Getting Paid To Do What You Love

 

Dan Bondgren

What looked like a normal fan wearing a Montreal Expos hat and a blue and white polo shirt, turned out to be a Minor League statistician.

The man looked very relaxed with his feet upright on top of the seat in front of him, his food laid out on the floor, and his large Diet Coke resting in his cup holder.

Dan Bondgren, a fan of baseball and an employee of Baseball Info Solutions, had one of the best seats in NBT Bank stadium right behind home club. 

His company assigns a group of employees to cover each team.

He is assigned to attend each Syracuse Chiefs game.

“There are a group of us that work for each team,” Bondgren said. “There are nine of us that work for Chiefs games. Two everyday.”

They cover mostly Double-A and Triple-A teams, Bondgren said.

Every employee is required to take down every single thing that happens within the game, Bondgren said. 

During Chiefs games he rarely has time to put his clipboard down.

"We keep stats for minor league games that get uploaded into a computer so that if scouts or major league teams want to know the ins and outs of a player, and what they can do in certain situations they pretty much have it at their disposal," Bondgren said.

After each game, he goes home and enters the information into a computer program that the company sets up.

Bondgren says, after he puts the information in, he is still amazed with how it is compiled.

The information they gather is not open to the public, Bondgren said.

"This stuff is bought by Major League teams,” Bondgren said. “Whether they take a pitch on the first pitch, or they swing at it. What kind of opposite field power they have. That stuff is up for sale to the highest bidder from this company."

Craiglist Saves The Day

 

Chiefs game August 6th, 2013

Three years ago this job was listed online, Bondgren said. 

“Actually I answered an AD on Craigslist,” Bondgren said.

Getting paid to watch baseball games as a part-time job is pretty nice, Bondgren said.

"You get a free ticket, they pay for the parking, and you make a couple bucks a game," Bondgren said. "There are a lot of worse things that I could be doing."

While he gets paid to attend almost every single game, he also knows a lot about the Chiefs as well, Bondgren said. 

"Well I said it for the last three years, the team has a lot of great assets,” Bondgren said. “they have no middle relievers. Their starting pitching is good. They have some decent fielders. Some good bats. But they cannot find ways to finish games.”

Throughout the game Bondgren did manage to cheer for his team whenever he had the chance.

Even though the team is in last place, Bondgren is grateful for the job and will continue to work for Baseball Info Solutions as long as he can.

To view his companies website click here: http://www2.baseballinfosolutions.com/about-us/