(gentle music) - I'm Norm Silverstein, glad you're with us.

We're in very good company today with Naomi Silver.

Naomi is the President, CEO, and COO of the Rochester Red Wings and Rochester Community Baseball, Inc. For generations, the Silver name has been associated with baseball.

And under Naomi's leadership, the Red Wings have remained a beloved mainstay of family entertainment for our community.

As one of a few women currently at the helm of a professional sports team, Naomi excels at balancing the business requirements of running a successful ball club with responding to the needs of the fans.

Naomi joins me today to reflect on what baseball has meant to her and her family and what's in store for the future.

Hi Naomi, thanks for being here.

- I'm honored to be here, thanks Norm.

- You know, it's hard to believe, but it's been 20 years since the Red Wings moved into Frontier Field.

And the fact that baseball is still here and thriving, it's really due to your family and your father in particular.

But at this point in your life, would you say that baseball has become your life?

- Well, it enters every aspect of my life for sure.

But you know, I think there are a lot of fans that would say they feel that way also.

You know, it becomes a very important part of your life and maybe your summer.

So yeah, I think that my family has grown up there.

I grew up at Silver Stadium.

So yeah, such a big part of life.

- Some of our younger viewers might not know the role your father played in saving baseball in Rochester.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

- Sure.

In 1956, the St. Louis Cardinals, whom we had been affiliated with since 1929, actually the Cardinals owned the franchise, meaning they fielded the players and built Silver Stadium, then called Red Wing Stadium.

And they owned the franchise until 1956 when they decided that they were going to pull out.

Rochester was not their most successful AAA franchise.

In those days, teams had more than one AAA franchise, unlike today.

So the community was really at a loss.

What would we do without baseball?

How could we save the team?

And my father, who was involved in the community in several aspects, primarily as a business person, was approached and asked if he could come up with maybe a creative way to save the team.

So he put together a stock drive.

And over the next 30 or so days, 8,222 shareholders bought shares of stock in Red Wings and raised almost enough money to save the team, to buy the franchise from the Cardinals, the franchise and the stadium.

And what they were short, he came up with the difference.

And the franchise was purchased.

And we've run baseball in Rochester ever since, owning our own franchise.

And it's been wonderful.

There have been tough years, for sure.

But there's never been a doubt that baseball was important and that people cared about it in Rochester.

- [Norm] You mentioned Silver Stadium earlier.

Of course, that's where the team played before Frontier Field.

What was it like growing up with a baseball stadium named for your family?

- The story of my father taking over the Red Wings in 1956 and '57 really was, before my time, and I was quite young when they renamed the stadium for him, but I sure remember being there.

And it was more than he could believe or imagine.

He's kind of a humble person.

So that was wonderful.

But the day after they renamed the stadium for him, we moved to Florida.

So as a young child, I was not in Rochester, a little bit over each summer.

It didn't occur to me that it was a big deal to have the stadium named for my dad.

But when I did think about it, it was named for him, not the family name, but my father's name on that stadium.

And I guess it meant a lot, especially as I grew up.

It meant a lot that my father was remembered.

- And he maintained his interest in baseball even from Florida.

- He ran that team by phone from Florida.

And people just had a lot of respect for the position that he had.

He had taken the franchise from really on the verge of not being able to operate to keeping it very viable.

And he tried to leave the ball club.

This was even before we moved to Florida.

He tried to leave the ball club and go back to his main business.

And the business, the ball club business would falter a little bit.

So he came back and he'd try again to leave and they had a few problems.

So he'd come back.

And his success with the organization really made an impression on people.

They never lost touch with my father and he stayed very much on top of things.

Unfortunately, he didn't live that many years after that.

So the ball club has been through a lot of transition over the years.

- So your mother actually ran the team for a while, didn't she?

- Well, she was not extremely active.

She was the chairman of the board and active in that way, but not active on a day-to-day operational basis.

So she was involved in it to make sure that what my father had worked so hard for would not be forgotten or lost due to the lack of interest or interests that may have waned.

So she really dedicated her life to making sure that his dreams stayed alive for this community.

- When you were growing up, did you ever think that one day you'd be the owner and the president and run the team?

- I had no idea, Norm.

I really, I had no idea that I would get involved in this business.

And I think I'm just on the cusp of the days when women were just getting involved in the workforce in a big way.

Plus the idea that I might get involved in sports seemed a little far out for me, but it became more and more real, I guess, as I got older.

So, you know, it's hard to stay away when you care so much about something.

And like my mother, I too had that desire to keep my father's legacy alive.

- Did you have a mentor who encouraged you to take this on and someone you could go to when you ran into those tough times like everyone does running a business?

- Sure, well, certainly my mother was, you know, always made sure I stayed on the right path, you know, that I would be loyal to the right cause and do it for the right reason.

But there have been one or two people that have been really instrumental in getting me involved.

And one was the late Elliot Kerwin, who was the president of the ball club, a volunteer with our board of directors, who was on the scene when I was quite young and just getting involved.

And he believed that I could do anything that a man could do, and that I understood the business as well as anyone could.

He gave me the impetus maybe to keep it going when I thought, you know, is this really something that I can do?

It's a world of men in this business, but he made me feel like I could do it.

Fred Strauss, the former bank president, before him, Fred was, he was a wonderful, wonderful guy, a great mentor.

And he wanted to see me get involved in the business.

I guess he'd be, he came before Elliot.

And then, you know, for many, many years, my dear and good friend, Gary Larder, who is the chairman of the board of the ball club has, you know, it's just stuck by me.

And there's really nothing that he can't help me figure out.

He is, he's wonderful and a great mind and a Xerox retiree.

- Well, you seem to have a great ability to pick talent that stays with the team.

Dan Mason has been general manager, I think for almost as long as I've known him.

- Probably, you know, there's no one like Dan in this business.

You know, he is, he is selfless about it.

He gives it everything he has.

There's nothing that he'd ask a staff member to do that he hasn't done and continues to do.

He's just an amazing person.

You know, he is, everyone should be so lucky as to have a spokesperson like that for their business.

And not many are lucky enough to have someone like him.

He's amazing.

- Well, I'm sure to be successful.

It's more than, it's more than the sport.

Dan does all of these entertainment.

Brings, he brings so many kids down between innings for little contests, things that make this really family entertainment.

Is that what you have to do to be successful in a minor league franchise?

- I think so.

You know, our ballplayers are more of a transient group of players.

You know, they don't go to the big leagues.

It's not like in the big leagues where they get called up to the major leagues and you know, with luck, there's several years there and having success and people really get to know them, recognize their names and they become celebrities in their cities.

And in the minor leagues, we can't bank on a certain player because he can be called up to the big leagues the next day.

So as much as we appreciate the players being here and doing things in the community and being successful on the field, as much as we appreciate that, we also have to, we have to go about attracting people in a different way.

We have to do things at the ballpark that people can count on regardless of how the team is doing and what kind of a season we're putting together.

So Dan has been creative.

He listens to people.

He senses what they like, what they wanna see.

And he really can, he can really dive into it and make it happen.

- Is there one thing in particular that you're really proud of that you'd say was Naomi Silver's idea that has really made a difference?

- You know, back at Silver Stadium, like every other franchise in America, we used an outside concessionaire.

Things were not going great with that concessionaire and really we came to the end of a contract.

I thought that we could probably run that business as well as anyone.

And it was, people thought I was a little bit crazy at the time, but I thought, you know, we can make hot dogs and we can probably do a lot more than that and really turn this into something.

You know, I liked the idea of being able to be responsive to our customers' comments or requirements.

So we took over the concessions business.

And the first few years were tough, but we always managed to make money there.

And really it's turned into, of course, I have a wonderful general manager.

I have a great general manager on the baseball side and a great general manager on the food side of the business and Jeff Dodge has really taken it to new heights.

I think, you know, people consider the food and beverage division of Rochester Community Baseball as probably one of the best in the country.

You know, just a variety of things and prices that people can afford that's extremely important to us.

And if, you know, if something's not selling, we get it out of the way and bring in something else that we think that, you know, might be a better fit for us.

And, you know, we just were able to think on our feet and react and that's quite a, it's a benefit for our business.

- The business side, you've only been associated with, but is it three major league teams over the years?

The St. Louis and then Baltimore and now Minnesota.

- Correct.

- So who was your favorite major league partner?

- (laughs) The St. Louis Cardinals were before my time and, you know, we had many glorious years with the Cardinals the Orioles in their great days were as good as it gets.

You know, we had players that, you know, were memorable and that are in the hall of fame and ownership at one time was just amazingly bright and, you know, they knew how to make an organization work from the farm system up.

And, you know, with some great managers, you know, Earl Weaver and Joel Tabelli, just, you know, household names and wonderful, wonderful relationship with the organization and its people.

- And of course you had Cal Ripken coming through the system.

- You know, right, Cal, he's just, you know, he's something you would, you dream about having a Cal Ripken on your team.

And, you know, even as a young man, you knew he was destined for great things, it's just an incredible baseball family and legacy that he came from.

And still a great friend of the ball club, I would say.

The twins relationship came about because the Orioles relationship had sort of fallen off.

We didn't see a future with them, giving us teams that we could really, that we could really be successful with, you know, they just weren't growing players in their minor league system anymore.

So we made a move, we knew we were gonna have to make a move.

I'll never forget calling Mr. Angelos and telling him that we were going to have to make a move.

And, you know, he was understanding, he knew that, you know, we had struggled with them for the last several years.

And the day that our team became available for reaffiliation, Minnesota Twins called, the general manager called, and we've had a really great run with the twins.

- Besides Cal, are there any players you remember in particular as just, you know, just, you knew they were gonna be stars and they ended up as Hall of Famers.

- Oh gosh, you know, I think of guys like Don Baylor and Dennis Martinez, what, you know, so many.

Jim Palmer, although Jim Palmer didn't really play for the Red Wings, but in that organization and players that we knew and had the opportunity to get to know and really watch those careers, it was an amazing time for us.

You know, I will always hearken back to the days of Earl and Joe Altobelli.

You know, when those, when they were so dedicated, you know, they came through Rochester, they became friends with my dad and they made sure that we were taken care of in Rochester.

As long as they were gonna be at the helm, we were gonna be taken care of here and for sure that is, that's how it went.

- What kind of lessons did you learn from people like Earl and from your parents, the lessons you've taken through life?

- Well, you know, I'll talk about Joe Altobelli for a moment.

You know, Joe, his loyalty and to our community, you know, he didn't come from here, but Rochester had been good to him from the day he stepped foot here and he became a good friend of my dad's.

He always felt like he needed to give back something to this community and I don't think he felt quite that way about any place else he had ever been.

You know, and he raised his family here and that loyalty, that perseverance, he was just a great supporter of the Red Wings and listen, nobody has taken on more roles with the Red Wings than Joe as, you know, as player and player manager, manager, general manager, you know, big league manager of our affiliate.

- Manager of the Orioles.

- We can't forget that, but, you know, and then doing radio for many years and Joe still comes out to the ballpark and he will sit in our offices and tell us great stories and, you know, he's never forgotten the struggle, you know, to be great at what you desire and I think, you know, what better lesson is there?

- We've had a few opportunities to work with the Red Wings over the years.

I was only in my position about two weeks when I got a call from Dan Mason about the last game at Silver Stadium.

There was a, you were having a tough time getting anyone to broadcast it and we don't usually broadcast baseball, but it just seemed like the right thing to do.

So we appreciate the opportunity to work with you too.

- Good evening, everybody and welcome to Silver's Last At Bat.

I'm Pete Weber, former Red Wings broadcaster back, well, a long, long time ago, '82 through '84 and I'm joined tonight by Kurt Smith.

(audience applauds) - [Announcer] The numbers 26 and 8,222 will hang forever on the outfield wall at Frontier Field.

- [Announcer] He said, "I won't go on the field again."

And so if you're doing good, it's a big plus.

- [Announcer] Base hit for Denson.

Martinez to turn it around.

Second as the ball goes down on the corner.

Marv Foley is waving the big guy all the way around.

Here's the relay, throw to the plate, not in time.

And Denson's at third with a three-bagger.

- It must be special for you to walk into that stadium when you're going to work and you walk by a statue of your father.

Does that give you pause?

- Oh, it does.

I sometimes say hello to it, actually.

You know, it's, that is, it's an incredible honor and I think he would be extremely proud that, you know, we thought enough of our history and of him and his role to have erected the statue.

And yeah, it means an awful lot to me.

- A lot of people may not understand that you don't own the stadium.

That's a county facility.

- Correct.

- So what's the future hold for Frontier Field and the Red Wings?

- Well, we have a lease negotiation coming up.

We are, our current lease expires in the fall.

So I believe we'll start that negotiation very soon and I would imagine that the county feels that they wanna keep the Red Wings in town and we would be very happy to renegotiate along the same terms that we have today where we share a lot of the proceeds of the stadium with the county.

The county takes care of, you know, the superstructure and the concrete and the steel and we take care of the smaller maintenance day to day and it's worked for us.

You know, I know of two teams in our league that after 20 years replaced their stadium.

So it's very easy to let a stadium go and they take a lot of wear and tear.

But we, along with the county, have kept Frontier Field in, I think, excellent shape.

You know, you certainly wouldn't recognize that it's a 20-year-old facility.

We're going into it, it's in pretty good shape.

So we're, you know, very proud of that and I think the fans are proud of that.

- Would you like to see this be a family business where one of your children might one day be at the helm?

- I can imagine it.

Maybe two of my children, actually.

Yeah, you know, I think that to be successful in this business, probably like any other business, it takes someone that has a real vested interest in making it work.

And without that, you know, it doesn't have the immediacy to make sure that things are done right.

I think that that's gonna be critical going forward.

So yeah, I hope, you know, I hope they don't fight over it too much because God knows they both are really interested in the business.

- And you have a son who plays baseball, college ball.

- Yes, he's playing college ball right now in his freshman year.

- So how would you describe the future of minor league baseball, AAA, we'll say AAA baseball in Rochester?

What's the future look like?

- I think the future is bright and strong.

You know, we've had a consistent attendance record for so many years, you know.

Despite fluctuations in population and fluctuations in the economy and employment, things have gone pretty well here.

You know, we worried when Kodak has downsized and things have changed at Xerox as well that, you know, would it be sustainable in an environment like that?

But sure enough, you know, other businesses have taken over and have seen the value in getting involved in an organization that is so family oriented as we are and well respected as we are, you know.

So I think things are well.

- Well, we and all of us at XXI certainly as your neighbors across the street look forward to many, many more years of a great relationship and terrific baseball in Rochester.

- Thank you.

- Naomi, before you go, I like to ask my guests the same three questions at the end.

And I sometimes compare their answers.

So first- - Will you tell me how I do?

- I'll give you a scorecard.

- Okay.

- If there was one thing you could change about the community, what would it be?

- Well, I think that if our young people would, you know, and maybe this is happening a little bit, would recognize the value in staying in Rochester.

I know that graduating from college, it's very attractive to go live somewhere else for a few years.

But I noticed that many of them come back 'cause this is a great place to raise families.

So, you know, I hope that happens more and more.

You know, employment here has been pretty stable.

And I think that, you know, there is a comfort level in Rochester about, you know, how we as a community interact and how well we know one another.

You know, I hope that young people will continue to appreciate that and come back more and more.

- What do you love most about Rochester?

- God, you know, I am so bullish on Rochester.

It's hard for me to pick one thing.

I appreciate that I don't have to worry about a hurricane or a tornado.

That, you know, I know we have a bum rap because of our weather, but my gosh, you know, this is a place where you don't worry about those things.

And growing up in Florida, you know, once every couple of years, we were putting up those steel shutters and getting ready for a hurricane.

So I love that Rochester is so, it's easy to live here.

- And does Rochester have a best kept secret or do you just give it to us?

- I think that, you know, we in Rochester are very, we take much for granted, but as soon as people from out of town come here, they point out to us how wonderful it is not to fight with traffic every day and to be able to get to know your neighbors and to do community events.

And we've got so much going on in the summer.

You know, you think about baseball as being, you know, a very big attraction, but there are a lot of things in Rochester to do all summer long.

So we're just lucky to be among them.

- I remember when a friend from Washington came to visit and one of the things we did was go to see a Red Wings game and his son said, "Dad, do we really have to go to Toronto?

"Can't we just stay here in Rochester?"

- I love that, Norm.

- And we love that too.

- That's great.

- Well, Naomi, thanks so much for being with us today.

- Thank you, thanks for having me.

- And thank you for watching.

You can also watch this episode and past shows online at WXXI.org.

And we'll see you next time on "Norm & Company."

(gentle music) (soft music)