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| Dan Bondgren |
He had one of the best seats in NBT Bank stadium right behind home plate.
At first glance you might suspect him to be just an overly
enthusiastic fan, notebook in hand, jotting down every play and statistic.
Dan Bondgren is not just a fan of baseball; he is also an
employee of Baseball
Info Solutions—a company that specializes in collecting,
interpreting, and disseminating baseball statistics.
Baseball Info Solutions assigns a group of
employees to cover Double-A or Triple-A teams.
Dan’s assignment is to attend the 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 every day.”
For Bondgren this is just a part time job, he says he has another job
that isn’t related to baseball.
Bondgren found the job listed on Craiglist three years ago.
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."
He wouldn’t reveal how much the company pays him to attend each game
though.
During Chiefs games he rarely has time to put his clipboard down because
of all the data he is collecting on the game, Bondgren said.
"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 application
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."
Syracuse Chiefs Fanatic
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| Syracuse Chiefs Aug. 6th, 2013 |
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. “the Chiefs 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.”
Before he worked with Baseball Info Solutions, Bondgren says he was
always a huge fan of the Syracuse Chiefs.
He even managed to cheer for the Chiefs whenever he had the chance.
Even though the team is in last place, Bondgren says he is grateful for
the job and will continue to work for Baseball Info Solutions as long as he
can.
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