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This is an excerpt of an article from Zone Coverage. Please click here to read the entire piece. Mike Herman still remembers it like it was yesterday, and can recall it down to the minute. “June 8, 2012....10:30 a.m.,” he said when we sat down in his satellite office in the Twins clubhouse at Target Field prior to an early-August game. Prior to that moment, Herman was the team’s No. 1 public relations guy. Dustin Morse -- who has that role now -- was second in command. But that morning, then-Twins general manager Terry Ryan walked into the team’s communications office on the service level of Target Field, pointed at Herman and said, “Mike, you are the interim director of team travel. Dustin, you are the interim director of baseball communications. Do you have any questions?” The two exchanged bewildered looks due to the abruptness of the move, but otherwise took on their duties head-on. Now, some six years later, both are still in those roles and thriving. It wasn’t an unwelcome move for Herman, who had already interviewed for that position with the San Francisco Giants earlier that year. But again, the suddenness sort of made Herman have to spring into action. Fortunately, it was the beginning of a homestand and he had a little time to get ready for the upcoming road trip, but it was still a baptism by fire. Herman’s wife Brittany was very helpful. As a former hotel rep, she knew a lot of the little details Mike would have to deal with, and helped him rein those in quickly. “Find the hotel contracts for every city,” she instructed him. “Print them off and bring them home.” She went through them with a highlighter and helped him learn about the specific needs and things to ask for when dealing with hotels on the road. “That was extremely helpful,” he said with a laugh. The first road trip proved to be a unique challenge as well, as the team was headed to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati -- two road cities the Twins play in roughly once every six years. “If it were Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland or Kansas City, I would have had some more familiarity with being in those cities a lot,” Herman said. But nevertheless, seven baseball seasons later, Herman is still at his post and enjoying it. But those seven seasons have brought seven MLB trade deadlines, and while fans see the players who are coming and going, they almost certainly don’t know the work going on behind the scenes once things are set in motion. The 2018 trade deadline was the most active in club history. On a Friday night in Boston, the Twins dealt Eduardo Escobar to the Arizona Diamondbacks before the game, and after the game news broke that Ryan Pressly was headed to the Houston Astros.