a year when I got out of the business and and tried something else, I've been rolling since. Great. Great.

Mark Galuska [: 00:10:08

Great.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:10:09

Let's talk about change. How much has baseball operations changed, Ken, during your, tenure? How many uniforms have the Clippers have

Ken Schnacke [: 00:10:22

that you did? I don't know. That that number probably is somewhere between 5075. I don't like a lot of change in uniforms, and we are one of the few teams that really has not changed our logo to any significant point. I think the Clippership and the Clippers logo is a wonderful logo because I think fans of all ages can wear it with pride. You know, there's some teams. It's it's a little too childish. It's a little too cartoonish. It might look good on the kids, but some of the parents are aren't so enthralled as as wearing that logo.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:10:57

I take a lot of pride in our logo. And, actually, the first logo was designed by Rick Moc, a local artist to, who did that for us. And he's he's helped us with some of the small modifications that we've made over the years. The game has really changed. I mean, you know, the the athletes keep getting better and bigger and stronger. And now the world of analytics has hit us all, and it's not the same game it was 20 or 30 years ago. Ago. So much more goes into it with with the hitters and the pitchers studying charts and tendencies.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:11:33

And, you know, where a hitter has has a red zone where he can power hit the baseball and or he's not so effective and what a pitcher can do to attack that and vice versa, what a hitter looks like when when he's facing a certain pitcher and the pitcher's tendency. So the game, like I said, has changes. There's a lot more analytics involved in studying and studying and studying what they think might happen. But that gets a little compounded because these are people playing the game. Mhmm. And they can't they're not robots, so they can't perform at the same level every day. Just because you see on a chart where they should be able to throw the baseball doesn't mean that they can do that repetitively in a game. So the game itself has indeed changed.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:12:23

There's less players than there were many, many years ago. So these kids, as they come up the line, they don't get as many repetition. Baseball is a game of repetition, just like some of our jobs are. You know, the more we do the things in our job, the better we get. You can start to take shortcuts. You can start to expand your role. Baseball is like that, a game of repetitions. And because there's fewer players, these play these players are advancing up the line before they're really ready.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:12:53

And and you see that with some of the mistakes you see every night when you watch a baseball game. Even at the big league level, it's happening.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:13:01

There's been a a a push to speed up the game, Devin. There's a pitch clock, still gonna be, used this upcoming season?

Mark Galuska [: 00:13:12

Yeah. Yeah. It will. We've actually had it this is 4 years now? You know, we've become I guess, AAA is is and the minor leagues have become a little bit of an experimental area for some of these rule changes. So we had the pitchbox before they were introduced to the big leagues but they're here to stay. And when they were introduced in the big leagues last year I told a lot of people I said that traditionalist that hated the thought of a clock in baseball. It's like the one sport that didn't have a clock. They they were dead set against it.

Mark Galuska [: 00:13:48

I told them, I said, you're gonna you're gonna like this because the game's gonna flow a little at a little better pace and not change the way a game is played at all. And I think that's, for the most part, held true. Some guys couldn't adjust very well to it, but, it's here and, here to stay.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:14:09

I'm gonna go totally, in a different direction. What's Lucille and Crash's legacy here at the ballpark? How long have Lucille and Crash been hanging out, in in entertaining bands?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:14:22

Yeah. They've been hanging they've been hanging out a while. You know? And now that you mentioned it, I'm not sure I've ever seen you and Lucille in a in a room at the same time. Are you one are you one

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:14:33

of the mascots? I might be. I don't know. I found other duties at the same. No. Okay.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:14:38

Actually, our first mascot was Captain Clipper, and Captain Clipper ended up looking a little too much like Captain Crunch on the cereal box. Oh my god. They actually scared some kids.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:14:51

Oh, yeah. That's that's So we trauma. That's childhood.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:14:53

We sent Captain Clipper on a vacation to a deserted island, kinda like, that old sitcom on TV. So, he never came back. So we replaced him with Crash and Lou Seal. It's nice to have 2 mascots because we can have action on top of both dugouts and get both sides of the ballpark energized while they're they're cheering during the game. It allows us to cover twice as many appearances going to schools and parades and things. So it's been a good addition.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:15:24

Kids love New Zealand crash. Definitely, I haven't seen kids being afraid of them. How does new ceiling crash feel about the the hot dog race? When the hot dog, does the hot dog have a name? I I should know this. Oh, yeah.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:15:38

Oh, yeah.

Mark Galuska [: 00:15:39

Ricky Relish, Kelly Ketchup, and Mickey Mustard. Ricky Relish.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:15:45

Ricky Relish. I like that.

Mark Galuska [: 00:15:47

Kelly Ketchup. Kelly Kelly Kelly Ketchup. And Mickey Mustard. And Mickey Mustard. So they do have names. And I think Lucille and Crash are pretty happy to take that half inning off.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:15:58

You heard that Franklin County. We got we got 3 hot dog names. Not not 1. 3.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:16:05

Y'all have their own line of t shirts. Yeah.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:16:08

Okay. I'm a skip ahead. Let's talk about marketing now. We, you know, you know, baseball is entertainment. So let's let's talk about marketing here. What, what's the future of marketing, in for the Columbus Clippers? What's new what's what's new ish that that you can let the listeners of Talk of the County find

Ken Schnacke [: 00:16:32

out first on this podcast? Well, marketing once again is is somewhat of a repetitive game, and it's a little bit like a team slogan. Those of us that create it, you get tired of it. But by the time we're getting tired of it, sometimes it's just resonating with the majority of the fans. So over time, we have developed a system where we have something planned for every day of the week. For example, Tuesday, Dime-A-Dog dog night. Wednesday, we salute the military and the first responders with the ticket deal. Thursdays are thirsty Thursdays. Friday, we have $5 Fridays, which also includes a $5 Pepsi and Donato's pizza.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:17:16

Saturday, and Mark will talk to this, a lot of the specials with special guests. And then Sunday family days where the the entire family is admitted for a flat amount. Those are the things that we set as the bottom of our pyramid. And then on top of that, we had all the other things that come along, and I'll let Mark talk

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:17:36

to some

Ken Schnacke [: 00:17:36

of that. Like fireworks. Fireworks. Fireworks are popular.

Mark Galuska [: 00:17:40

Fireworks, still very popular. Marvel night, we do a Marvel night. We actually have a Marvel flippers. They call it a Marvelized logo in Jersey that a Marvel designer created that logo. Star Wars night, always popular, which is wild to me because I saw the first one in the theater. And but kids kids still love Star Wars. Yeah, and we do we do things where, you know, theme to, you know, TV sitcoms. Like, we've had actors from The Office.

Mark Galuska [: 00:18:17

We've had actors from Seinfeld from movies. This year, Corbin Burnson, a major league fan, will be here. You know, an opportunity for people to maybe meet someone that they wouldn't have had if we didn't provide it. So we and and there's a lot of kids' promotions. Princess of Pirates night, the Star Wars night, the Marvel nights, and and, trying to trying to do something for everybody. And and it's these are the things we're known for, and we try to add new things. And, you know, this year, Harry Potter night for the first time, we're doing and a special jersey we'll wear for that. And try to add new things every year, but keep the things that people really enjoy in place as best we can.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:19:03

And, you know, you you brought up marketing. We have not stopped for a commercial break. Have you not gone out and sold?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:19:08

I was gonna get to that next, mister Snacki. I was gonna say to the listeners of this podcast that Clippers gear is online, and I'm looking in the background at a at a real nice selection of of hats. And everyone nice nice, crisp hat. A classic navy blue with a red trim. So, podcast listeners go online to Clippers Pro Shop. What's the website for the Pro Shop?

Mark Galuska [: 00:19:39

Go to clippersbaseball.com, and you'll get there. Clippersbaseball.com.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:19:45

Buy some nice gear. 70 uniform changes probably over 40 some odd years, but the Clippers have maintained a classic look. So anything you find will look good on you.

Mark Galuska [: 00:19:58

That was good. That was

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:20:00

really good. Yeah. I mean, hey, it's a people's team. We wanted to wear some gear out there. You know? Because, the Clippers are, you know, the the, franchise, in Franklin County. We're the United New Kids on the Block. Like I said, you've been around?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:20:15

Been around for a long time.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:20:17

Been around. Been around. And and there's something to be said about longevity. It's like it's like classical music. You know? You gotta get gotta get credit what credit is due. Also, the this ballpark has been named by publication, best ballpark, ballpark of the year. With that being said, we all love Huntington Park. Is there anything can you miss about Cooper Stadium? From a nostalgia standpoint Of course, some asset of it.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:20:45

Do you miss the shag carpet? What do you miss?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:20:48

Well, we, you know, we had shag carpet, as you put it, for the first 22 years, but the last 10 years, we actually had grass. So we, you know, we had made the changeover. You know, I never thought that Huntington Park would come along in my lifetime, let alone my tenure. I mean, we kept trying to take Cooper Stadium. My goal back then was to try to make it to Wrigley Field with minor league baseball. But what happened in the city of Columbus is you got to the point where they spent 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars on redoing the football stadium. They built the Schottenstein Center to replace Saint John. They built the 1st crew stadium at the fair grounds, and they built Nationwide Arena.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:21:36

And when all those things happened, we couldn't keep up with the Joneses. We couldn't make enough changes on Mound Street to kinda combat that and and be a player in that area. So we were losing ground. And then people I was actually in in the middle of a design, of redoing all the suites at Cooper Stadium when the subject came up about the Clippers moving. You know, you remember that Nationwide Arena and the Crew stadium were both supposed to be down here, and the voters defeated that, like, 3 or 4 times before, they went on and built the arena privately and built a crusaderian privately up at the fairgrounds. So this this parcel of land was sitting here just outside of where the penitentiary sat. And as you said on that hot August day, it was just an old ground field where they had stored things from the penitentiary, and people kept trying to move us around town. I mean, they talked I had to go out and look at sites out at out east, where Easton is.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:22:46

They looked at sites a little bit at Grand View. We looked at some sites in South Columbus. I they even took me up to Polaris and wanted to look at sites there. And I said, I don't think that Franklin County is gonna be building Delaware County. Just saying just saying, I guess, anything could happen. Right. So it kept coming back to this 8 acre track of land here in the arena district. And as we kept you know, you listen to everyone's talk and everyone's opinion, and you'd go with the pluses and minuses.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:23:17

And we kept circling back to here to where we finally got a consensus. If the Clippers move, this is where they should move.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:23:24

So can yeah. I I recall that there was a pretty comprehensive study done. Yes. And, the voices of a lot of stakeholders went into determining what was the best, place to, move to. And then how do we, make use of, the land that, Cooper's on right now.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:23:47

It's been a lot of work.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:23:48

A lot of work went into to this part being here, and been a great it's been a great a great move to say the least. It's been a success by anyone's measures.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:23:59

Way above our expectations. It was

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:24:02

still yeah. It's you know, you went through a who would have done during your career? You went through a pandemic

Ken Schnacke [: 00:24:08

that impacted professional sports, collegiate sports, sports across the board. Yeah. You know, and and when new places open, there's usually a honeymoon period of 3 to 5 years. Like I said, we're about to start the 16th year here, and last year, we were 2nd in the nation out of a 120 teams in attendance. So the love affair with the community and the Clippers has not has not lost its luster. It actually keeps on growing and sustaining itself. And to have that kind of continuity over 16 years is really almost unheard of in any industry.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:24:43

You know, baseball goes with summer barbecues. Baseball is seen as America's pastime. You know, we talked we we we had lighthearted conversation around, a hot dog, you know. Who who doesn't know take me out to the ballpark and and buy me some peanuts and cracking jacks? I don't care if I have freedom. Who I mean, that is what baseball is. Mhmm. How do you keep how do we how do we, keep that in a in a two point o world? How do we how do we you know, when when it when you're challenged by esports, you're challenged by there's so many entertainment options.

Mark Galuska [: 00:25:25

Yeah. I think I think that part of that that's what part of what baseball has realized that they were having a problem with the the pace of the game and the length of the games. You know, if you try to watch a game on TV, it was good 3 and a half hours. If it was Yankees, Red Sox, it was over 4 hours. And and certainly the concern was of losing some people. So the pace of play initiatives have been introduced to try to address some of that to to keep a better flow, a better pace, you know, maybe a shorter shorter time period that people might watch it. You know, it was always disheartening when you saw families leaving with their kids in the 6th inning because it was already getting late and now they're staying till the end. So I think some of those things have helped, you know, catching attention spans is is as you've said, it's very difficult these days.

Mark Galuska [: 00:26:22

But, you know, baseball is a very casual game. You can it's got the natural breaks. You can talk. You can walk around. It's and I think that, you know, having a facility that people enjoy coming to, it's easy to get to keeping prices affordable. You know, I I I think it will translate to the next generation.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:26:47

Is there would there ever be changes or are there changes in the game of baseball around traditions such as the 7 inning stretch?

Mark Galuska [: 00:26:56

I don't. Not yet. I don't see that happening.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:27:01

No. I mean, they keep trying to improve. Elliott said shorten the game on the field, but, you not things like the your 1st pitch, your ceremonial 7th inning stretch, your take me out to the ballgame. Those things are so tied into the American fabric. I don't see those changing.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:27:19

Let's talk about, community engagement. Community, ownership. Newer generations that may not reason why the ticket prices only would increase $3 for a general admission. That's very intentional actions and leadership of the Clippers. Then it's, you know, the even in the design of the ballpark, it is a very kid friendly ballpark. It's stuff for kids to do all around the the, the ballpark. But talk a little bit, either one of you, about how do we engage fans in the local community to foster their support of the team as vital?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:28:13

Well, you know, all of that has really changed. I mean, 20 or 30 years ago, you would look upon the hometown newspaper and the radio stations for getting the word out. But social media has changed all of that. And young people are more engaged in their phones than in reading magazines and and newspapers and things. So, you know, Mark and his crew to that regard, that's where you have to go. And and they tell you that when a family sits down around their kitchen table and they talk about things to do as a family, you have to be one of the first three things that comes to mind of of what they wanna do, which is one of the reasons we understand that moms are so important here. The ballpark needs to be clean. It needs to be family friendly.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:29:01

The restrooms need to be accessible. And if mom is okay coming to the ballpark, she's also okay then if her kids or her family comes and she doesn't attend. So that's a never ending battle that you try to stay in front of. And as you said, I mean, every year, there's just more and more choices that people get to make on how they're gonna spend their entertainment dollar. And it's how we spend all of our time trying to make sure we stay at the forefront of that.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:29:30

Mhmm. What is our relationships with the schools and, and, our local wide NYs, YMCA, YWCA. What are what is our relationship with those groups, the summer camps?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:29:46

Well, we do we do a lot with them. We have we have a lot of summer camp outings, and we have a huge program with Safe Flight in the Columbus library that gets families to use their library card. And if they do that, then they qualify for tickets that you can get at all 23 branches of the Columbus Public Library. They were so happy with the program last year that it's already starting to reach out into the suburbs, both Hilliard and Upper Arlington have signed on this year. You know, we've done a couple of test programs with the Columbus Public Schools on trying to increase attendance. So we did a test program a couple years ago with selected schools. And according to school officials, we increased attendance in that 6 week period about 75%, and they also got clipper tickets. So we used tickets and the players as a mythology to try to help the community and and move this forward and do some important initiatives.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:30:47

And we host a lot of fundraisers for, the arthritis walk and charities around town. We're one of the big sponsors of the Miracle League of Dublin, which is a artificial field, with for kids that are severely handicapped. They're so handicapped that they need a buddy to try to help them get around the bases. The buddies all wear clipper shirts, and we have those kids down for a game or 2 during the year. We actually go up to Dublin one time with our promo team, our hot dogs, our mascots, and give them the Clipper experience at their fields so they can really feel special on a day. So we do we try to get as much Clipper engagement and activity as we can. You know, we don't get to all the groups. The Buckeye Ranch is another group we interact a lot with.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:31:34

So we take a lot of pride in that. We keep trying to expand that program.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:31:38

I know you've always been good to our veterans

Ken Schnacke [: 00:31:44

Yes. And

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:31:45

and having recognition in any events for our veterans and our first responders as well. So I wanna credit the leadership, for that. Thank you. Because that means a lot to our community.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:31:59

And those those people mean a lot to all of us. Yeah.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:32:03

So much. You know, they, I know our seniors each year. That's one of the office owned agents' more most popular events when they get to come out and get a box lunch and and and and award and and and take in a ballgame.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:32:21

That's Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Help us pack those 1500 box lunches we have on that day, Ken.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:32:28

Okay. You heard that. I gotta come pick up, pack some box lunches for for our seniors. I usually, I've I've been there a number of years for that event. It's it's a great event. It is. It's a great event for our seniors. Am I allowed to talk about the Savannah bananas and the net?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:32:49

Okay. Yeah. I know you.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:32:51

Didn't know.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:32:51

Alright. Yeah.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:32:52

I'm the I'm the host, but I had that I, you know, copyrights and such. You know, it's a big deal.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:32:57

The Harlem Globetrotters and the baseballs, Savannah Bananas.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:33:04

For our podcasters, what what is it? Is is it, is it, is this it's the equivalent of the invisible basketball if we if we make that connection with the Hog Club Trotters to baseball. It's baseball and and tricks. Yes. And people walking on stilts. You might see anything.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:33:25

Right? Right. Guy coming up with his bat actually on fire. He's

Mark Galuska [: 00:33:30

hot. Yep. A fan catching a foul ball and could be an out.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:33:36

Wow. Okay. That's so we we're pretty we're pretty fortunate that to have something unique like this to come to Franklin County. Because they could just they can go anywhere. I understand it.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:33:49

Yeah. There's Last is their second year of worldwide tour. We're the we're the only new city this year that actually got three dates. And, also, for the first time, they stepped into the major league market. So they're going to 6 major league cities one day only. They've already done Houston. They'll actually be at Cleveland sometime in August. But they're coming here in May, and, you know, they they have all the grandstand seats, and they've had a ticket lottery.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:34:16

And if we got a capacity of 10,000, so for the 3 nights, that's 30,000 total tickets max. They had us 170,000 ticket lottery request for those 30,000 tickets. Wow. Wow. That's gonna be

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:34:33

that's gonna be a big deal. The residents of Franklin County, when they take in sporting events, they like to win. They like to go to games. It's a lot more funner to attend the sporting event when the scoreboard went at the end, see if the home team won. What is gonna be the quality of the product that'll be stepping on the field, opening day here at Huntington Park? What kind of opt is there optimism in the air?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:35:06

There's always optimism in the air. The, you know, the problem is everybody wants to win. And the problem is these are human beings, and they have a tendency to get hurt. You know, we were decimated last year because when we came north, the 5 guys that we thought were gonna be our starting pitching, 3 of them ended up in Cleveland within the 1st 2 weeks of the season. So you just kinda kinda roll with the punches. I agree with what you're saying. Everyone associates winning with having a good time, and you see that with Ohio State Football. But they play a lot less games, so the winning is is more crucial on that individual Saturday.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:35:47

We play a 150 games. We play 75 at home. I I want us to be competitive. I want us to be in the game, but we realize we can't win the game every night. So we offset that by trying to make sure that everybody has a good time, that we include everybody in the evening. And I think one of the things our staff gets a lot of accolades for, I think we might be the only facility in town that welcomes people when they come into the ballpark, as friendly ushers and people that serve them throughout the game, and then actually go stand at the gates when they're leaving and thank you and thank them for coming. And it gives you a a really good feeling in your heart to see all these people leaving with their families that have had a good time. So we really hang our head on that.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:36:35

But we do. We do wanna win. We won 11 Governors Cup championships in our 48 years, which is more than anybody else in the history of triple a baseball. And the next club behind us has won 10, but they didn't do it in 46 years, they did it in 76 years. So our our record has been pretty darn good for the time we've been here as the Clippers. Right. Right. Right.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:37:03

Are there any, capital improvements that fans will see when they come in versus last year? No. Not really. You know, we're an outdoor facility in a temperature climate that has 4 seasons. We take a lot of pride in fans looking at the ballpark and saying, how old is this? This looks brand new. We spend a lot of time on painting and cleaning and power washing. You know, we've got that 8 acre footprint that doesn't allow us to do an awful lot of expansion, but the ballpark looks pretty darn nice. Pretty nice, And with with the help of robots. The robotic more? The robotic more.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:37:45

Robotic more.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:37:46

Robotic more. Robotic more. That's pretty pretty cool. Podcasters is pretty cool. Casters is pretty cool. Pretty cool thing to see. Some people have those. You know, more and more residents are buying those, and it just goes out and does its thing and old parks itself when it's done.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:38:04

The the the turf is relatively new. It was replaced a

Ken Schnacke [: 00:38:08

few seasons ago. In 2018 for our 10th year when we hosted the triple a all star game to the national championship game.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:38:16

How long does turf trip get well taken care of, which is the case here.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:38:21

8 to 10 years.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:38:22

8 to 10 years. I'm, I'm, you know, I'm I'm I'm a sports guy, but I don't know behind the scenes. Is tobacco still popular? Chewing tobacco. Is chewing tobacco still popular in baseball?

Mark Galuska [: 00:38:40

It's not allowed at our level.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:38:43

It is not allowed. Yep. Okay.

Mark Galuska [: 00:38:45

At our level. Sunflower seeds

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:38:47

are allowed?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:38:48

Very popular. And they are messy. You see the dugout

Mark Galuska [: 00:38:52

at the end of the day.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:38:53

See it in the game.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:38:54

They are messy. Folks, I was

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:38:56

gonna ask. I I I I was gonna sunflower seeds were next on, my list. I was gonna do players buy their own sunflower seeds? How many Yeah. Or how many how many

Ken Schnacke [: 00:39:08

how many

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:39:08

tons of sunflower seeds? Facts that you can only get here on top of the county when talking with leadership of the Columbus Clippers. How many how much, we spend in sunflower seeds a year?

Mark Galuska [: 00:39:21

Will help, Adam?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:39:22

I was I'd say a little over, 93,000. 3000 bags? Oh, bags or bags? I was gonna say dollars.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:39:33

$3,000 in sunflower seeds.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:39:35

That's a

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:39:36

What's the brand of choice? Is it the big league sunflower seeds?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:39:39

Chinook is our current brand.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:39:41

Chinook sunflower seeds.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:39:43

We're we're talking off cameras. Is that a lot of podcasts?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:39:46

Yes. That's the beauty of it. We can talk off camera if we need to. Bubble gum. Double bubble? Double bubble.

Mark Galuska [: 00:39:57

I can give

Ken Schnacke [: 00:39:58

you that pounds. We just ordered about, £60. 65 pounds. Yep.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:02

Yep. £65 of bubble gum. Mhmm. Flavor of choice. We got all flavors. For all flavors.

Mark Galuska [: 00:40:11

Got sugar free too.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:13

And sugar free. That's gotta have nice teeth.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:40:18

Always watching

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:20

for it. Got it.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:40:23

And here's one for you. How many baseballs do you think we go through a game? A game? Or season?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:30

A season? I would think he probably go through about

Ken Schnacke [: 00:40:34

How many dozen? Oh, I

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:36

was gonna say 15,000 baseballs in a season.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:40:40

Yeah. Thousand dozen or so. Yeah. Pretty good guess, sir.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:45

I'm I'm I'm watching my sports. You realize how the ball would get scuffed up and need to be replaced or knocked in the stands. Because fans catch a lot of baseballs. You hope you got a good year. But foul balls go in the stands too, though.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:40:59

You did? Oh,

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:41:00

yeah? But you got really nice netting here. We did. We have some of the best netting in the country podcasters at Huntington Park. We catch a lot of balls that way. You kinda have to safety is key.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:41:11

You have to kinda protect the fans from their selves. There's so much distraction today when you've got kids with you, you've got cell phones, you're trying to take pictures, and that ball comes off that bat that fast. So, yeah, that netting that we've extended, we did that in 2019. That's that's been a godsend.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:41:32

Since we we let me go back to marketing. What's the official baseball bat at the Columbus Clippers?

Mark Galuska [: 00:41:39

There really isn't.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:41:40

There's 15 different Each player

Ken Schnacke [: 00:41:42

is that what what There's 15 different companies that are licensed, but there is one licensed company in Central Ohio, Phoenix bats. Phoenix bats. City is one of baseball's official licensed bat manufacturers. Yep.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:41:58

The new tours, it's it's it's worth checking out. Gotta get that information to, experience Columbus to go on a bat tour and see bats. The design of Huntington Park, is there any other bell parks that inspired the design of Huntington Park, Or it's just a straight and

Ken Schnacke [: 00:42:19

straight original? We we sat down and we talked about it. We wanted to kind of preserve the history of some of the iconic ballparks. So, you know, our right field wall is is our mini green monster. It's 22 feet tall. The green monster in Fenway Park in Boston is 37 feet tall. You stand out on Nationwide Boulevard and you look into the ballpark underneath the big scoreboard. That's they have the same experience in San Francisco. I think it's called Oracle Park now.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:42:56

Our center field backdrop raises and lowers. When you're at a Clippers game, you always see it up. But when we go on the road, we lower that backdrop so you have beautiful views into the ballpark from Neil and Nationwide. The only other city or the only other ballpark in the country that does that is the backdrop at Staten Island. They lower it so you can see the New York skyline. Then in left field, that big 3 story brick building, that's our tribute to Camden Yards in Baltimore. And then the little bleachers on top of the roof up there, that's like sitting on the rooftops at Wrigley Field. So we tried to take some of the features of some of the iconic ballparks and mix them into what we want Huntington Park

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:43:38

to be. Alright. What is the what's the most popular, concession item at the ballpark and and gross sales.

Mark Galuska [: 00:43:53

Still hot dogs?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:43:53

Still hot dogs? What about Bratz? Is the is is the is Bratz a selective thing? Not really. That's a lack of that's a more thing in baseball.

Mark Galuska [: 00:44:05

Oh, man. We we sell a decent amount.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:44:07

We sell a lot of popcorn.

Mark Galuska [: 00:44:09

Sell a lot of popcorn.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:44:10

Well, that's, you know, we've got vegan free, vegan items and stuff. I mean, once again, the the food tastes of the American public are ever changing. So you try to make sure that you've got options that can fit in all categories. We've got some gluten free items now. We've got salads. You just try to accommodate everybody as best you can. Yeah. The I saw the Tokyo Giants.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:44:37

Talk about diversity and food

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:44:38

at a ballpark. It was a little bit of everything. K? A little bit of everything. Hot dogs, of course, but a whole lot of other, different things. Yes. Kean, we always like to ask questions like beat your mouth. What's what you know? Because we want we want to get a little bit of inside information. So what's your question? Do you like beaches or mountains?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:45:13

Probably beaches.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:45:15

Okay. What about

Mark Galuska [: 00:45:15

you, mom? Beaches on the way.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:45:18

Yeah. Beaches. I'm here in Ohio because I wanna see the beach. Exactly.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:45:30

Ad hill in my backyard.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:45:31

And I can't even know we don't we don't have yeah. We're not even hilly. So it would be bounce. So we you know, what does Ken Schnockey do in

Ken Schnacke [: 00:45:44

the off season? Work on the next season.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:45:48

That's I answered this from somebody that's been dedicated to the game of baseball. Yep. What about you, Ma? Moe?

Mark Galuska [: 00:45:57

You know, probably same answer, really. I'd say, you know, there are people who always say, what do you do during the off season? They think we go home and wait till spring training. And, really, that's when the the a lot of the big work's getting done. So but, you know, certainly enjoy our personal time, try to try to get away, travel a little bit, and, enjoy some of the the things this, the city has to offer, concerts and restaurants and all that.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:46:24

I can safely say that this is my 48th year with the Clippers, and I can look you in the face and tell you that I don't think I've ever worked a day in my life. That's that's the advantage of having a job that's also your hobby and your application.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:46:41

You found your passion.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:46:42

You found your passion. Found your passion.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:46:46

Something in the neighborhood of passion is music. What is what is Ken Snockey's favorite song?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:46:53

I'm an oldie, Skye. So, you know, we had dinner on the Dime-A-Dog, and the young staff hates it because I bring in these acts and they have no idea who they are. I mean, the first group we did was the association, Wendy, Cherish, Never My Love. We have the Love and Spoonful coming this year. So I'm I'm a sixties guy, and I just I just love that music. I listen to sixties on 6 on Sirius radio. I'm pretty good friends with Flash Felds, the morning host. So, that's that's my cup of tea.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:47:24

But your take is to see Love and Spoonful? Love and Spoonful.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:47:28

Do you believe in magic? Do you know that? Yes. I Okay. There you go. You've heard it. Yeah. I heard that. I've heard it. Okay.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:47:34

So, Mark, what what about you?

Mark Galuska [: 00:47:37

What's your genre? Yes. What's I'm I'm a classic rock guy. So I just yes.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:47:43

I was Cheap trip.

Mark Galuska [: 00:47:44

I was yep. Probably my 2 favorite bands. I was at the the final kiss show in New York City at Madison Square Garden in December, and, that that was a great experience with one of our former players who I when I met him here, he was he the young guy, but a big classic rock band, that was his favorite band that he got from his father. And, we ended up staying in touch and ended up going together because we said we always would if that ever happened. And, I like all music, though. I've been I've listening to anything and everything, really. There's, but I lean one way, it's class of rock.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:48:21

Where did my closing question? How did the Clippers and a bell, become married together?

Ken Schnacke [: 00:48:30

Well, at the old ballpark, when it was Jet Stadium, they actually even Redbird Stadium. There was an old fire bell that was mounted on top of the roof, and There was press the press box was up on the roof. And every time that the red birds or the jets won a game, the little clubhouse attend the little press box attendant would come out on the roof and ring the bell. So when we created and we remodelized, remodeled what became Franklin County Stadium, the fire department had had the bell, gave it back to us. So we actually took that bell and mounted it at that point in time in Dysart Park. And it now actually sits out in the concourse at Huntington Park between the left field building and the Donato stand on the 3rd base side. So, yeah, out of that, we, we came up with the song ring your bell in hometown heroes. You gotta have a 2 sided hip when you do a record.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:49:28

And we started with the victory bells. And, in the old place, we we really, really had it rocking now. We stepped away a little bit, from that, but we've actually started to bring it back. And every Sunday, we now give the first 500 kids get a victory done when they come into the ballpark. So that's a that's a classic promotion that we've done over the years. And some of those playoff games at the old facility when we'd hand out 10,000 victory bills, the clamor and and the noise, it just drove the visiting team crazy, It's really cool to see.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:50:02

Is the is the is the bobblehead, thing gonna pass or would that be any bobblehead giveaway? What would be the best giveaways at Huntington Block this season?

Mark Galuska [: 00:50:13

No Bobblehead giveaways this year. Not a thing of the past, but we try to not really overdo it, try to keep a little more special. Giveaways, the bells for kids on Sundays are real popular. We are working on a couple other things as part of that tied into some of the promotions we have on the schedule right now. But, you know, but there'll be a few still to come.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:50:48

Getting some, some some fans, some towels, I'm assuming. Those kind of things are popular with the fans. Trade baseball trading cars.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:51:02

Still has it. Still have.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:03

Yep. Yep. As we conclude, for our listeners, talk about some of the names that people will recognize that stopped through and wore Clippers uniform.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:51:20

Just a few. No. I mean, the Yankees of the early nineties when we were with them, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettit, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Gerald Williams. And then as we got started at Huntington Park with Cleveland, Corey Kluber, Carlos Santana, Francisco Lindor. Francisco Lindor. Yeah. Quite quite a few.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:50

You also had prime time.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:51:52

We had prime time. We had neon Dion back at the old vault.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:56

I saw a picture of him in a Clippers uniform, few a few days ago. I don't know why I was looking at it. It's like, on my phone, of course. So prime time was here.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:52:09

When he you know what he did? When he would, you know, when he would step into the batter's box, he'd flip his bat upside down with the knob of his bat. He drew a dollar sign in in the batter's box, and they'd straddle that for his swing. True story.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:52:24

Yeah. I believe I believe I believe special special athlete for sure. In the clip, it had a lot of them. Like, the names you just read also.

Ken Schnacke [: 00:52:32

Yeah. Michael Bradley was another good name and quite a few guys. Fans the fans have been very lucky in Columbus to see some major league players before they got big, to see them develop and put on their finishing touches here and then go up and make their mark at the major league level. That's that's a pretty neat experience to have. And, you know, a lot of these kids are very accessible down here, so endless pictures of families that that they've taken with Carlos Santana and Mike Brantley and Corey Kluber and Shane Bieber and stuff. Those are memories that that are made and they last forever.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:53:10

Alright. We are we are wrapping up. I'm glad to, say that opening day, here in Huntington Park will be here soon, and I hope that it's a sellout. So listeners of Talk Of The County, turn out. Support your Franklin County Columbus Clippers. And in closing, be yourself because no one else has time to. Thank you.