SIDNEY — The Rotary Club of Sidney hosted Dayton Dragons Director of Media Relations & Broadcasting Tom Nichols at their weekly meeting, March 7.
Nichols began his presentation by recalling that when he began working for the Dragons, his first presentation was to the Sidney Rotary Club eight years ago.
Nichols noted that the Dragons will open their 17th season on April 9 at Fifth-Third Field. He said the Dragons have the longest stretch of sell-outs in sports history — 1,121 straight games! He compared those stats to those of the Chicago Bulls, who had 610 successive sell-out crowds from 1987-2000, the Boston Celtics, who had 662 sell-out crowds from 1980-1995, the Portland Trail Blazers, who had 814 sell-out crowds from 1977-1995, and the Boston Red Sox, who had 820 sell-out crowds from 2003-2013.
“We’ve had 10 straight years of having more attendance than any other team in Double-A or Single-A baseball,” Nichols said. “Our 16 years are the top 16 years in Single-A history. Our attendance was eighth in all of Major League Baseball in 2015!
“The thing that has made the Dragons such a success include our ‘Five Points of Light,’” Nichols told the Rotarians. “Those include: 1) quality family entertainment; 2) unsurpassed customer service; 3) community involvement; 4) providing business partners a return on their investment; and 5) the affordability of our products.
“First and foremost, the Dayton Dragons are a Cincinnati Reds affiliate. There are currently 75 former Dragons in the major leagues. They include Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Johnny Cueto, Adam Dunn, Billy Hamilton and Todd Frazier.”
As part of the Reds organization, they supply all players, coaches and trainers. They have an extensive scouting system. We’ll pick up 40 young players in the June draft. We have people who come to the games just to see players they know will eventually make the big league.”
Nichols explained that the Reds’s farm system includes six teams.
“Rookies begin at Billings, Montana, playing in the Pioneer League,” he said. “If they are good enough, they then advance to Dayton for Single-A ball, then to either Daytona for Advanced Single-A ball, then to Pensacola or Chattanooga for Double-A ball, and finally to Louisville for Triple-A ball.
“The average Dragon is 19-23 years old, a college All-American, a college all-conference or high school all-state player. Players receive a signing bonus and get a small salary. I’ve seen signing bonuses as high as a $1 million, but many are as little as $1,000. Minor league players are paid $1,200 per month for five months.
“The Dragons play in the Midwest League, which has 16 teams in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kentucky. Half of all the players in the majors have played in the Midwest League during their careers,” Nichols added. “The team travels by bus. The shortest trip is to Fort Wayne and is 130 miles. The longest trip is to Cedar Rapids and is 510 miles or about nine hours.
The players work full time from spring training through Labor Day. Players arrive at the ballpark about noon, work with their position coaches for a couple of hours, take batting practice for an hour, take infield practice for another hour, break for showers and dinner, then arrive back at the ballpark about 6 p.m., the game starts at 7 p.m., and is usually over by 10 p.m., after which they take showers and if they are lucky, leave the ballpark about 10:30 p.m.”
Nichols answered questions from the Rotarians and the meeting adjourned.
