FSL1 Charlotte Stone Crabs

The Hart and Soul of the Stone Crabs

Published on November 19, 2008 under Florida State League (FSL1)
Charlotte Stone Crabs News Release


Joe Hart sits at his desk and tries to focus with his cell phone ringing, e-mails popping up on his computer and an overall sense of organized chaos going on around him.

Ring, ring. "Hi, this is Joe. (Pause) Hi, Chuck, how you doing?"

During the day, Hart hops from meetings to conference calls to appearances as part of a frantic schedule that could make even the most addicted work-a-holic ask for a vacation. But for Hart, that's just part of being general manager of the Charlotte Stone Crabs, the new High-A minor league affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays in Port Charlotte, Fla. "Even when I'm not working, I'm working," Hart says. "My wife gets angry at me because I'll be at the dinner table looking at my BlackBerry."

Despite the workload, Hart has enjoyed his 12 years of minor league baseball experience with five different teams including the last seven years with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. But prior to obtaining his first internship with a minor league ballclub when he was in college, he didn't even know the minors existed.

Not only that, he got into the business by accidentally choosing the wrong major when he started college at West Virginia University.

"I wanted to teach P.E. and be an athletic director at the high school level, so when I went to school, I signed up to be in the sports management program, not knowing that they were two really different things," Hart says.

He spent the next semester going to classes that had nothing to do with physical education, and after meeting with his advisor, he realized the difference between the P.E. and sports management curriculums.

"But I liked what I was learning, so I kept with it," Hart says.

And he's happy he did. In his internship with the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings, an independent minor league team in Texas, he quickly learned that combining his passion for baseball with business was an easy fit.

"When I was a kid, I basically lived at the ballpark during the summer," Hart says. "So, selling baseball was easy for me because I had such a passion for it, and I just got to go out and talk baseball with people in the community."

The 34-year-old Hart believes baseball is just the backdrop to a place where families can come enjoy fun entertainment and create long-lasting memories at a minor league ballpark. That difference is the reason that he loves the minors and has never thought about working in Major League Baseball.

"It's all about the fan experience, affordability and entertainment at this level," Hart says. "With minor league baseball, you're in smaller communities that will get behind you and make you successful if you do it right."

Hart is no stranger to success either. After moving on from his internship with the WhiteWings, he took a full-time job as an account executive with the Nashville Sounds. A year later, he moved to California to join the Fresno Grizzlies, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.

After serving as the team's director of food and beverage for a season, he was named general manager of the Grizzlies at the age of only 25. But when the Sounds made him an offer to come back as the director of sales, he was eager to return to Nashville and take on a new challenge.

Although Hart has experience at the top, he's never stopped doing the little things. And his hands-on approach is not lost on his employees.

"He doesn't just sit back and delegate," says Nick Barkley, the Stone Crabs director of food and beverage who also worked with Hart in Nashville. "He gets out there and does the dirty work that a lot of other general managers just won't do."

Barkley first met Hart when he interviewed for a position with the Sounds in December of 2006. He, like Hart, began his baseball career with the Sounds but worked for teams in Texas and California before wanting to get back to Tennessee. Barkley showed up for the Saturday interview dressed in a suit and tie and was greeted by Hart, who was decked out in sweats and a t-shirt while on Christmas vacation.

"When I first interviewed, I told him that although the job was in the sales department, I eventually wanted to get back into stadium operations," Barkley says. "When he moved over to director of operations, he took me with him, which meant a lot to me because it showed that he remembered what I really wanted to do."

According to Barkley, Hart is the biggest reason for his move to Port Charlotte to join the Stone Crabs.

"I probably wouldn't have made the move if he hadn't been the general manager," Barkley says. "He was the main reason I left Nashville just because I enjoyed working with him so much."

After seven years helping to keep a sagging franchise afloat in Nashville, Hart wanted to take on a new challenge, and that's why he decided to make the move to Florida and work for the new High-A team owned by Ripken Baseball, a well-respected and rapidly growing ownership group founded by Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr.

Ripken owns two other minor league teams (the Aberdeen Ironbirds and Augusta GreenJackets), and the Stone Crabs became the company's third team in August. Hart knew that a chance to work with a start-up team backed by a solid ownership group was a rare opportunity in the baseball world and signed on to become the general manager of the team in July.

"Having been in the industry for more than a decade, I know these kinds of opportunities don't come around often," Hart says. "By working for Ripken Baseball, I knew I could expand my career and extend my knowledge, and working with a new facility and having the Tampa Bay Rays' spring training here just made it an incredible situation."

The transition to Port Charlotte from Nashville was not an easy one after Hart had to be separated from his wife Tracy and their then 1-month-old son Calvin for the better part of three months, but he credits his wife's support as the reason the move was even possible.

"I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for the support from Tracy," Hart says. "It's a very demanding business, but she understands that and she constantly pushes me to succeed."

And the start-up Stone Crabs are already experiencing success. In less than three months since Ripken Baseball announced the team's arrival in Port Charlotte, the new team has sold more than 600 full season tickets at a level where attendance is usually not the main focus.

"Our main goal is establishing a franchise the community can be proud of," Hart says. "We're here to run it and put on a good show, but the Stone Crabs are the community's team."

With less than six months left until opening day, the Stone Crabs front office staff is hustling to make sure word gets out about the new team throughout the Charlotte County community.

And Hart is right in the middle of it all with his cell phone ringing, e-mails popping up on his computer and a seemingly endless amount of other tasks that make up his daily baseball routine.

Ring, ring. "Hi, this is Joe. (Pause) Yeah, I'm staying busy, that's for sure."

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Florida State League Stories from November 19, 2008


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