- Hi, I'm Willy Appelman.
I am in Boston today.
I'm heading to Fenway Park.
I'm gonna be meeting with the CFO of the Red Sox.
We're gonna be talking about the business side of baseball.
Also, I brought my mitt,
just in case you're looking for players
with little-to-no baseball experience.
But first I gotta get my rental car.
Here we go.
This process is super easy.
I already booked a mid-size car online with National.
And since I'm an Emerald Club member, not to brag,
I get to bypass the counter
and head right to the Emerald Aisle,
and choose any car I want.
Let's go with this.
Time for Fenway.
(music playing)
(Willy laughs)
Okay, I could definitely get used to this.
(Tim) Hey Willy, how are you?
Welcome to Fenway park.
(Willy) I'm doing well.
Thank you so much.
This is so exciting.
I'm just really,
I'm ready.
You know, I'm ready to be here.
(Tim) Yeah, I see.
I see you brought your glove.
(Willy) Yeah, just cuz I thought,
tomorrow's opening day,
and if you guys need any extra players,
I'm ready to try out or audition or whatever it is.
(Tim) Okay, but you know,
I don't make those decisions.
I'm the CFO.
(Willy) Yeah, but you must have some influence.
(Tim) Not as much as you would think about that.
(Willy laughs)
(Will) Right, right, (laughing) cool.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So as a CFO,
what is your day to day look like?
(Tim) What I love about my job is,
I have oversight of almost every aspect of the business.
So whether that's what we spend on employees,
what we spend on the players, what we spend on travel,
what we spend on technology.
It's a complicated business
with hundreds of employees around the world.
(Willy) What's your favorite part about the job?
(Tim) Well, I would say,
my favorite part is that every day's different.
We're constantly looking for ways to serve our fans better.
We're constantly looking for ways to be innovative.
It's exciting and it's never boring.
(Willy) How do you find, not again
I'm not asking for me, I'm asking for a friend.
How do you find new players?
(Tim) Well, you know,
we have this vast expansive scouting division.
They're scouting across the world.
You never know where that next great Red Sox player
is gonna be.
So we need to cover pretty much the entire globe.
We have amateur scouts
that cover all the high schools, all the colleges
and they're divided up into regions.
So we might have a scout that covers all of Texas.
We might have a scout that covers all of California.
And they're just road warriors.
They're on the road constantly.
(Willy) That travel seems so complex.
How do you manage all that?
(Tim)Yeah, well, you know,
obviously we're using all modes of transportation,
but a lot of it happens on the ground with cars.
And I think one of the partnerships
that's most effective for us
is the Business Rental Program
and partnership with Enterprise and National
because they have a whole host of services
that help us move everybody around in cars.
(Willy) What's it like when a whole team goes to a city.
Do the players get on a big bus?
Do the players like jump in a van?
What's that like?
(Tim) Yeah, it depends on the city.
But in Fort Myers, Florida down to Spring Training,
all of the players they get a rental car
because it's sort of, you know
they need the flexibility
to be able to move around on their own.
So one of the more challenging aspects of our business,
is trying to come up
with 150 to 200 rental cars in Fort Myers,
for basically a six-week period,
for all of our players
and front of office staff that need to be down there.
(Willy) How has travel changed since COVID-19?
(Tim) Well I think, when I think about it,
we were always a company that we feel like
are built on relationships.
You know, whether it's sponsor relationships,
season ticket relationships, player relationships.
And so we always valued in person.
COVID caused us to pause that,
and we had to do things remotely.
We feel like there's so much more value
in those interactions,
taking place in person.
(Willy) With all these changes, it feels like Red Sox Nation needs
maybe one more player in the fold.
(Tim) Yeah. No, I think we're pretty okay there,
but you know we did get you a jersey,
you know, we did get you a jersey.
You can sort of feel like you're part of the team,
has your name on the back.
(Willy) Oh my gosh, Tim (Tim) Number 11.
(Willy) I can get into the dugout with this.
(Tim) No,
(Willy) I'll get special access on the field.
(Tim) Probably not, actually.
Yeah, yeah. (Willy) Cool, cool.
Can I get into the player after party?
(Tim) Definitely not.
But looks great on you.
(Willy) Thank you so much.
(Tim) It's been a pleasure. (Willy) Thanks man.
(cool beats playing)
What a great day.
I got the inside scoop on the Red Sox,
and I think I'm part of the team now (laughs)
These people want autographs.
Sorry, I'm not signing autographs.
Hey (laughs)
Man, it's crazy.
The fans are nuts (laughs)
I gotta get outta here.