Chat Room Session of February 27th with Guest Dave Chase

[BleacherBum593]

Following is the edited chat room session of Tuesday, February 27, 2007. The guest was Mr. Dave Chase, the President/General Manager of the Memphis Redbirds. The Redbirds are the triple A farm club of the St Louis Cardinals.


Dave Chase Memphis GM has finally arrived.

BleacherBum593 I’d like to welcome the President/General Manager of the Memphis Redbirds to FanHome – Mr. Dave Chase. Dave, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us this morning.

Dave Chase I've just left a meeting with MLB reviewing the details of the Civil Rights Game.

BleacherBum593 Any updates?

Dave Chase Today was real nuts and bolts, mainly focusing on the Beacon Awards Luncheon, later this week we will announce award winners and a keynote speaker

BleacherBum593 Dave - once again this year, you have the Cardinals coming to Memphis for exhibition games before the start of the regular season (March 30/31). However, this year is very special in many ways. First, the Cards come to town as defending World Champions and second, you’re hosting the first “Civil Rights” game. How important is this weekend to the Redbirds and to the City of Memphis?

Dave Chase With two MLB games to begin the season, we are back in the news all winter - for the first time since the Auto Zone Park opened in 2000; the off-season buzz has helped with regular season sales and fan interest.

BleacherBum593 That's good to hear. Are their any special festivities leading up the games that weekend?

Dave Chase The STL/Mem game will be fairly standard; but the Civil Rights Game has activities beginning on Friday when the Cardinals will tour the National Civil Rights Museum and a symposium will also be held at the Museum later that afternoon; Saturday Cleveland will go the Museum we will also have a kids event at the ballpark Saturday AM followed by the Awards Luncheon at The Peabody; gates will open at 2:00 with the game at 4:30 televised live on ESPN; in game we will have special musical events, a Spike Lee video and MLB produced educational spots.

BleacherBum593 Will the Cards be bringing the World Series trophy with them to Memphis?

Dave Chase We are looking at having THE Trophy here in May for a regular season game; the true diehard fans will have a better opportunity to see during a regular season game.

BleacherBum593 I take it your expecting lots of out-of-town fans to be there on the 30/31st. Fans like me who are making the trek down to Auto Zone (from St Louis).

Dave Chase We expect most the tickets to be sold locally, but we know we always get many Cardinals fans from greater STL making a trip to Memphis; not everyone can get to Spring Training and this will be the fans first chance to see the World Champs play this spring; AZP is a great place to watch a game and the atmosphere should be great. The game on the 30th will be televised on Fox Sports Midwest and locally on WMC-TV5. I also believe the Cardinals radio network will also carry both games.

BleacherBum593 After a disastrous 2006 Season for the Redbirds in which you finished 20+ games below .500, what changes have the Cardinals made to the on-field management team?

Dave Chase The Cardinals have provided us with a new field manager, Chris Maloney; Chris is moving up from Double-A Springfield; we will also have a new hitting coach, Rick Eckstein - you may have heard of this brother, David. Dyar Miller returns as our pitching coach. The Cardinals have also revamped the Minor League dept with Jeff Luhnow adding the duties of Farm Director and Bruce Manno moving to MLB Scouting Director.

BleacherBum593 Attendance and a winning ball team usually go hand-in-hand. Since your PCL championship team in 2000, the Redbirds have only once finished above .500 since then. Yet the Redbirds continue to draw well. How do you account for that?

Dave Chase We don't sell the baseball - I know this is sad to hear if you are a true baseball fan, but Minor League Baseball needs to sell the ballpark experience and our ballpark is one of the best in all of baseball. We strive for a clean park with good food and entertainment options of non-fans.

BleacherBum593 A follow-up question: What say, if any, do you have in the makeup of the team/coaches the organization places in Memphis?

Dave Chase We have no direct say, but Walt Jocketty, John Mozeliak and Bruce Manno have always asked our opinion on what's going on in Memphis. But, at the end of the day, we have no real say. I've been in this business 30 years and I've seen many changes and worked with several MLB orgs. As the Cardinals came to know me better, we have developed a good two-way relationship.

BleacherBum593 A question from one of our senior members (ArRedbird) – I've always noticed that Auto Zone Park attracts families, even families with small children. What makes Auto Zone a place where families want to go? What are you doing to keep the experience "cost-friendly" for families?

Dave Chase Cost friendly is a tough question; our costs keep rising and we pay all of the debt service on the ballpark - no direct tax payer help. We work hard to control the cost of tickets and food; keep the ballpark clean and safe. We also know we have to market to casual baseball fans; they need price flexible ticket plans and we regularly survey our fans to make sure we stay on mission.

BleacherBum593 Let’s talk about the upcoming season. It looks like the Redbirds will have a “younger” look to it this season than last as the Cardinals promote some of their younger prospects to Memphis. Who are some of the players that your looking forward to seeing at Memphis this summer?

Dave Chase We have no inside information on our roster; when the Cardinals leave Memphis after the Civil Rights the players without airline tickets are the 2007 Memphis Redbirds. Also, younger is not necessarily good in the Pacific Coast League. Triple-A baseball is really a holding area for spare parts for the Major League Club. Tony LaRussa gets first shot at all players and we will get what's left. If one or two young guys stay in STL we may a vet or two. Fans are really interested in seeing Rick Ankiel return as an outfielder.

BleacherBum593 If you could have a "say", who would you like to see at Memphis this summer?

Dave Chase Albert Pujols

BleacherBum593 You and about 180 other teams.

Dave Chase Really, it's not a matter of who, but we need players that want to play hard and understand their time in Memphis is
just a stop to - or back to - the Majors. Last year, we didn't really expect Chris Duncan, Tyler Johnson, Josh Kinney to play such important roles in STL since each had problems in Memphis; so we really just need hard workers will to deal with the heat of the mid-south and the long travel of the PCL. Give me a few rock solid prospects and few vets and I'll be happy - we don't need to win the championship, but it would be nice to be in contention!!

BleacherBum593 One of the members of the audience PM’ed the following to me before his boss made him get back to work -Baseball has a history of advancing civil rights, yet still occasionally faces challenges in this area (Japanese Players, African-American Coaches/Front Office Personnel). Can baseball, or any sports, count on its legacy of social responsibility? Or do
you look for ways that you can continue to advance social causes like civil rights on a consistent basis?

Dave Chase Baseball's legacy is very strong and under appreciated. The Civil Rights Game will help the game reconnect with minority communities and continue to build on the legacy of Robinson and Doby. Guys I have a league conference call about to start. I've enjoyed this very much and look forward to joining you again soon.

BleacherBum593 Thanks for your time Dave.


Links to previous chats:

John Vuch
John Vuch (followup questions)
Cody Haerther
Mike Lindskog
Kyle McClellan



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