(note: Gary Hall '09 is pictured on the left in the above photo)

Written by Kaley Brown '23
- ECGulls.com Contributor

BEVERLY, Mass. – America's Favorite Pastime has been popular since the Civil War. Soldiers on both sides used to play baseball with each other when they weren't fighting, over 20 years before the first camera was sold to the public.

When we think of baseball, we think of a bat, a ball, a glove, and a field. We don't necessarily think of the technology that goes into the game that we don't see on TV or at the ballpark. While we may not actively consider the technology that has helped baseball evolve into what we know and love today, Gary Hall '09 does for a living.

Hall works as the Coordinator of Video and Technology for the Cincinnati Reds, in the very city that Major League Baseball was founded in over a century-and-a-half ago in 1869. In this role, Hall captures, records, and stores video for essentially every baseball activity that the Reds do. This includes batting practice, cage work, advance scouting meetings, and much more. All of this video is archived and kept in a database for use at any time by the team.

A LIFELONG PASSION

As a young boy growing up in East Hampton, Connecticut, Hall certainly didn't envision himself working in video for baseball. Hall didn't know exactly what he wanted to do in sports until he graduated college, but his fervor for the game of baseball made him determined to break into the industry.

Hall's passion for baseball dates back to when he was in kindergarten. His father and his uncle were big sports fans and Hall quickly inherited their passion. Hall started playing tee ball when he was five and continued playing baseball until the completion of his first year of college.

When Hall was a senior in high school looking at potential colleges, one of his friends was a sophomore at Endicott College at the time and invited Hall to come visit. After getting a personal tour from his friend, Hall found the ideal place to continue his education.

The location, the beauty of the campus, and the small size feel were all aspects of Endicott that drew Hall in. However, the internship program was what stuck out to Hall the most when he made his final decision. Getting hands-on experience while he was still in school as well as being around the baseball team was important to him.

Hall was the third-string catcher his freshman year. He knew what his role was. Regardless of the fact that he didn't get much playing time, Hall got to help out around the team and be an extra set of hands. One of the tasks he was given was to chart pitches in scrimmages or to chart bullpen sessions. Charting involves recording information such as the location of the pitch, pitch type, and the result of the pitch. Charting pitchers and hitters is virtually what Hall does for the Reds today. Being exposed to charting helped Hall discover several potential career paths for himself.

A STRATEGIC PLAN

Going into his freshman year at Endicott, Hall devised an internship plan for the next four years. Hall wanted to start off by interning at a baseball training facility, then intern with a minor league team, and finish by interning with a major league team. 

Spoiler alert: he accomplished exactly that.

"Once I figured out I wanted to major in and work in sport management, I decided that I was going to do whatever I could to get a front office job in baseball," said Hall.

As a freshman in 2006, Hall completed his first 120-hour internship at a baseball and softball training facility in Old Lyme, Connecticut, called America's Game at the time. Here, Hall got to learn the inner workings of a baseball facility as well as meet Major League Baseball coaches and former players. This was a stepping stone for Hall to get his name out there and learn the basics of what goes into working in the professional sports industry.

In his sophomore year in 2007 for his second 120-hour internship, Hall interned with the then-New Britain Rock Cats, now called the Hartford Yard Goats, a Double-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins at the time. Hall gained experience by helping out with stadium operations and assisting the organization in getting ready for the season in the winter. The team brought him back to help out during the actual season in the summer of 2007.  During his second shot with the club, Hall even got to dress up as the mascot a few times. He proved that he was willing to do anything to get experience in sports.

Luckily, Hall didn't have to put on any sort of mascot costume over the course of his semester-long internship. Hall interned with the Tampa Bay Rays in the second semester of his junior year. His title was a Season Ticket Sales and Services intern. After a day of working in sales, Hall got to watch the game afterwards. While watching games for free for four months may have been a relaxing advantage, Hall started to see the game a little differently now that he had three baseball-related internships under his belt. Despite his expanding knowledge of the game of baseball, he was still unsure about exactly what he wanted to do. However, his resume out of college showed potential employers that he was capable of a plethora of different things in baseball.

Completing three extremely valuable internships during his time at Endicott put Hall on a springboard into the field of sports. Before he graduated from Endicott, some of Hall's professors were encouraging him to attend the Major League Baseball (MLB) Winter Meetings in 2008. The Winter Meetings take place in December for four days. During this time, representatives from all 30 MLB teams and their Minor League affiliates discuss general league business as well as make off-season trades and other transactions between teams. That year, Hall was able to attend as a guest. Attending the Winter Meetings as a non-MLB or Minor League Baseball (MiLB) member can be a way for aspiring employees to break into the industry.

PERSISTENCE AT THE WINTER MEETINGS

At the Winter Meetings in the first semester of his senior year at Endicott, Hall got the opportunity to interview with the Pittsburgh Pirates in Las Vegas, Nevada. Because he was not going to graduate until three months after the baseball season began, nothing came out of the interview, unfortunately. In spite of this, Hall went back to the Winter Meetings in 2009 once he graduated from college. Seven months removed from his education, Hall was once again interviewed by the Pirates and by the same people who met with him the year prior. One month after the interview, Hall was offered a Minor League video internship with the team and accepted it the next day.

In his first internship after college, Hall was responsible for charting the Gulf Coast League (GCL) Pirates and Bradenton Marauders home games for the 2010 season on-site in Bradenton, Florida. Both teams are Minor League affiliates of the Pirates. Hall had never worked in video in any capacity before this internship and was exposed to the video software that all MLB teams and their Minor League affiliates use called BATS. According to their website, BATS "is the premier video coaching system used in the MLB, Minor League Baseball and the Caribbean Winter Leagues, as well as NCAA, NAIA, high school, and other amateur programs across North America". This internship experience lasted for the entirety of both league seasons, the GCL season lasting 56 games and MiLB's lasting 76 games. His first industry experience after college added another job to his resume.

Endicott's baseball head coach when Hall played for the team, Larry Hiser, believes that charting for the Gulls his freshman year set him up for success in his career.

"In the end," Hiser said, "he learned a lot about the game and ultimately made himself a better player by getting so many repetitions in the bullpen."

Once Hall's internship came to a close, he was prepared to attend the Winter Meetings again for a third straight year and search for more opportunities in baseball. The night before his flight was set to leave for the Meetings, Hall's boss with the Pirates offered him a Minor League Video Coordinator position. In this position, Hall was still in charge of charting GCL Pirates games and Marauders games in Bradenton but on top of that, he was now responsible for overseeing the production of all Minor League video within the Pirates organization. This meant that he had to make sure that all video got published for viewing within the organization in the storage system they use. 

CLIMBING THE LADDER

Every Minor League team in baseball has a video intern that is responsible for video for that particular team. In Hall's role as Minor League Video Coordinator, he made sure that the respective organizations' interns were doing what they needed to do, capturing everything they needed to capture and uploading everything they needed to upload for viewing purposes at all levels in the Pirates organization.

With video and technology comes regular upgrades. In his first year, Hall was charting entire games with only one camera angle to capture data and information. The following year, the teams upgraded to four camera angles. From the first year Hall started working in video in baseball, he has experienced profound advances in the technology he uses to capture and analyze footage. 

"With the Pirates, it was mostly about simply capturing video," said Hall. "Now, you're in charge of a lot more video. You have seven cameras going at a time. You have high-speed cameras, Rapsodo (a pitching and hitting monitor) hitting and pitching devices, you have Blast Motion (a swing analyzer). There's a number of different technologies now that you're responsible for."

After three years of working with the latest video technology in the Pirates Minor League system, Hall took on a fellowship position with Pittsburgh, remaining in Bradenton. The MLB offers a fellowship program which was created to give aspiring baseball executives the opportunity to gain experience in baseball operations. As a fellow, Hall was able to work directly with Pittsburgh's Minor League director and help create player plans, which are development plans for an individual player. He also had to keep track of player moves and transactions and make sure that those moves were in the system that, primarily, the coaches used to keep track of athletes in their system. Hall spent a total of five years in Bradenton with the Pirates and gained immense experience in the industry over that time.

Following his time with Pittsburgh, Hall took a baseball analytics internship with the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota, Florida - only about 25 minutes away from Bradenton. At the start of the 2015 season, the Orioles quickly decided to move Hall up to Baltimore and make him an operations intern. Having used the BATS software for five years with the Pirates, Hall had to learn how to use another video system on the fly, called Sequel. Hall assisted the player development department and created reports on pitchers and hitters using analytical information he gathered such as spin rates for pitchers and exit velocity for hitters. Hall spent one year with the Orioles and continued expanding his knowledge of video, technology, analytics and operations.

Hall then took on a Minor League Video Coordinator role with the Cincinnati Reds in 2016, the same position he held with the Pirates in 2011 and 2012. While the position was essentially the exact same as it was five years earlier, the technology had evolved greatly since then. A variety of state-of-the-art cameras, softwares and programs have since been implemented throughout MLB and in his first year with the Reds, he was exposed to all of it.

Hall was still using the BATS video program, but was now beginning to use Rapsodo, a monitor unit and system that can track pitching and hitting and provides instant data and metrics to help the athlete understand what they're doing well at and what they need to improve on. The video coordinator ensures that the system is working properly and that the player can promptly watch what they've done and all of the information attached to it. With Rapsodo, one can see the video and data the system collects directly on an iPad. Trackman and Blast Motion are other devices that can track pitching and hitting that the Reds use, too. All of this technology helps players be the best they can be and Hall is there to ensure that this happens.

For three years, Hall was the Minor League Video Coordinator and was there to chart every pitch, every bullpen session, every at-bat and every practice using these cameras and software. Hall was doing this over the course of nearly a decade and became a master at using the technology and helping players and coaches understand it, as well.

CONTINUED PROGRESS

After the 2019 season came to a close, the Reds asked him if he was interested in moving to Cincinnati to become the Coordinator of Major League Video and Technology. 

Hall jumped at the chance, immediately.

"At one point in my life I've sent my resume to all 30 MLB teams," said Hall. "You hope for just one opportunity, whatever it may be."

Hall compared his current position with the Reds to what he'd been doing since he graduated. Everything is mostly the same, except the technology continues to constantly evolve. 

Hall described his job as being responsible for watching and recording every pitch in every game for the Reds and marking as much information as possible on a designated pitch. The team has that video available for players, coaches and staff when they need it. He also described it as overseeing all of the technology that's needed for coaching purposes. Hall ensures that everything that needs to be filmed is done appropriately. Essentially, he collects data and information to distribute to the people that need it within the Reds organization.

Hall officially started this role in November 2019 and despite a pandemic making his first season abnormal, he persevered and made a name for himself with a Major League team doing what he loves.

Finding a job in sports can feel like a job itself at times. One way Hall searched for and applied to a number of jobs in baseball was using a website called Teamwork Online. 

Teamwork Online is essentially a hub for job postings in the sports industry. This website has postings for all sports, teams and event employment around the United States. It's similar to LinkedIn, minus the profile aspect for individuals. 

In 2008, Hall's sport management professors were telling him about this website and he ended up applying to his first job, with the Pirates, on the platform. Today, Hall's current employer posts job openings on Teamwork.

Hall's familiarity with Teamwork only more so helps the Reds choose candidates when they are searching for a video intern at their affiliates. Most importantly, he knows the criteria an individual needs to meet in order to succeed in the sports industry. 

When Cincinnati posts about a video internship, they receive hundreds of applications. What makes an individual stand out from the crowd?

"We're looking for people that have the experience first and foremost," said Hall, "but for me, my big thing has always been dependability. You earn people's respect by being reliable."

Hall preached the importance of getting things done to the highest standard when someone comes to you with a task or a request. He noted that he believes one of the things that has gotten him to this point is making people feel comfortable around him in the workplace. People can trust Hall to get anything on his plate done in a timely manner and they can trust him to do it right. He also highlighted that not just in video, but, in sports in general today, that it's important to be open-minded when it comes to technology. Technology is everywhere and it's gradually taking over the game in a good way. Hall enjoys teaching people how to use certain technology to their advantage.

AN ATYPICAL FIRST YEAR

In his first season with the Cincinnati Reds the technology was the same, but everything else was different thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a typical baseball season there is a video room that players and coaches can go into through the dugout at any point during a game to watch film. 

In 2020, players and coaches were prohibited from entering this room. Players were, however, allowed to use iPads in the dugout to watch film from a previous game, but not the current game they were playing in. Players benefit heavily from adjusting their swings or their attack mid-game and this is often done by watching film of themselves from five minutes ago. Some players know what they need to fix without having to watch video, but some players need to be able to see what they're doing wrong in order to fix it. 

Hall did his best to accommodate these players by being around to offer video for batting practice or bullpen sessions before games. Hall has seen the Reds video team work normally under typical circumstances, but has yet to do it firsthand.

Despite an atypical first year at his first major league job without the usual video setup during games, the Reds clinched their first playoff berth in seven years. The Reds faced the Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) Wild Card series, but were unfortunately swept in two games. Nonetheless, it is hard not to think that Hall brought the team good luck, right? Considering how difficult of a season 2020 was for all teams not just in baseball, but in all sports, any team reaching the postseason was an impressive feat last year. 

However, in 2021, the video aspect of baseball is expected to be much different. According to the MLB's health protocols for this upcoming season, "players will have access to tablets under the Dugout iPad program that can be loaded with content before and after games, and will have access to in-game video in a format that cannot be used to steal the catcher's signs". 

In 2020, a number of baseball's biggest stars felt frustrated because they were not allowed to watch in-game video, as highlighted in this article in The Athletic. While the video room will still be off-limits during games, using iPads in the dugout will be a difference maker for all 30 teams, including Hall's Reds.

Hall also noted that the ability to use in-game video is something that players have grown accustomed to over the course of their career. Suddenly not being able to use it in 2020 made players feel lost. 2021 is expected to be different now that players will have access to video immediately after an at-bat or inning. Using iPads in the dugout during games is something that Hall and the rest of the video team will need to test out during Spring Training in Arizona; however, it should make players and coaches much happier this time around. 

No matter what obstacles have been placed in front of him, especially during the 2020 season, Hall has consistently demonstrated a clear passion for video in baseball over the last decade of his life. As is the case for most industries and most careers individuals are unlikely to stay in the same role for their entire career, especially in sports. Hall has climbed up the ladder in sports since he was a student. 

A BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND

Hiser, Hall's college baseball manager, emphasized the importance of recognizing how incredible Hall's professional achievements are.

"You have to keep in mind that while it is a big business," said Hiser, "MLB is a small industry compared to other kinds of industries. So Gary has earned himself a job in a very competitive industry that only employs a few thousand people, whereas there are millions of teachers or salesmen or engineers.  It is a tribute to his work ethic and determination."

However, he realizes that other opportunities may come to him and other ventures may seem appealing in the future.

"I think it's important to continue being open-minded and learning as much as possible about all areas of the game," said Hall. "I'm happy working in video but may be open to other roles in the future if it benefits the organization."

Hall emphasized the importance of utilizing your professors, advisors, and internship coordinators at Endicott. Making valuable connections with them, listening to their stories and advice, and asking questions helped put Hall in a place to succeed from the time he was a freshman. Hall's sport management professors over the course of his Endicott career pushed him to put his best foot forward in all that he did, even though he didn't know exactly what career he wanted to pursue in sports when he graduated college. He also spoke highly of the importance of listening to your peers and their opinions. You never know who or what will inspire you.

"It's ultimately your decision and you have to figure out what's best for you," said Hall. "It was neat to hear everyone's different experiences and hear different thoughts from people about what they think the ultimate path is and how it can impact your life."

The game of baseball is certainly not what it was back in 1869. Some argue that the overwhelming amount of technology has made the game worse, while some believe it has made the game better. Regardless of who is correct, Hall has experienced the changes in technology firsthand for over 10 years and it has given him an admirable career. But, this is just the beginning for him.

Hall's journey to a MLB front office started in 2005 when he took his first steps on Endicott's campus as a student. Since then, Hall has cemented his name as a sought-after professional in baseball and is only continuing to climb the ladder in just his early thirties. If you happen to watch Reds games this year, remember that there is a Gull to root for behind the scenes on their squad. 

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(Photo Credit - Gary Hall '09/Cincinnati Reds)