Monday, December 11, 2006

Bye-bye, Bill

Players come and go as do coaches and managers. It's the stadium people who stick around. You count on seeing the same people at the park from year to year. The guy who served me my first ballpark beer at old MacArthur Stadium was still at the stick last summer, though he's now a snowbird and doesn't return to CNY and the Sky(gak)Chiefs until June.

One of the things I've loved about the B-Mets is the fun atmosphere, and the person largely responsible for this is Bill Terlecky. Bill's been around baseball nearly 30 years, started with the Rochester Red Wings ages ago, has been various titles at various places, usually the GM, in affiliated and independent minor league ball including a stint in the Northern League, where the motto, the vision statement that guides all they do is, "Fun is good."

Bill has made baseball in Binghamton fun for a number of years now. But he's moving on, back to the Northern League, to become GM for the Gary SouthShore RailCats. While I wish him the best of luck in Indiana, I hope his brand of baseball and "fun is good" attitude stick around, hope Scott and Jim have been paying real close attention to how to make the ballpark experience great.