2017 Play Ball Lunch

Hi Friends, Family, and Fellow Interns,

Ooo, I am excited to share this particular post with you. As some of you know, I have had an extremely busy, yet exhilarating March and April with the Giants. However, there is one very special day that happened recently that I will remember for the rest of my life.

On March 31st, 2017 the Giants Community Fund hosted the 2017 Play Ball Lunch at the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco. The Play Ball Lunch, which is an annual fundraising luncheon that kicks off the baseball season, welcomes every member of the Giants Organization— and when I say “every” I do mean it quite literally. 1,000+ guests, comprised of donors, employees, executives, press, coaches, Manager Bruce Bochy, CEO Larry Baer, and every member of the 40 Man Roster piled into the Hilton’s largest ballroom.

As my team started planning and delegating tasks for this event back at the end of February, my main responsibility was to work on center pieces with my coworker Annie—which is a lot harder than you would imagine when accounting for 100 tables, but that’s a separate story. 😉

Ten days before the big event, I was home in Roseville for the birth of my nephew (shout out to baby NJ— Auntie loves you), when I received a text from the very amazing Executive Director of the Community Fund, Sue Petersen. 

See the text to your right. 

At the time I got the text, I was home alone getting ready to go to the hospital to check in on the baby. I don’t have a witness necessarily, but take my word for it— I WAS IN SHOCK. Naturally, a 21 year old who gets told that she gets to present her self-produced video with her favorite baseball player of all time, would instantly respond with: “OMG YAS!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT— THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER” while simultaneously jumping on her parents’ bed.  But, c’mon people, I have to keep it professional now, so my response noted in blue was a very toned down version of how absolutely ecstatic I was to get this news.

As the date quickly approached, I did not have any time to over analyze exactly what I was going to say at the podium. Our team had been working long hours during those last two weeks in March to finish up our new Practice Plans and to get the logistics of the entire lunch squared away.

All of sudden, the day was here— a day that I now recognize as one of the most memorable of my young adult life.

Here’s a play-by-play of the program:

-Community Relations and JRG Staff paired Junior Giants Players with each SF Giants player as they entered the luncheon

-CEO, Larry Baer, welcomed all guests and provided updates on the organization

-Buster Posey, our Junior Giants Commissioner, and I took the stage to provide the audience with an in depth perspective of how the Junior Giants is making a lasting impact in 90 cities

Below you can find video coverage of my speech, as well as my video that was shown to the audience directly after:

As my friends and family started to see this video of my speech, many asked me, “How the heck were you so calm?” or “Were you nervous up there?”

Both are really great questions. To be completely honest, I’m not really sure. It is as if the moment I took the stage, I transformed into a more confident and well versed version of myself. It kind of felt like an out of body experience, while being entirely present at the same time. However, I do want to credit my years of dance for bestowing me with a love of being on stage. The stage and the lights, oddly enough, felt like home to me as I stood in front of the large audience. Additionally, I feel like there is great peace that comes with talking about something that you are genuinely passionate about. Call me a Lasallian, but I am super passionate about creating equal opportunities and building safe communities. I could talk about that for hours.

Following this speech, I have felt overwhelmed with the amount of love and support I have received from my coworkers (some who I hadn’t even met before this event), community members who were present at the lunch, my friends, my family. I am very blessed to have this strong support system, and every kind comment has really made an impact on me.

Now that the excitement has leveled, I come away from this experience with a very important lesson: For every one task you complete that is expected of you, complete two tasks that are unexpected.

This may be the best advice I have for current and future interns out there. Back when I was an Ambassador, I simply decided to make this video to put into my End of the Season report for fun and to provide my coordinator with a sneak peek at what was going on at my league in Citrus Heights.

However, this one small decision to go the extra mile led me to being asked to present at a Junior Giants Committee Meeting and a Junior Giants Board Meeting, which then assisted me being hired for this internship, and then led me to present my work at the Play Ball Lunch. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be standing next to Buster Posey as he, along with the rest of the Giants Organization, watched a video I simply made on my iPhone 6. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have the chance to tell Mr. Posey, “Hey, pay close attention to this one,” as a child from my league expresses that he likes to be catcher because he sees Buster be catcher on TV. One small, game time decision can change your whole life.

This is definitely an experience I will be telling my kids about.  Constantly and abundantly thankful.

With appreciation,

Chrissy