Speaker 1: The following takes place between seven pm and eight pm.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go seven oh eight, seven hundred WLW
Speaker 2: Welcome in RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet
Speaker 2: Avliance Cavlister. How you doing, Thanks for making your way here.
Speaker 2: We've got two hours to get it done tonight. I
Speaker 2: can tell you upfront. Coming up at about fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: we're going to start some pretty in depth Kyle Schwerber
Speaker 2: conversation and reaction on your part to what is transpired
Speaker 2: over the last twenty four hours or so. And then
Speaker 2: we'll have a fun topic we'll toss in in the
Speaker 2: eight o'clock hour as well. But let's start first right here.
Speaker 2: My first guest is from Middletown. No, he's not Kyle Schwarber.
Speaker 2: He created something really cool though, years ago, the MLB
Speaker 2: Ballpark Passport. Think of a book to officially stamp your
Speaker 2: visit to a ballpark. Well, this idea, this product has
Speaker 2: grown so big and has had such an impact on
Speaker 2: baseball fans across the country that the Baseball Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame has voted to induct the original first print of
Speaker 2: the Major League Baseball Ballpark Passport to be put on
Speaker 2: display in the museum, and I said, how cool is that?
Speaker 2: Because I had this next guest on way back when
Speaker 2: let's find out all about it. Welcome in, Tim Barks.
Speaker 2: How are you, hey, Lan?
Speaker 3: How you doing?
Speaker 2: I am fantastic.
Speaker 3: Let's do this.
Speaker 2: Let's backtrack a little bit for those who may not
Speaker 2: know of the idea, just kind of describe the passport,
Speaker 2: what it looks like and how it works.
Speaker 4: Well back in twenty ten, I had the idea, you
Speaker 4: know of in the recording your memories and your visits
Speaker 4: to the ballparks. And when I got back, you know,
Speaker 4: I had the prototype made and and everything, and I
Speaker 4: called up Phil Cassolini of the Reds and said, hey, Phil,
Speaker 4: I got this pretty neat idea. I want to show
Speaker 4: you and see what you think. And he said, sure, Tim,
Speaker 4: come on down to the ballpark. And so he loved it,
Speaker 4: and he took it to Major League Baseball at the
Speaker 4: winter meetings.
Speaker 3: That was fifteen years ago. Wow.
Speaker 4: And and he came back and called me and said, Tim, come.
Speaker 3: On down to the ballpark.
Speaker 4: We have a conference call with MLB. They love your idea.
Speaker 4: And the rest is history. And that year it was
Speaker 4: the Red season Passport which if you recall, I was
Speaker 4: on your show prior to opening day discussing the first book,
Speaker 4: and I know Casey had one and he got one
Speaker 4: to use. And you know, we were all such short
Speaker 4: notice that we didn't have a chance to design and
Speaker 4: make the MLB Ballpark Passport Book, which was for visiting
Speaker 4: all thirty ballparks. And so that's what we did, you know,
Speaker 4: the whole summer and in winter was creating and developing
Speaker 4: that book for release in twenty twelve. And I just
Speaker 4: want to say real quick that without Phil Casalwini, none
Speaker 4: of this ever would have happened, because he took that
Speaker 4: to MLB on his on the cord, had an offline
Speaker 4: meeting with MLB and Phil just you know, it never
Speaker 4: the day of light they've had it been for him.
Speaker 4: I just want to tell him thanks, if he's listening.
Speaker 2: And Tim, if I remember correctly, this all kind of
Speaker 2: popped into your head because you you had kind of
Speaker 2: a quest to visit you wanted to visit all thirty
Speaker 2: Major League parks to begin with.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, I was already doing it.
Speaker 4: I was already doing it, and uh I drove to
Speaker 4: uh the Arctic Circle back in twenty ten, and we'd
Speaker 4: already been to a number of ballparks and and of course,
Speaker 4: you know, watching the Reds.
Speaker 3: Play as much as we could on the road, and uh,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: When you drive to Alaska, you know, yeah, a lot
Speaker 4: of time to think. And I started thinking about growing
Speaker 4: up with the big Red machine when I was, you know,
Speaker 4: thirteen years old in the seventy five, and I said,
Speaker 4: you know, I've got no memories at all.
Speaker 3: No ticket stubs, nothing, no anything to.
Speaker 4: Remember all the visits that I had, you know, to
Speaker 4: the ballpark with my with my dad and brothers and
Speaker 4: sisters and in church groups and youth groups and things,
Speaker 4: and I had nothing. And I said, I want to
Speaker 4: throw something out there. And I would get back to
Speaker 4: the hotel and I'd do some search, you know, on
Speaker 4: my phone online and couldn't find anything. And so it's
Speaker 4: just amazing that you know, a guy from Middletown had
Speaker 4: an idea. Yeah, and you know that I went with
Speaker 4: and you know, I was the first one to come
Speaker 4: up with this idea for baseball and pathboards.
Speaker 2: And so tim, if if someone has a passport, say
Speaker 2: that they order the passport from you kind of walks
Speaker 2: like when you walk into a stadium. What happens or
Speaker 2: how is it used? Explain it for someone who might
Speaker 2: not understand it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you have the book, and so inside the
Speaker 4: book it lists all what we call them validation stations
Speaker 4: at all the Major League ballparks. And so what happens
Speaker 4: when fantomes in they look inside their book they see
Speaker 4: where the valuation stations are located inside the ballpark.
Speaker 3: There's multiple locations.
Speaker 4: At all thirty stadiums, and so like the red for example,
Speaker 4: the Reds have I think seven or eight different stamping
Speaker 4: locations listed and Dodger Stadium has like ten. So it
Speaker 4: was grown from one, you know, from one stamping location
Speaker 4: for ballpark to you know, seven, eight, nine, tens stamping locations.
Speaker 3: It's kind of crazy. And so fans will present their book.
Speaker 4: And they'll ask for the stamp and they'll turn to
Speaker 4: their you know, to to the team page in the book,
Speaker 4: and uh, the staff will roll the date to the
Speaker 4: date that you're there, and they'll hand you the stamp
Speaker 4: and you'll ink it up, test it, then stamp your
Speaker 4: book and it has the name of the ballpark, city, stton,
Speaker 4: zip code to the ballpark, and then the date you
Speaker 4: were there, and so once you stamp that it's ink
Speaker 4: the paper, it's there forever.
Speaker 2: Tell me the Hall of Fame news. Tell me how
Speaker 2: you got the news, and tell me how exciting this is.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was so unreal.
Speaker 4: I've been thinking for a while because you know, next
Speaker 4: year is the fifteenth year of the MLB ball Park
Speaker 4: Passport Book. We released it at the All Star Game
Speaker 4: in Kansas City in twenty twelve, and we only took
Speaker 4: you know, we brought like something like, you know, one
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty one hundred and seventy five books, and
Speaker 4: we got the joking on the way in that hey,
Speaker 4: well what if we don't sell any books.
Speaker 3: And never been done before? You know, no one had
Speaker 3: ever done before.
Speaker 4: So there was no blueprint for it, and I knew
Speaker 4: on the second day there at Fantast we sold out
Speaker 4: of our inventory and we took orders for another I.
Speaker 3: Think it was three hundred and some.
Speaker 4: Orders for the next print, and we told them up
Speaker 4: front that hey, it might be three four five months
Speaker 4: before we have another rundowe, and they said, we don't care,
Speaker 4: we want the book. And it was at that time
Speaker 4: that I knew that we had, you know, something special,
Speaker 4: and so I have to thinking about the fifteenth year
Speaker 4: and coinciding with that.
Speaker 3: And I said, you know, I said, I said, I
Speaker 3: wonder if the Hall of Fame would be, you know,
Speaker 3: interested in this book.
Speaker 4: And since it was the first you know, I kept
Speaker 4: the first book off this off the press and got
Speaker 4: the first stamp at Great American Ballpark in it on
Speaker 4: April fifth of twenty twelve, and so, you know, I thought,
Speaker 4: you know, this is this is a part of baseball history,
Speaker 4: and you know, I'll contact the Hall of Fame and
Speaker 4: see what they think. And so I called and got
Speaker 4: ahold of a very nice lady, Cassidy Lynt, who is
Speaker 4: the library director at the Hall of Fame. And I
Speaker 4: told her I had the original first print, first book,
Speaker 4: first stamp MLB Ballpark passport book, and if the Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame would be interested in it. And then so
Speaker 4: then she pertea to tell me she's like Tim bat
Speaker 4: the Hall of Fame Committee Board on Historical Artifacts. It's
Speaker 4: scheduled to have a meet on the I think it
Speaker 4: was the first Wednesday in November. And she said, I'll
Speaker 4: take this information about your books. She she knew about
Speaker 4: the book the Hall of Fame has sold it from
Speaker 4: the very beginning. They've been a part of it. And
Speaker 4: she said, I'll see what they think, and she's all
Speaker 4: get back to you. And so it was, you know,
Speaker 4: several weeks that passed and and then I'm you know,
Speaker 4: in the back of my mind, I had November fifth
Speaker 4: on the calendar, you know.
Speaker 3: So so on November seventh, I got the call and
Speaker 3: uh yeah, and so you know, and I was nervous.
Speaker 4: You know, my my heart kind dropped my stomach because
Speaker 4: I I didn't I didn't think he would go anywhere,
Speaker 4: you know, And so uh, she said, Jim, she said,
Speaker 4: the board voted to have have your book put into
Speaker 4: the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: Unbelievable, so cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I mean it's like a baseball player gave
Speaker 4: him the call. But that's how you really felt like it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, yeah it was. Yeah, it was so cool. Tim.
Speaker 2: For for those wondering who I want to learn more
Speaker 2: about it does and kind of explain the inventory here
Speaker 2: would would if somebody wants to hit like minor league
Speaker 2: ballparks or spring training ballparks. Is there a version of
Speaker 2: that for the ballpark passport?
Speaker 4: Yes, you you talked a little about before, you know,
Speaker 4: the program has grown where we now have stamped in
Speaker 4: two hundred and twenty four stadiums and and museums and
Speaker 4: in ballparks all over the country. So we have the
Speaker 4: MLB ball Park Passport Book, which is of course pro
Speaker 4: visiting all thirty ballparks. It's a binder, so and the
Speaker 4: most often question I get asked is about what there's
Speaker 4: a new stadium built. It's a binder, so you can
Speaker 4: add new stadium as the build. The book never becomes outdated.
Speaker 4: We have a Game day Book which took the place
Speaker 4: of the Red Season Passport book. That is for season
Speaker 4: ticket holders and people who frequent, you know, multiple games,
Speaker 4: so you can stamp every game you go to. And
Speaker 4: we have the Spring training Passport, we have the minor
Speaker 4: league Passport, and then then we have this the new
Speaker 4: Baseball Attractions Passport that was created here about a year
Speaker 4: and a half, which has fifty non MLB venues in it.
Speaker 4: So the Jackie Robinson Museum, yeah, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: The list goes on and on all right, So.
Speaker 2: This would be great, This would be great for the holidays,
Speaker 2: A great stocking stuffer for a kid who's starting out
Speaker 2: as a baseball fan or an older adult who's a
Speaker 2: baseball fan. Tell listeners how they can find out more.
Speaker 2: What's the website to get more information on the MLB
Speaker 2: Ballpark passport.
Speaker 4: Yes, it's an MLB Ballpark Passport dot com and it's
Speaker 4: on there. We have an awesome Facebook group also that
Speaker 4: for they want some real, live, you know, working information.
Speaker 4: It's the Facebook group is Ballpark Stampeders, and it's a
Speaker 4: wonderful group. They poster stamps from all over the country
Speaker 4: every night, and I think now we have people coming
Speaker 4: in from all over the world to ballgames with the book.
Speaker 4: Oh it's just uh yeah. And we're small business. We
Speaker 4: don't advertise at all, and so we we've been award
Speaker 4: of mouth. And I appreciate you so much for you
Speaker 4: having me on your program.
Speaker 3: You got it when it started.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, man, those were great days. And I'm just so
Speaker 2: happy and excited for you. And shout out to all
Speaker 2: the stam Peters listening. Shout out to our guy Bill
Speaker 2: Bray who's listening, and congrats on all this and and
Speaker 2: keep it rolling and keep me posted on stuff unfolding,
Speaker 2: all right, I sure will, brother, Thank you, Thanks Tim,
Speaker 2: Take care