Ren's Footprints

When thinking back to what I have truly lost not having my phone I am reminded of the pictures I took of my coworkers at MLB and I playing whiffle-ball in the office. I had meant to share those pictures on my blog and talk about my internship but I seem to have forgotten about it.

Anyway, I have been working with them since around January 15th and so far it has been a great experience. My primary tasks are your basic intern jobs such as answering phones, shipping, making copies, making coffee, ETC. There have been a few special tasks that have ranged from analyzing and reporting on MLB television ratings across Asia, helping with ticket orders for the upcoming Oakland versus Boston series here in Tokyo, and more.

The staff here is great and has taught me so much. They also are nice enough to bring me along to interesting meetings such as one at the Tokyo Dome with Tokyo Dome Staff, members of MLB from New York, members of the two American TV stations that will broadcast March's games from Tokyo, and members from Japanese TV. In that meeting they discussed how this series will be televised. The Japanese had some requests such as they wanted to put cameras on the umpires' masks but I am pretty sure the US umpires are going to reject that. The Japanese also wanted to hold in-game interviews in the team's clubhouse with players that are on the bench and I am not sure how that one ended up.

Last week I got to attend a different meeting where representatives from the Dodgers, MLB, and a large advertising firm here in Tokyo discussed licensing the Dodgers to Japanese companies.

Every once in a while we play some whiffle ball and I had some fun pictures to share but they are lost with my phone. The office is fairly big and has lots of room for goofing around every once in a while.

It is decorated with all sorts of memorabilia from past MLB events in Japan. There are at least 3 ball cases of full rosters of players each signing a ball including the 2006 World Baseball Classic Japanese team, the Yankees and Devil Rays teams that came and played here, and some of the US All Star teams that have come here in the past. The boss recently had actual seats from Fenway Park delivered to the office. I am not sure if those are going to stay or if he is taking them home.