We have some personnel news today from Triple-A’s Louisville Bats, SIngle-A’s Myrtle Beach Pelicans and Cedar Rapids Kernels, and the Northwoods League’s Madison Mallards.
In Myrtle Beach, Kristin Call has been promoted to General Manager.
“Kristin has played an indispensable role in the growth and success of the Pelicans organization,” said Team President Ryan Moore in a press statement announcing the promotion. “Working alongside her, seeing her growth as a professional and her commitment to the local community has been a matter of great personal pride. Her promotion today assures the long term continuity of our senior leadership team and lays the foundation for even better days ahead for the Pelicans.”
Call will enter her ninth year with the Pelicans in 2022 after joining the club in October of 2013, originally serving as the Senior Director of Marketing. For her efforts on the Grand Strand, she earned the Carolina League’s Female Executive of the Year award in 2015 and 2019. A leader in the Pelicans marketing efforts, Call helped Myrtle Beach set several attendance records and create some of the most creative promotions in all of Minor League Baseball.
“This is a proud day for the Pelicans franchise,” said Chuck Greenberg, Chairman and Managing Partner, via press statement. “Ryan and Kristin have done an extraordinary job helping the Pelicans navigate through challenging times in 2020 to unprecedented success in 2021. Kristin’s promotion is richly deserved and I’m personally thrilled to have Ryan and Kristin lead the Pelicans into a future that is brighter than ever.”
“I’m humbled and honored by Chuck and Ryan’s faith in me with this promotion,” said Call. “The Pelicans have always been leaders within the Minor League Baseball industry and that’s due to the incredible leadership throughout franchise history. I’m delighted to step into this new role and look forward to continuing that success.”
Originally a native of Barboursville, W.V., Call started her career in baseball in 2006 as an intern for the West Virginia Power. In 2007, she was brought on full-time as the club’s director of promotions before seeing her role expanded in 2008 as the director of marketing. Two years later, she was promoted to assistant general manager, marketing; where she oversaw all marketing for the team as well as community relations, promotions and production. In 2012, Call was named the South Atlantic League Female Executive of the Year.
In Louisville, Greg Galiette has been promoted from Executive Vice President to President of the Louisville Bats. Galiette is in his 38th year with the Louisville Bats entering the 2022 baseball season. He began his career in the Louisville Redbirds’ front office as a sales intern in 1984 and has since served as the team’s Public Address Announcer, Ticket Manager, Sales Manager, Promotions Director, Marketing Director, Senior Vice President and Executive Vice President.
The Bats also announced the promotion of Michele Anderson from Controller to Vice President of Finance, Controller. Anderson is entering her 27th year with the organization.
In Madison, the Mallards added new full-time ticket-sales staff: Ticket Sales Director Chris Barlow and Ticket Sales Account Managers Andrew Wirtzfeld and Ryan Kelnhofer.
Barlow joins the Mallards as their Ticket Sales Director, overseeing the Inside Ticket Sales team mainly focusing on building community relationships with Mallards fans in a wide variety of ways. Chris has extensive experience during his sales career before joining the Mallards. During his career he has worked with the opening of three new venues: the Buffalo Sabres new arena, Miller Park (American Family Field) and Fiserv Forum. He has built Brewers group sales into a consistent top five producer in the MLB, as well as created “Weather Day” while at the Brewers which reached attendance levels of over 12,000 students and children. In his free time, Chris enjoys live music, camping and attending sports events, and spending time with his two dogs named Oscar and Layla.
Wirtzfeld joined the Mallards as a marketing intern in the summer of 2020 after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a degree in Sports and Experiential Marketing. He helped manage the Duck Pond Drive-In in lieu of an actual baseball season in 2020. Wanting to fine-tune his car parking skills and further boost his movie trivia knowledge, Andrew returned in 2021 but ended up not needing any of those skills as the Mallards returned to baseball last summer. Instead he gained valuable experience working in the marketing/sponsorship department as well as managing the press box on game days. Now in his second season with the ball club, Andrew is transitioning over to the Inside Ticket Sales department and is looking forward to the journey ahead of him! In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends and family and going up north to the family cabin.
Kelnhofer is a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2020 where he majored in Sport Management and played collegiate football. He joined the Mallards in 2020 as an intern to help run the Duck Pond Drive-In which led to a promotion, where he returned the next spring as the seasonal Operations Manager in 2021. Entering his second season with the Mallards, Ryan has transitioned into the Inside Ticket Sales side of the business.
In Cedar Rapids, Thomas Breach is the new voice of the Cedar Rapids Kernels.Breach joins the Kernels after spending three seasons just up Interstate 380 as the Voice of the Waterloo Bucks. Originally from small-town Kroschel in eastern Minnesota, Breach is a graduate of St. Cloud State University where he served as the Voice of Huskies Baseball, Volleyball and Men’s Basketball for 88.1 FM KVSC. He brings over 700 games of broadcast experience to Cedar Rapids and earned an Award of Excellence at the 2019 Broadcast Education Association Festival for his work at St. Cloud State. Some of his career highlights include calling a game at Minute Maid Park, covering two NCAA DII Regional Baseball Tournaments, providing play-by-play for the 2019 Northwoods League All-Star Game and Home Run Derby in Waterloo and making his professional broadcast debut with the Kernels in 2019.