CHS Grad Follows Dreams Into Baseball

Cranford High School class of '95 alumnus Hal Hansen has the kind of job baseball fans salivate over: he's the Director of Promotions for the minor league baseball team the Lakewood Blueclaws. Hansen is responsible for making a night at FirstEnergy Park,  where the BlueClaws play, a truly memorable experience, beyond just a rousing game of baseball.

"We have 70 home games in a season, and my job is to make them fun," he said.

For example, on July 29, the BlueClaws will pay homage to the classic film "The Goonies" in honor of its 25^th anniversary. Jeff Cohen, the actor that played Chunk, will be in attendance, and the team will wear custom jerseys designed to look like Chunk's Hawaiian shirt from the movie. Hansen has been planning the event all season, and says the payoff is worth the hard work.

"The most rewarding part is to see it all unfold," he said. "It's a rush when I have a really good giveaway and I see 2,000 fans lined up, ready to come through the door (into the stadium)."

Upcoming promotions include  professional wrestling heel "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase on June 19, and newly-minted baseball Hall of Famer Andre Dawson on July 1. Hansen says that the dress-up nights are always fun, and some of the sillier promotions, such as Sombrero Night, when he distributed 2,000 giant sombreros to fans, are some of his favorites.

It hasn't been all fun and games and rubbing elbows with Hollywood glitterati. After attending baseball's annual winter meeting ("A big party for everyone in baseball," says Hansen) in early 2000, Hansen, who studied marketing at Loyola University in Maryland, took an internship with the Trenton Thunder minor league team, just seven months out of college. Hansen explains most careers in baseball come from internships.

"It was still a struggle," said Hansen, who had three roommates in the team's intern housing unit. "It was an ugly living situation, but it was necessary. I thought, 'It might not be ideal, but it's what I have to do, so let's deal with it.'"

The BlueClaws, the northernmost of the fourteen teams in the South Atlantic league, one of the oldest minor leagues, have been in New Jersey for 10 years, and Hansen has been with them since nearly the first day. After his internship, Hansen was the assistant director of ticket sales for the Claws' first four seasons before taking his current position as Director of Promotions.  

With five games left in the first half of the season, the BlueClaws sit in first place. The two first place teams in the north and south divisions clinch a playoff berth after the first half of the season, 70 games. Then every team's record goes back to 0-0, and the teams sitting in first place at the end of the season get the final two playoff spots. The season runs from April until Labor Day.

Hansen still has plenty of friends and family in the Cranford area, and remembers fondly his days of playing Little League and being on the CHS varsity team. He even organizes an unofficial Cranford Night at FirstEnergy Park every year; Hansen sings the national anthem, and everyone is invited to have a drink at the tiki bar in center field and enjoy a night of baseball. This year's event is still in the works, but check the BlueClaws' promotion schedule for the rest of this summer's events.

"There seems to be a great bond among people from Cranford," said Hansen. "There's something about the town that makes everybody so loyal, and you don't get that feeling from other people's hometowns. People are proud of the town, and it's a great place to grow up."