Category Archives: Blog Posts

04/15/2023 · 3:28 pm

You, Leigh Montville and the Late, Great Ray Fitzgerald

(Last in a series of three)

“You are one of the reasons I went to journalism school.”

Bob Ryan’s face jerked up at me, away from the book he had been inscribing to me. He did a double-take and looked at me a bit wide-eyed. (I was kind of proud of myself to get that reaction because I imagine that this guy isn’t shocked by anything he hears from baseball fans yakking away at him.)

It was early afternoon on August 3, 2022, and we had just emerged from that day’s Author’s Series presentation at the Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum. Bob Ryan and Bill Chuck had discussed their new book, In Scoring Position, and I had been transported into my own personal Field of Dreams for the better part of an hour. The joy and giddiness I felt were both unexpected and inspiring. Everyone and everything else fell away as I listened to the stories, as Bob spoke directly to me, it seemed, and I hung on every word he and Bill shared.

We (my son Will, sister Nancy, and baseball bestie KK) had planned to get on the road from Cooperstown around noon, but the night before, my son Christopher, who was then an intern at the Hall of Fame, had told us who would be appearing at the Author’s Series. I was psyched! There was no way we’d be getting back in that car mid-day.

Growing up in Massachusetts, and in particular, as one of the seven children of Adam Wolkovich, I was born a Red Sox Fan, although the fandom didn’t completely invade my formerly rational being until the summer of 1975. With that came an occasional weeknight game on tv, omnipresent radio casts, and the daily reporting by a fantastic corps of writers working on the Boston Globe sports page. That’s when and why I began reading a daily newspaper.

Through the years, my favorites were Ray Fitzgerald, Bob Ryan, and Leigh Montville. Their writing exuded such life! Their columns flowed like rivers of thought and emotion that connected me to the beauty of writing through sports – the Celts, Sox, and Bruins, mainly. (I must admit that Ray Fitzgerald was a personal favorite. I can only imagine the poetic prose he would have written about the drama, frustration, and ultimate glory of the summer and fall of 2004, had he not left this world way too soon.)

As a high school basketball manager in Hudson, Mass., I would call the team’s game stats and scores into the Globe sports desk. There was one person, an intern, I presume, who often answered the phone and responded to my questions, including a play-by-play of whose desk was where from his vantage point at that very moment. (Apparently, I was fan-girling before that was a thing.) Wow! Bob Ryan. Leigh Montville. Ray Fitzgerald. And many more scrappy, talented sports scribes! I wanted to be there one day.

Eventually, no Sunday would move forward until I read Peter Gammons’ Baseball Notes page; it was pure gold, filled with the inside scoop, and intriguing bits and pieces that you just couldn’t get anywhere else pre-digital revolution. Eventually, as the Baseball Notes page was handed down to other reporters, I also began to read weekly insights “from the Bill Chuck files.” Delicious!

I wanted to write like that and, initially, to become a sportswriter myself. Off to college I went, studied journalism, and wrote for The Diamondback, the University of Maryland’s daily paper. (#Feartheturtle!) I never worked as a reporter or eventually as a columnist (but Scott Moore, my Diamondback editor, remains a dear friend and kindred baseball soul). I have, nonetheless, applied my interview and writing skills in other ways throughout my communications career.

I try to pull some creativity into the daily writing that has been part of almost every day of my career. My communications work has been incredibly rewarding at times, exciting, fun and challenging, and has brought me through the years.

But on August 3, 2022, that spark came back to me, and I realized how and where my passion for writing professionally was born. Thanks for the reminder, Bob Ryan, and for speaking only to me during that hour (and really, for our actual five-minute chat) in Cooperstown!

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Tagged as baseball, journalism, University of Maryland, writing

04/15/2023 · 2:34 pm

A Glorious Writer’s Day

(Second in a series of three)

August 3, 2022, began like any morning I’ve woken up in Cooperstown, NY. Gloriously.

The first time I rode down this main street, I was in my mid-20s, in the back seat of a car driven by my brother-in-law Jim, with my sister Chris riding shotgun. As we arrived on Main Street that gorgeous summer evening, I got goosebumps, and tears sprang to my eyes – an involuntary reaction to this baseball soul entering a mystical environment. It was epic, and I will never forget it. But that wasn’t the day when I stepped into my personal Field of Dreams.

August 2, 2022, had already been amazing. I drove to Cooperstown with three of my best baseball sidekicks: my sister Nancy, my dyed-in-the-orange-and-blue Mets fan bestie Karyn (KK), and my son Will.

Walking up to the Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, we were greeted by my fourth (but not least) baseball bestie, my son Christopher, clad in his official Hall of Fame shirt and a nametag that read, “Intern”. I think I behaved well enough so as not to completely embarrass my long-ago “Little Nomar” (although that was achieved later during the trip).

By 2022, I was a veteran Hall of Fame visitor and of course, a museum member, but as always, my heart skipped a beat as I gazed at that year’s shiny new membership card and walked through the hallowed halls.

Along with other baseball moments shared among the four of us, The Intern treated his big brother to a once-in-a-lifetime birthday experience of being up close and personal with an artifact that had never been displayed, one wielded by Will’s favorite player, Jason Varitek. It was a fantastic afternoon, and even one with historic baseball significance, as the great Ford Frick Award-winning Vin Scullly had passed away that same day. A baseball legend if ever there were one!

At dinner that night, The Intern told us something that caused us to delay our drive home by a couple of hours. So on August 3, we enjoyed another fantastic morning roaming shops on Main Street and soaking up more baseball in the museum. And then, just after lunch, we returned to enjoy that day’s speakers’ event.

And unbeknownst to me, an erudite, wisecracking, time-tested sportswriter was about to remind me how and why I came to go to journalism school. And why I love to write.

Are You Talkin’ to ME?!

(First in a series of three)

Oui. Si. Da. You bet.

I’m looking you right in the proverbial eyes. As you read.

If I’m doing my best job as a writer for a fairly defined audience, yes, you should understand what I’m saying because I am talking to you!

My words, my message, should be as easy to understand as a signal my son Christopher’s baseball third base coach used to communicate to his players, “Run on the next pitch”: fingers from one hand dancing along his other forearm, not unlike graceful fingers tickling the ivories. (Was it more amusing that the opposing runners couldn’t steal this sign, or that his own players sometimes missed it?)

As a battle-tested communications pro whose base skill is writing, I always stick up for the little guy out there – the one who needs to understand the corporate/organizational message as simply as possible. And as for the outsized intellects out there, who need only can scan that same message to comprehend? You’re welcome.

Writing to the audience is an art form that I continue to practice, and hope that on most days I improve on yesterday’s skills. My writer’s soul can actually drip with excitement when I write about a subject that I believe deep in my heart can inspire, inform, elicit emotion, or maybe even effect change.

And that same soul can cringe when editing documents drier than toast sitting under the midday desert sun. Like insurance documents. Right now, it pays the bills – my bread and butter, I guess. Or croutons. So I try to scrounge up some passion by thinking about who ultimately will read these manuals, payment policies, and such – so that they can do their jobs sitting in some doctor’s office. I still try to put myself in these readers’ eyes and engage them.

It’s a professional passion, but I have to dig wide and deep to understand its origin. I’ve been working this gig for a long time in my career, and personally, for my own self-reflection and growth.

It’s not clear to me sometimes if I am achieving my writing objectives, and I hadn’t thought for a long time about how I got here. Until August 3, 2022.

That day, someone who once inspired me to become a writer did speak to me. Directly (despite the other humans seated in the small presentation room). And with his voice rather than just his written words. He WAS talkin’ to me, just like he’d talked to me through millions of words since I was an adolescent.

On that glorious day, I stepped into my personal Field of Dreams and knew how I got there.

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Tagged as baseball, BobRyan, messaging, writing

09/30/2020 · 12:41 pm

Up and Over the Barrel of the Bat

Left arm outstretched, steadying my grip on a Louisville Slugger angled a bit toward the sky. Definitely toward Fenway’s center field bleachers, at least. Targeting my next homer or thinking about my first at bat? I don’t know. I’ve played in a lot of games. For many teams, including my team of one for a few years.

When I was a rookie PR wannabe, just out of the University of Maryland’s College of Journalism (Fear the Turtle!), I had a grassroots job with the American Heart Association (AHA). I pounded the pavement, building local volunteer groups, organizing fundraisers and working hard to hit my weekly targets. It was a grind. But at one point, I was exposed to Larry Joyce, a great American and then the communications director in the AHA national office. The Voice of Larry! He had a strategy and deep knowledge. Listening to him, I knew I really wanted to have a job like that.

My work ethic, professionalism and contacts paid off. Three years post-college, I was settling into a job in the national office of the National Kidney Foundation in NYC. Then I moved to a position in the American Lung Association’s national office.

And in both jobs, I learned how change is made. On the ground, state-by-state and in DC. And I had incredibly gratifying experiences. I take great pride in whatever small part I played, working on teams where we checked egos at the door, valued the expertise and talent each brought to the table. Pushed each other and caught each other. High-fived and hung our heads together a time or two. Like Word Series champs, though, these teams kept grinding, focused on fearless ideas.

Clean indoor air laws. Remember smoke-filled restaurants, offices, planes and baseball parks? A load of sate and federal advocacy and communication changed our exposure to cancer-causing secondhand smoke. Thank you, American Lung Association of California, for showing the rest of us the way! A daily air quality report as part of the weather forecast? That was the result of passionate scientists, public health pros and communicators determined to protect you and me from toxins in the air. And prevent asthma attacks, heart attacks, death. Thank you, American Lung Association. Organ donor awareness. Can you even remember when you weren’t asked about becoming an organ donor when you got a new license? Thank the National Kidney Foundation and sister organizations. Advocacy, communications, testimonials from surgeons, nurses, transplant recipients and donor families made that happen.

Part of me today considers myself the “luckiest man on the face of the earth” for being one of the many cogs in so many pieces of machinery. But unlike the amazing Joltin’ Joe, I fortunately am still swinging. And looking for the next shot into the bleachers.

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09/25/2020 · 7:29 pm

Time Warp 2020

Racial injustice. Disease. RGB. Unemployment. No concerts or theatre. No NCAA spring baseball. No NCAA fall baseball action. And a Red Sox franchise that chucked its season in the dumper before the first delayed pitch was thrown.

There is some comfort knowing we are all part of a team of humans worldwide flailing our way through 2020. Early in the pandemic, I read a post reminding all that we are all in the same storm but weathering it in very different boats. I am fortunate that my boat has been fairly storm-ready.

My close and extended family and tight band of friends are healthy, and my nephew Sam, who’s in the midst of a three-year volunteer gig in Tanzania, as well as my 93 year-old father, have recovered from COVID-19!

But gee, since the Sox didn’t belittle us with “rebuilding year” yakking, I can’t call the re-emergence of this blog a rebuild.

Let’s go with a dusting!

My work team roster has been a bit dynamic, with the lineup card shifting regularly. My mentor and Rock of Gibraltar is no longer on that team but remains a virtual coach. I sure hope she has Johnny Pesky’s longevity!

My family roster has matured (and also grown with 6 members of a new generation and new spouses). My two former Little Leaguers are adults.

One left baseball behind when the wackiness of his knee during adolescence crushed his high school try-outs. But he blossomed as a leader in many areas and became a fantastic trombonist, even performing with the MA All-State Jazz Band at Boston’s Symphony Hall and the storied Newport Jazz Festival (sorry, but I had to…..). With his recent degree in music ed, he is now officially Mr. Wright, teaching middle school music in a gorgeous part of New Hampshire, playing and arranging music — and faithfully watching the Red Sox, no matter the depth of pain this year.

My “little Nomar” is an NCAA baseball player, student and a songwriter on the side. The month he graduated from high school, he was awarded the prestigious Director’s Award (basically the MVP) by the large school’s award-winning performing arts department. His baseball team, which he co-captained, made it to the state finals, and he was awarded the team MVP award. (Mic drop!) His American Legion Team, Post 397, made it to the American Legion World Series in 2019 (what a ride!) He watches as many baseball games at once as possible – Korean, collegiate, Arizona league, Japanese – even setting his alarm for 4 a.m. to catch the season’s first game in some league, anywhere on Planet Earth.

I still love baseball. Not the insane world of stats or the hopefully-never-to-return spitting, but the beauty of its simplicity, gettin’ dirty, small ball and a perfect strike-em-out-throw-em-out. I love sharing it. I love that I learned it from my Dad, connected with my brother over it, and can talk ball with my five amazing sisters.

I love that my boys and I taught my hubby how to keep score so that he could help coach Little League many years ago. And that he still puts up with me and my baseball (and so much more).

And I love doing communications and nonprofit marketing. I’ve had the great fortune of being some small part of things that have changed the country (hopefully, you’ll do me the honor of reading future posts for an explanation). And that was all thanks to strong teams with people who tended to check the ego at the door and valued the expertise and experience that we all brought to the table. Like a true World Series champ.

If you made it to the end of this post, thank you! And see you around the horn – soon.

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Tagged as Newport Jazz

06/08/2012 · 5:52 pm

Playing Error-Free Ball?

Here’s to the errors made between the lines–because they are a great equalizer in baseball. No matter how well you field, pitch, hit or run, everyone makes mistakes. Even the road to Cooperstown is littered with errors by the great ones, despite thousands of games played, thousands of hours of training and the best coaching money can buy.

While a few slip-ups on the diamond have become infamous, most errors are fleeting, thankfully. That’s not always so in the ‘real world,’ including the business of baseball and all others.

Seasoned PR pros know that preparing for those potential errors and managing the fallout if they do occur is no game. Most errors that become public are not fleeting. Every organization needs a tight crisis communications plan that is ingrained long before any public problems arise. Your communications team is pivotal to planning and executing a crisis plan. A few of the basic components to include:

Identify all audiences (staff, Board, media, community and/or business partners, advertisers, customers, etc.)
Identify and media train spokespersons. Any official spokesperson should be well media-trained, which will help them focus on specific messages and understand how to respond to ‘hot’ questions.
Establish a clear “chain of command”—a crisis communications team—of management and communications staff responsible for making decisions and communicating internally and externally. Provide explicit contact information and a process for accessing the team.
Create targeted messages based on anticipated questions from the media, suppliers, partners, customers, etc. Consistency of messaging is critical!
Train all staff, Board members and key volunteers on their roles in response to a crisis. Be sure everyone knows to defer questions up the chain of command and not to comment “off the record,” post information on social media sites, etc. Those leaks can be disastrous to a streamlined response to a crisis. Give approved messages to key staff responsible for responding to questions from your range of audiences.

Ultimately, the goal in crisis communications is to move from responding to a crisis, to managing the situation, to overcoming the incident.

Too bad it’s not as simple as moving from an error to the next play and to the next inning. But with effective planning by a communications pro, any organization can put itself in a position of control if a crisis were to occur. Errors are a part of the game, but you can take control so that they don’t define you!

From The Mouths of (Baseball) Babes: Crystal-Clear Messaging

“Call me Nomar!” my two year-old demanded whenever we stepped outside to play whiffle ball or catch. To neighborhood kids buzzing by on scooters or bikes who called out to him by his (actual) name, the message echoed loud and clear. “My name is Nomar!” he tossed back with a sparkle in his eye and fire in his baseball soul.

My #2 son’s message was clear, and it had little variance. He was a communications (and baseball) prodigy!

Any organization or program can follow his lead—and should. Your message matters most. It’s your pitch. Really. If the pitcher doesn’t actually ever throw the ball, the play never begins. You need to focus on the message as the essence of your communications effort.

It must be crystal-clear. It has to be crafted so that anyone responsible for communicating that message formally and informally can deliver it easily—in person, in written communications and across social media platforms.

Refine messages to be vibrant, focused and simple to repeat. They must be simple enough for your customers to understand and creative enough for them to remember. Depending on your customer groups, create a series of messages that are focused on various benefits of your program, service or product that specific customers or audiences value.

Without a focused message, you’re left without a fastball, sinker or a mysteriously fabulous Wakefield knuckler. You can’t begin your own play.

So take it from my own black-haired “Nomar,” now a veteran 11 year-old Little Leaguer with a tenacious approach behind the plate, on the mound and at the plate. A clear message delivered consistently and with great passion will be the best pitch you ever threw.

Throwing Communications Around The Horn

PR. Writing. Strategic Communications. And baseball. Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Well, for someone who believes that all things in life are related to baseball, it all makes perfect sense!

“They” say you should blog about something you love. “They” also say blogs can punch up your marketing. No doubt.

I say that I know and love baseball. I say that I know strategic communications, writing and editing. I also say that I need to put some fun writing back into my life. I’m starting my own little spring training early then, as I try to limber up long-resting creative writing muscles.

So Play Ball!

When I watch Little League games, I am struck by how individualized a team sport baseball is. Every pitch, every swing, every play depends on individual skills. Sometimes I feel as if I’m living and dying with every play—for my kids and/or for the kids who have just done something fabulous or, well, utterly imperfect (and who might be completely bawling—inside, of course).

In the end, though, a baseball game isn’t won or lost on one play, one pitch, one hit—or by any one player. Everything and everyone has to work together; it’s a culmination of individual skills and plays. (And as Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t like football. You can’t make up no trick plays.”)

There really aren’t trick plays in the most basic elements of communications either.

There are, however, specialized skills that are essential to an organization’s effective communications, and everyone must work together to send out consistent messages through specific activities and tools. Communications pros must be able to craft messages that reflect and promote strategy, whether the strategy supports sales, advocacy or policy, fundraising or brand awareness. Senior staff and other spokespersons must be trained to deliver the messages effectively. Everyone needs to understand the messages and be able to talk about the organization, product, program or service so that they support your strategy through clear communications.

For your organization to reap the full benefits of communications, your PR staff should be involved in planning of any events, programs or products. Communications elements should never be after-thoughts; they should be integrated throughout your process. They can tie together seemingly loose ends or incomplete tactics. It will pay off in the long run, as initiatives are rolled out with elements that maximize promotional possibilities.

It’s easier said than done, of course. Like turning a double play. Effective communications relies on planning that integrates many elements and individuals working together. Everyone needs to keep their essential communications skills finely tuned and work to stay connected with your strategy. Keep that ball moving around the horn to be sure you can hit that target on every play—routine grounder or a game-changing play at the plate.

Thanks for making it through the entire first post. I hope you’ll stick with me for periodic metaphoric musings about the art of writing, the intelligence behind strategic communications and the beauty of America’s pastime (born in the Garden State, just like my first Little Leaguer).

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