The latest post from Team Travel Manager Scott Akasaki…

I am in amazement at the volume of e-mails, text messages, and cell phone calls I make throughout the course of a typical work day.  Like other professions, the advent of the BlackBerry has transformed the speed at which the Major League Baseball traveling secretary can conduct business.  Flights, hotel reservations, rental cars, ticket requests, and any other special handling can now be managed with one’s wireless device.  I happen to use the BlackBerry Pearl and I pray that it always has battery life and the keys do not malfunction.
 
Last night at a postgame dinner, I wondered out loud how the traveling secretary’s job was done without a cell phone or e-mail as recent as 15 years ago.  Joe Torre said that with the improvements in communication (cell phone, e-mail, text messages, fax machines, etc.) player moves (promotions, send downs, rehab assignments) occur with more frequency and rapidity than ever before.  Research would probably support the theory that player movement is more prevalent now than in the decades before.
 
The other night when we called up Clayton Kershaw from Jacksonville, his travel arrangements (and the communication to get him the proper information) were all made through e-mail and text messages.  His travel was booked and the information was given to him in less than 30 minutes — all this while I was in Denver and he was on a bus headed toward Jacksonville.  A grasp of technology has certainly given those in professional baseball the freedom to move at a much more rapid pace. 
 

Quite a performance by Derek Lowe tonight…how often do you see six perfect innings twice in the same homestand???

More than anything, I’m sure everyone was happy to see Andruw come through the way he did. It’s a start, but I think I was more excited about the way he broke up the double play and the reaction the crowd gave him when he came off the field. Please keep that coming…it goes a long way and there’s no one out there who knows how disappointing the season has been more than Andruw. But every bit of support can hopefully help him turn the season around.

Meanwhile, here’s the latest blog from Scott Akasaki, our team travel manager…enjoy!

WHAT WE DO ON THE TEAM PLANE

On the team plane, our players, coaches, and Dodger-affiliated media do a variety of things to occupy our time.  On the most recent road trip, I went down the lone center aisle of our Delta Air Lines 737-800 team charter to gauge what exactly it is we do when flying.  Our broadcasters are a hard-working group and a lot of them do research on the upcoming opposing team.  They read statistics, study the opposing team’s media guide, and garner information from other reference sources.  Our coaches generally do their homework on the opposing team as well – they read scouting reports, look at video, scour in-depth statistics, and talk with each other about strategy.  Their job of course, is to develop a game plan to help Joe Torre put our players in the best situation to succeed.  The players are a mixed group.  Some read, some watch movies or television shows on their DVD players or laptops, some sleep, some play cards, and a good number eat from our wide-variety catered menu. 

In general, the longer flights tend to illicit more naps and more food consumption.  There are about 65 people in our traveling party, which usually includes: players; coaches; on-field support staff; trainers; broadcasters; a PR representative, Dodger-affiliated media support staff; an interpreter; a traveling secretary; a video coordinator; baseball operations executives like our General Manager Ned Colletti or our Assistant General Manager Kim Ng; and perhaps some immediate family members.  By the end of the season, we will have spent over 100 hours in the air, spread out over 33 flights, and covering more than 34,000 miles.  Throw in our mid-spring trip to China and that’s a lot of time in the air in seven months.