Behind the Green Monster Blog
Max Koenig is having a Major League adventure this summer.
The 17-year-old student at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH, is spending a month as an intern in the Boston Red Sox’ front office, courtesy of Bentley College in Waltham, Mass and Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLB.com).
Koenig, will be a senior at Phillips Exeter this fall.
BLOG ENTRY #1
Working for the Red Sox is what every kid who grew up in New England dreams about doing, and for a month this summer I get to live that dream. My first two weeks interning with the Boston Red Sox have been fast paced and extremely enjoyable. It was a bit hectic learning my way around the office at first, and learning everyone’s names during the first series after the All-Star break, which just happened to be against the Yankees
For the first 10 days I was working in Corporate Partnerships. Any and all needs of the Boston Red Sox corporate partners are accommodated by this department--from getting tickets for a certain game to a corporate fantasy day where the company gets to play softball on the field at Fenway Park. Another part of this department is Kid Nation, which is the official fan club of the Boston Red Sox for kids 14 and under. During home games I helped sell Kid Nation Memberships in one of the two booths (at Gate E or Gate B). Other highlights of the week (other than being at Fenway Park all day!) included the Papa Jack Hitting Clinic and the final day in Corporate Partnerships where I helped out with fantasy days for Hewlett Packard, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and 99 Restaurants.
After Corporate Partnerships I moved on to intern with Fenway Sports Group (FSG), which is a marketing company owned by the same company who owns NESN and the Boston Red Sox. The most visible part of FSG is called Fanfoto, a professional photo service available to fans during Fenway Park tours and games. If you are ever at Fenway and see people in lime green polo shirts with cameras, those would be Fanfoto photographers, who take great pictures so you can remember your day at the park. For the past few days I have been helping out with any aspect of Fanfoto that I can, which is cool because I get to see another side of the Red Sox organization that most people never get to see.
Needless to say my first two weeks have been awesome. Just being around Fenway is cool, but going behind the scenes and being part of all these activities is even cooler. This is definitely the best summer job a kid could have!
BLOG ENTRY #2
There are not many jobs where, after your 10th straight day of work of at least 8 hours a day, you are still energized enough to roll out of bed and drive an hour to work for that 11th day. Luckily, I happen to have one of those jobs. Maybe it is the fact I am a diehard Sox fan or maybe it is the fact I work at Fenway Park; whatever the reason for it, I don’t think there is anything else I could be doing this summer that could be this enjoyable. I don’t think it has sunk in yet that I work at 4 Yawkey Way!
This past week I finished up my two weeks at Fenway Sports Group (FSG) and I have now moved on to The Premium Sales Department. All of those fans you see in the suites, the .406 club, or on bar stools on top of the monster next to Fisk’s pole were taken care of by Premium Sales. It is the job of this department to sell luxury suites and to provide the perks that make coming to Fenway Park all the more enjoyable for VIP’s or businesspeople and their clients. At the moment, the Premium Sales Department is selling the suites for the Rolling Stones concerts coming up on August 21st and 23rd.
Outside of the day-to-day work I have had three interviews with local media, the coolest one coming this past week with Channel 7 (NBC) news in Boston. They did a story on me that ran on the August 4 6:00pm newscast and then on the August 5 noon broadcast. I have also had interviews with the Boston Herald and a local paper at home, The Exeter News Letter. I have enjoyed getting the word out about the internship because hopefully it will help Bentley attract more applicants for next year’s contest. If it wasn’t for this contest, I would not have had the opportunity to intern with the Red Sox because to do something like this, most of the time you either have to: a) be older than 17 or b) know someone in the business. I have had an amazing time with the Boston Red Sox this summer, everyone has been great to work with and I don’t think I could have had a better month.
