BASEBALL spring training. I worked with the Brewers for nine years and then this is our sixteenth year at Goodyear. Andrew and I both came over during construction and helped when we were building the place. So, I have done 26 Cactus League seasons. Donovan: I started in 2002, and was at Peoria Sports Complex for the Mariners and Padres for almost five years, and then I went over to Tempe with the Angels for a year. I’ m from this side of town, and I knew this place was being built; so, as soon as they had some openings, I put in for it.
SFM: How is communication with the big league clubs handled? Donovan: Most of that goes through us. Some of the things outside of field usage that are out of our hands will go through the GM and stadium operations. But, for the most part, I talk to all the coaches. It’ s pretty much non-stop communication— morning meetings and calls throughout the day— so I feel like we have a really good communication stream. People sometimes don’ t realize that we are city employees. They think we are part of the team. So, that’ s a good indication of how entwined we are with them, and how things are going.
SFM: How long have you been at the facility, and what has been your career path to get where you are? Dobbins: I started in Minor League Baseball in 1997, worked in Michigan for a couple years, worked in New York, and then came to Arizona— right into
SFM: You obviously like it there. What is the best part of the job? Donovan: I think working for a city has a lot of benefits. We all work hard here, but at the same time, our city really promotes work / life balance. Spring training is a grind— it’ s a couple months of just working. But we have the ability to do what we do best, what we love to do, and then still have good benefits and work / life balance. It’ s pretty rewarding to be in that situation. Dobbins: I tell minor league stories to help guys understand how good we have it here. When you are working a 12-game homestand in the minor leagues, and you have three people on your staff total, and you have tarp pulls at 10:00 at night, it’ s just a grind. I think you age two years at a time in the minor leagues. Here, we see our families every night and we share the workload across our staff. If we have night events, we split that up and we work different shifts. Working for the city has had some really good benefits over the long haul. We have a pretty nice retirement setup, and some benefits that maybe we wouldn’ t have if we were working directly for the teams. But we’ re all here because of baseball and working spring training.
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