A New Team In Philly

So I worked as an intern for the Philadelphia Phillies from January, 2004 thru September of 2005. This was part of a great program that exposed me and 25 or so other college students to the business of baseball... and the fascinating stories of Philly's phinest phans.

Essentially, our main job was to sell tickets and answer customer service questions in the Phillies phone center, but occasionally we dabbled in other departments too. My personal highlight came each year at amateur draft time when I participated in some of the pre-draft prep work and tryouts. I also got to call off a player's name into the league-wide conference call during the '05 draft. My selection came in the 48th round and he went by the name of Ben C. Hornbeck out of Sunnyslope HS in Phoenix, Arizona. I was a bit nervous, but when the 1437th overall pick finally came, here's how it all went down.

From time to time I like to monitor the moves going on in their organization and I still keep in touch with a few friends and former interns. During the time I was there the team was led by Ed Wade, now the General Manager of the Houston Astros. After I left, Pat Gillick previously of the Seattle Mariners, was hired to run the show. He kept most of Wade's staff and then proceeded to advance the team to two playoff appearances and one phulfilling championship. Since the end of October the Phils have made a few moves:

Ruben Amaro, Jr. was selected to supplant Gillick as GM and Assistant GM Mike Arbuckle decided to move out to Kansas City to be the Special Advisor to GM Dayton Moore. That created an opening for Orioles' Director of Baseball Administration Scott Proefrock, who was subsequently hired to replace Arbuckle. Now the braintrust is pretty much complete for 2009. Or is it?