By Rich Bevensee
It was a scene snatched directly from a Hollywood script.
With Fourth of July fireworks exploding into the starry skies of Cooperstown, N.Y., the home of baseball, the boys of the Twitty City Athletics-Duke 12U ballclub from Hendersonville, Tennessee, were presented the Ripken National Championship trophy on the field by none other than former Major Leaguer Billy Ripken after completing an improbable three-game run of underdog victories.
Running the championship ceremony concurrently with the celebration of our nation’s 250th birthday was no coincidence. It was exactly how the folks at Ripken Baseball envisioned the event’s conclusion when tournament planning began one year ago.
“It still gives me chills to think about that night,” said Jon Rowland, the Director of Marketing at Ripken Baseball. “You look around and see the happiness on the kids’ faces and you see what that moment means. It all looked amazing. I’m so close to it so I know how much work went into it, and our plan was to make it a big league experience. But I couldn’t believe how “big league” it was. All I can say is I can’t wait to build upon it in years to come.”
The Ripken Baseball staffers who were on site that night at All Star Village in Cooperstown were awed by not only the celebration, but also how the culmination of a year of painstaking attention to the finest of details came together so smoothly.
The inaugural Ripken National Championships, staged at All Star Village June 29-July 4, was the product of a thousand details and a child of many, many parents.
The tournament was, without question, a ground-breaking idea which took a year’s worth of preparation. Thousands of tournaments take place across the country every year for youth club teams, many with the idea of luring the nation’s top teams, but the goal of the Ripken Nationals was to crown a true national champion.
To that end, 12 sites across the U.S. were selected to host Ripken Tournament Qualifiers. The winners of these tournaments automatically punched their tickets to Cooperstown.
With Ripken Baseball seeking a field of 16 for the national event, four more teams would earn berths through a qualifying tournament in Cooperstown weeks before the nationals.
Ripken Baseball certainly got its wish for a cross-country representation of talent. In addition to drawing nationally-ranked qualifying teams from baseball hotbeds like California, Florida and Texas, qualifiers also emerged from Alabama, Iowa, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and, of course, Tennessee.
“Initially this was a new product that we’ve never done before,” Rowland said. “We needed to educate the baseball community and our own people about how to develop the road to the championship through our qualifying series. Luckily, through our brand, there’s a lot of trust that aided the journey.”
While the folks at Ripken Baseball sweated over the tournament details, it was Dan Hooper, General Manager at All Star Village, who made sure his venue was ready for the big show.
The project was close to Hooper’s heart. He’s a native New Zealander who grew up following cricket, but now calls baseball his favorite sport.
Among the major projects completed for nationals, four more fields were outfitted with artificial turf, outfield fences were moved back to accommodate the national-caliber ballplayers, bleachers were added to the main field and parking lots were newly paved.
“Dan’s the one that made sure those projects were built and ready to be a proud host,” Rowland said.
Keep in mind, Hooper and his staff host 15 tournaments every weekend of the summer at All Star Village. So, in addition to hosting the biggest event in the venue’s history, his venue and staff were also preparing for the weekly grind of tournament baseball.
“A year ago this was just an idea, it wasn’t much more than that,” Hooper said. “This was an opportunity to double down here and represent All Star Village as a quality destination for baseball teams, and an opportunity for us to offer 12U baseball players a big league baseball experience.”
Hooper revealed that the complex’s final project – getting the final field turfed – was finished at 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday of nationals week, when the skills competition was to begin at 11 a.m.
“It was a long winter up here with a lot of rain so we finished a lot of projects right up until the guests arrived,” Hooper said.
While All Star Village welcomes teams from around the country on a yearly basis, Hooper said his staff relished the opportunity to shine on a much bigger scale.
“You could really see the boys having the best experience on the field,” Hooper said. “I am very proud of the work we did in helping the Ripken tournament become a success.”
While Hooper and his staff prepared All Star Village for the big event, the Ripken staff made sure every ‘T’ was crossed and every ‘I’ was dotted. There were so many details to look after, the list is too long to recount here.
Branding on uniforms, handing out gear, designing the trophy, coordinating game schedules and broadcast schedules, designing retail merchandise, and maintaining social networks as well as the Ripken Baseball channel were just a few of the tasks Ripken staff had to tackle.
“I think we’re all hugely proud that we pulled this thing off,” said Kali Taylor, a marketing manager with Ripken Baseball. “We’re a close-knit group of people, and especially in the past few months we‘ve been working as hard as we can to make sure the details were there.
“My favorite part of the company is how we have everyone’s back, so I don’t think there was ever a doubt we would figure it out, never a doubt in my mind.”
Taylor said one of the best parts of the week for her was watching uniforms get handed out to the players. She said the parents were full of pride watching their kids’ faces light up when they showed off brand new Under Armour jerseys in red, white and blue with “Ripken” emblazoned across the front.
“Seeing how awesome the uniforms turned out and to see the parents’ reaction, that was a cool moment,” she said.
Once the 16-team field was set, it was time for Ripken Baseball to ensure that the logistics and details they had pored over for a year would come together smoothly in Cooperstown.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of events but none of them have been as full circle from a concept to realizing it,” said Taylor. “This was one of the biggest events I’ve ever worked on, so many people were involved. Getting to text my friends and family about an event I worked so hard on, I was very proud. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”
To ensure the project’s success, Taylor said the company brought in employees from California, New York, Texas and Aberdeen, Maryland, the company’s home base and the hometown of program founder and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr.
Rowland added that the final week before nationals week was a “major grind” in terms of preparation.
On the technical side of day-to-day operations during nationals week, it was the job of Ripken Baseball staff to maintain interaction with their guests, oversee the social channel, and to make sure the content teams were staying active on the Ripken baseball channel.
Ryan Heller, Ripken Baseball’s Vice President for Operation and Programming, served as the campus ringleader once teams, families and staff descended on All Star Village to begin their national tournament experience.
Heller, the lynchpin for every operation and procedure for nationals, was even seated just outside the Twitty City dugout to coordinate CBS’ broadcast of the championship game.
“I’m so hoarse right now I can’t even talk, but this has been an awesome experience for me,” Heller said during the raucous trophy presentation. “I can’t begin to explain how happy I am for the players, their families, for everyone involved in making this happen.”
Heller truly had his fingers on the pulse of the operation.
“There’s pretty much no better steward of Ripken Baseball and keeping our values at the forefront than Ryan,” Rowland said. “He oversaw everything, and everything ran through him. He did an amazing job.”
In addition to the entire Ripken Baseball staff working together to coordinate the day-to-day operations of their inaugural event, dozens of talented people flew in from across the U.S. to ensure the event became a rousing success.
Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Tom Helmer, the voice of Eastern Michigan University sports, came from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to call the semifinal and championship games. Ripken and JerseyMan Magazine author Mike Shute joined Helmer in the broadcast booth.
Umpire Chad Hipps flew from his home in Berryville, Arkansas, to officiate a tournament semifinal game.
“This is huge!” said Hipps, who has umpired high school and JUCO baseball for 25 years. “It may not be college, it may not be Major League Baseball, but trust me you still have the nerves just like it was the pros. It means so much to these little kids, you want to get it right.”
Tom Wilson, a free-lance videographer from Los Angeles working for BoomBox, gathered clips to make a documentary for CBS.
“Without a doubt this is a big deal,” Wilson said. “I played at Cooperstown and if I was one of these kids, looking at one of these big cameras, it would be wild. It’s gotta be a treat for these kids to watch this on CBS.”
Steve Porter traveled from Phoenix, Arizona, to promote his Good Tuff company – a videography, content creation and media brand – with his co-founding partner Cole Acheronti. To say Good Tuff was a monster hit with the 12U crowd is an understatement.
“We try to go around to the coolest events, meet the coolest kids and tell some of the coolest stories and we have a lot of fun doing it,” said Porter, who with Acheronti founded Good Tuff a year ago. “Ripken reached out to us, they told us about the national championships and what they’re trying to build and it sounded right up our alley, holding it at one of the most impressive venues in youth baseball.”
Acheronti, who hails from Southern California, may best be described as a pied piper for youth baseball players. With unmatched enthusiasm, he spends his tournament time interviewing ballplayers with a hand-held camera and getting them charged up as if he were a teammate.
Acheronti visited qualifying tournaments at Rocker B Ranch in Graford, Texas, Diamond Nation in Flemington, N.J., and The Ripken Experience complexes in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and in Aberdeen, Maryland, before he arrived in Cooperstown.
“My role here is to capture the excitement all around me,” Acheronti said. “Whenever I hit the record button I know something special is about to happen. I’m there to capture every moment in front of me and then tell the best story I can.”
On and on it goes with the list of national types who made the Ripken National Championships a rousing success.
“It was a big deal for us,” Taylor said. “We poured our hearts into it because it matters.”
Once Twitty City defeated Elite RBI National of Houston, 12-7, in the championship game, the fireworks show was the signal for the Ripken staff to take a step back, relax and maybe even pat themselves on the back.
“We had so many parents and coaches come up to us during the week to tell us how amazing the experience was,” Rowland said. “No matter how complete our plan is, there’s always a little bit of grey area, doubt in our mind, but they just kept thanking us. To hear that from our core audience has been really rewarding. That’s why I signed up to do this job.”
After a well-deserved rest, there is no question that Ripken Baseball will return to its laboratory and devise more ways of making its creation a bigger and better success. Rowland and Hooper both hinted that expansion may be on the horizon for this ground-breaking event. Two possible changes may be expanding the tournament field, and bringing the teams and their families into Cooperstown a bit sooner in championship week.
“Our team just cares,” Rowland said. “You’ll never see us roll something out just to roll something out. We think about every detail and strive to offer an amazing experience.”
Mission accomplished.