A Tale of Two Hotels at the Major League Baseball (MLB) Winter Meetings

MLN MAJOR BLOGS - Lake Buena Vista, FLA - It's a tale of two hotels at the Winter League Meetings of Major League Baseball (MLB), being held at the Swan and Dolphin hotels at the Walt Disney World Resort. 

The Dolphin Hotel has several hundred reporters swarming dozens of representatives from the 30 major league clubs looking for news on off-season player moves.

The Swan Hotel is the home of the Minor League Baseball (MiLB), where several hundred owners and their staff swarm the building being covered largely by one guy.. me.

Okay, I haven't been entirely alone. There was the one guy from a small minor league website here on Monday, and the MiLB.com chappie dropped in for a little while today.

Needless to say, we don't have the lavish MLB media workrooms here at the Swan, replete with internet service and fax machines. I'm actually working from a splendid six-foot long wooden bench here in the hallway.  Little glamour, but there is a lot going on that will affect every club from Bakersfield to Brevard County.

The Winter Meetings are a slap-dash of educational seminars,  job fair,   business meetings, and trade show, cemented together by a lot of schmoozing, hand-shaking, and back slapping.

On the major league side, the bigwigs of baseball cluster 'round the Christmas tree in the Dolphin lobby talking trades and transactions while the major league media gather in groups trying to look non-plussed by the all-VIP event.

Over here at the Swan, trades take a back seat to scheduling, hiring at the job fair, and taking a pitchfork to the devil in all of those details that keep the leagues and clubs running.

Follow MLN's MAJOR BLOGS here for the latest minor league news from the Winter Meetings!

 
- Brian Ross

Update on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 12:51AM by Brian Ross

See: The Details are in the Devil Rays - MLNSportsZone.com - 12.05.06 for some interesting news on the new Vero Beach Devil Rays, a Florida State League (FSL), Class-A club.

Update on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 08:29PM by Brian Ross

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA - It is day three from the Minor League Winter Meetings where we’ve had a major upgrade here at the Minor League Baseball (MiLB) media ‘room’. It's just me again this morning, lone member of the media plying the hallways, but a relatively comfy couch has opened up, which is a 100% improvement from yesterday’s wooden bench.

We’re in the final day of the minor league meetings. Tomorrow is the Rule 5 draft over at the Dolphin, which word has it will be fairly short and uneventful, then it is all over but the partying at the final banquet here at the Swan on Thursday night.

This afternoon MiLB meetings wound down, with the day toppers being the combined Triple-A meeting and the league meetings for the Texas League, Pioneer League, Applachian League, and the South Atlantic League (SAL).

The Mexican League (La Liga Mexicana) went into day two of its meetings over at the Dolphin Hotel.  While the Mexican League is designated as Triple-A, it doesn't participate in the Triple-A meetings or events.  In years past, the league has been used as a parking lot for 6+ year Triple-A vets and for promising Mexican, Dominican, and Venezuelan players with with problems acquiring H2B visas.   The good news is that the Mexican Leagues are moving forward. The league now has its own website, as do a few of the clubs. 

Perhaps one day they'll even press for the chance to make it to the new Bricktown Classic, the battle of the PCL and IL in Oklahoma City, which has been extended into 2009.

The Albuquerque Isotopes were out in force in the halls today, sporting polo shirts from the upcoming 2007 Triple-A All Star Game, which will be held there in June.  The game is getting a lot of play in these meetings to make sure that everyone is going to pump it up appropriately at both the IL and PCL member teams.

The 'Topes PR wunderkind Steve Hurlbert  (MLN Ralphie Award Winner, 2005) doesn't wear polo shirts, opting for his usual button-down stripes.  That should send someone in merchandising scurrying to find the media face of Albuquerque baseball a nice stitched striper with the club All-Star logo so he quits looking like Marilyn from the Munsters.

Yesterday Hurlbert hooked up with the International League's mega-PR guy, Svend Jansen of the Louisville Bats, to discuss the All-Star game before the joint meeting of the PCL and the IL media relations guys.  While most fans will never hear their names outside of perhaps my column, these two are baseball all-stars who make sure that you hear more about your favorite players, and that you know what their clubs are doing in your community. Their at the front of a pack of very talented men and women who make up the media relations departments in the Triple-A IL and PCL.

The Montgomery Biscuits were holding court in a nice corner lounge of one of the Swan's entry lounges. Their owners actually have several clubs, including the West Virginia Power, and have been some of the smartest operators in Minor League Baseball, turning around markets that were deemed dead or dying.  It's stuff like that that puts you into Business of the Year contention here at MLN.

It was hiring day for Vero Beach.  The Dodgers are crewing up the baby-Rays staff for the return to the 2006 season. The Aberdeen Ironbirds (Ripkin Baseball) of the New York-Penn league have been hitting the PBEO job fair regularly, and were out there today interviewing in force as well.

 Watch the baseball section at MLNSportsZone.com for more news from the Winter Meetings!