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MIKE VEECK
Making Sales & Marketing Fun
It is a name synonymous with fun at the ballpark. Mike Veeck continues to blaze new trails every baseball season. After all, who else would hire a dog or pig to deliver baseballs to the umpire, a Roman Catholic nun to give massages, mimes to perform instant replays or lock fans out of the stadium to set an all-time attendance record for fewest people at a game.
Mike Veeck comes by his pedigree honestly. The Veeck family started in baseball nearly a century ago when Mike’s grandfather was president of the Chicago Cubs. During his tenure, William, Sr. gained fame as the person who first decided to grow ivy at Wrigley Field. Mike’s father, Bill, was a Hall of Fame owner with the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox and the then-minor league Milwaukee Brewers. Famous for so many occurrences at the ballpark, Bill Veeck will always be remembered for signing Larry Doby, the first black man to play in the American League and for sending 3 foot, 6 inch Eddie Gaedel to the plate for the Browns in a 1943 game against Detroit.
The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. It is with the belief that anything is possible and no idea too silly that Veeck operates his ballclubs. Mike Veeck began his baseball career working for his father with the White Sox in the 1970s as Assistant Business Manager and Director of Marketing. He left the game for awhile (there was that Disco Demolition thing in 1979) but returned in 1990 to help resurrect the Miami (now Fort Myers) Miracle. In 1992, he was named winner of the MacPhail award, given annually for excellence in promotions with minor league teams. Mike has worked with four Major League clubs: the Chicago White Sox, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Detroit Tigers.
Currently, Mike Veeck is the part owner of five baseball teams and a consultant for one other. He has served to put fun back into baseball while proving his ideas are not specific to sport. An advertising professional, coveted public speaker, founder of the Veeck Promotional Seminar, and all around idea man, Mike recently released a corporate training video based on his “Fun is Good” philosophy. He has also written a book based on the same fundamental principle.
It is with this simple philosophy that Mike Veeck’s teams routinely set attendance records. He and partner, Marv Goldklang, operate the Goldklang Group, overseeing franchises in Brockton, MA, Charleston, SC, Fort Myers, FL, St. Paul, MN and Sioux Falls, SD. In 2003, the St. Paul Saints welcomed their three millionth fan through the gates while the Charleston RiverDogs set a single-season attendance mark for the sixth time in seven years and Hudson Valley Renegades.
Mike Veeck has appeared on 60 Minutes, HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, ESPN Sportscenter, CBS Sunday Morning, ABC’s Nightline, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
In addition to his baseball duties, Mike Veeck has spoken and entertained groups at companies such as 3M, the NBA, General Mills, and NASCAR. He has been the featured speaker for the American Bar Association, Newspaper Association of America and students at numerous colleges and universities.
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