What does it take for Major League Baseball to prepare for an All-Star Game? In the case of this week’s event at Citi Field, it takes 20 or so clubbies to prep for player needs, never more the hordes needed to outfit the rest of the ballpark.
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece detailing what sort of work is done behind the scenes of the Midsummer Classic. Fans will see all the changes on the playing field (logos), videoboard graphics, and signage, but they won’t see the work from Mets equipment manager Kevin Kierst and crew to prepare the premises for players. From the article:
But behind the scenes, planning an All-Star Game presents plenty of logistical challenges. It requires a giant team to come in, set the stage for a globally anticipated event and then clean it all up—leaving the place in exactly the same state they found it.
“It’s coordinated chaos, basically,” Mets equipment manager Kevin Kierst said. “As far as everybody will see, everything will go great. As far as how it got to that point, that’s the trick.”…
Kierst’s team spent part of last week clearing out the players’ lockers and storing all of their belongings in individual boxes labeled with their uniform numbers. For players who keep items other than clothes in their lockers (like family pictures), Kierst photographed the locker before moving anything, ensuring that the lockers will look no different when the players return.
The Mets and MLB aren’t the only ones with large contingents at Citi Field: The Minnesota Twins, who are hosting the 2014 All-Star Game at Target Field, are sending 25 employees to the game to observe the work needed to prepare for the affair.
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