Mike Tucker - Where Are they Now?

This month, we catch up with former Brock Baseball General Manager Mike Tucker. After working with the Badgers for three years Mike moved on, and is currently working as Communications Officer with the University of Victoria Vikes.
 
Mike first got involved with Badgers baseball while attending Brock in the Sport Management program. After taking a summer job working in the Athletics department under Shawn Whiteley, he found the job to be less than exciting because of the amount of hard work involved, without the payoff and excitement of games being played. When the school year and baseball training camp opened, Mike jumped at the chance to get involved with the team because of his knowledge of the game and the growing potential of the program.

Mike says that he was lucky to become the GM with the Badgers when he did. A strong team, a great park and coach all contributed to his experience as GM. However Mike says that one thing that people might not know about is what happened behind the scenes. “Brock Sports Information and Marketing Coordinator Shawn Whiteley was willing to cede control and let us push the envelope with promotions. We managed to put a great support staff together to help bring people to the park and instill a fun environment.

I remember opening day one year we had somewhere around 1,000 people, we were just killing McMaster, and we were getting the crowd really wound up.” There was also a lot of creativity required for running a program on a limited budget as Mike explained when he said “I remember going to Value Village before the games and finding the most ridiculous items – old records, broken trophies, random trinkets – and giving them away as prizes for stupid contests. My favourite was “Random Birthday” where we sang Happy Birthday and surprised an unsuspecting spectator with an impromptu birthday present and balloons.” When we asked Mike how these promotions went over with the crowd, Mike tells a funny story: “I knew our promotions were a hit when a player from York came up to the booth and asked for one of the Badgers promo t-shirts we used to give away.”
 
Coach Lounsbury recalls some of the promotions himself saying, "The promotion idea's were great, I loved the Free bread stick giveaways when we stole a base, or the name that tune contest and then he would give the winner the album that the cheasy song came from. The Kenny Rodgers- Gambler album is forever in my mind. "
 
Mike says that he is most proud of the relationships he developed with the players, coaches and administrators. Saying “I was the General Manager for three years, and while I did a lot of cool things to help raise the profile of the Badgers, nothing I did resulted in any wins or losses. But I gained a lot of really good friends, and I did like to take pride in the fact that I helped positively influence the student-athlete experience at Brock.”
 
Mike also believes that as much as he helped the program grow, the program also had a positive effect on him. “There certainly was a lot of professional growth during my tenure, because I always felt challenged to better myself. The same way the on-field product has to get better every year, I felt the same responsibility to do a little extra with the media guide, promotions, marketing, etc.”
 
The Brock Baseball program is a growing project, and Mike believes that it has taken some huge steps forward since he began with the team. He has said that “the program has made tremendous strides in gaining recognition and stature within the department, and even in the broader baseball community.” Mike credits Coach Lounsbury with the bulk of the credit for the success, saying “Jeff has done a remarkable job of finding new ways for the program to grow, and doing that under such limited resources.”
 
Coach Lounsbury feels very strongly about how Mike's work impacted the Badgers saying, "Mike set the standards that all student support staff must live up to, and he set that standard very high. He did it all, promotions, marketing, media guides, fundraising idea's, stats, and making the environment at the park fun. He contributed so much, and after he graduated it really showed how much we missed him and needed people like Mike to be involved. He was a member of the team, the players, coach's and athletic department respected him so much, and he was such a class act. He took winning and losing just has hard as any player, actually sometimes more since he worked so hard for the team."

Coach and Mike's relationship went past the onfield team as Jeff shares saying "He was very important to me, I was able to talk to him about players, or problems with the athletic deptartment or whatever and he kept it confidential and was very supportive. I was able to bounce idea's off of him, and I was able to explain my thought process and it was great to have such a person on our team."

Mike says that he has nothing but fond memories of his work with the Badgers. He has gone on to work with a number of baseball teams in various capacities, and says “it can be a grind going to the park everyday.” He says this was not the case with Brock, and credits the program with making the work fun, and making his passion for the game become evident.

Finally, Mike says that one fact of life became obvious in his work with the Badgers, saying “Hard work pays off. You just have to be willing to work harder than anyone else is conceivably willing to.”
 
Coach Lounsbury says of Mikes dedication, "Mike did great work and worked hard all year too. I remember helping him along with the CBL team, and he would call asking for idea's or support because he realized how different the work place was outside the school and I like to think that helped him alot in dealing with other persons he worked for and keeping him motivated and realizing patience, persistence, working hard and controlling the things you can control."
 
After his time with Brock, Mike moved on to work with the Niagara Stars in the now-defunct Canadian Baseball League, and also worked as Media Liason Officer for Canada’s entry in the World University Baseball Championships when they were held in Taiwan. Mike attended this tournament with Coach Lounsbury and former Badgers Rylan Pranger and Steve Coates. Despite a disappointing result on the field, Mike had a great experience, and says “singing Chinese karaoke with Jeff is one of my fondest memories.

Mike has been living in Victoria for the past three years, and he and his wife Erin purchased their first house in March. This past month, they welcomed the arrival of their son Eli Jasper Tucker. Mike describes Eli as “A future Badger? I don’t know – we kind of have plans for him to be drafted out of high school.”

We’d like to thank Mike for sitting down and talking to us, and wish him continued success in his professional and personal life. Next month in our "Where are they Now" series we will feature Colin Tyler as he celebrates the ten year anniversary of being inducted into the teams Hall of Fame.
 
Written By: Shawn Eckford, Brock Baseball