MatBatts

Author’s Note: Thank you for checking out this story. My name is Mat Batts and I hope to bring you some stories and insight from the minor league lifestyle here on Twins Daily throughout the season. This will be my second season (first full) in the Twins organization and my second stint here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I look forward to getting to know a lot of you—online or in person—as we move forward this summer. I hope you enjoy!
 
It’s no secret that player appearances can be, well, uncomfortable for players. Each affiliate will have their promotional staff post sign up sheets in the clubhouse for various appearances and events, asking players to participate at least a few times during the season. Incentives for players can range from food vouchers and coupons to even a small cash payment at some levels. Even still, there’s hardly a mad rush to fill up the lines on each sheet.
 
It’s not that players dislike being involved in the community or meeting their fans and neighbors. But in most cases player appearances can tend toward the awkward side of things for both the players and group or event at hand. Very few of us are trained public speakers and even fewer have experience teaching or leading young children. Not to mention the timing of most of these events takes place in the mornings, most likely after a night game, or even a road game. I know, sounds torturous, right?
 
Well, during our first few days here in Iowa, we were given the speech and expectations. First up was the Kernels Reading Program. Sign up with a teammate to travel to two schools one morning and talk about the importance of reading and end the seminar with the reading of a brief children’s book.
 
John Curtiss and I decided why not knock it out and sign up for the first appearance. And there we are, in front of 400 kindergarten-second graders and later 400 more third-fifth graders, reading Quacky Baseball and offering the students an opportunity to take part in an incentive-based reading program with the Cedar Rapids Kernels.
Leaving those two schools, I have to admit my perception of the player appearances could not have been more off. In just two hours John and I, along with Kernels Community Relations staff member Ryne George had reached nearly 800 students discussing the importance of daily reading in their lives. Students are offered the chance to log reading minutes with goals and incentives at each 250-minute level. Ryne and his staff hope to reach more than 20,000 students across Cedar Rapids and Iowa City this season.
 
The Twins and their affiliates are no strangers to community service projects during the season. In fact, the Twins have even established a yearly award named in honor of the infamously charitable Harmon Killebrew to recognize one player at each minor league level for superior community service involvement during the season. This award, named alongside the Twins minor league pitcher and players of the year awards, gives players a competitive edge to an already rewarding system established here in Cedar Rapids and elsewhere throughout the organization.