Baseball has always been in Don Wiederecht’s blood.
Even when he was working for Delta Airlines for 37 years baseball was always kicking around in his head.
With good reason, as the baseball bloodlines have always run in the family. Both his mother Anita and father Donald Sr. had worked for the New York Yankees and his younger brother Larry, who pitched for Eckerd College and is the weekend official scorer for the Clearwater Threshers, has worked in minor league baseball since 1987.
Don Wiederecht was hoping to be involved in pro baseball his entire life, but sometimes fate takes over.
At first it was very promising. In the spring of 1980, while enroute to a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sports Administration from Biscayne College, now St. Thomas University, he interned with the Fort Lauderdale Yankees where he also served as the Clubbie in order to earn some money. It was fun, but it wasn’t exactly a life of leisure.
“I lived in the clubhouse with manager Doug Holmquist, pitching coach Stan Saleski and athletic trainer Paul Grayner,” Wiederecht said. “It was a quiet place to call home when the team played at home.”
Sonny Hirsch, the general manager of the Miami Orioles, offered him a paying job during that season when his internship was finished with two more months to go in the 1980 season.
“Lots of crazy things happened in 1980 in Miami Stadium where the Miami Orioles played,” Wiederecht said. “If you ever want to ask me about that we can talk on the phone!” he added with a laugh.
“The big reason I wanted to work for the Miami Orioles was because I could live in a dorm room at Biscayne College instead of the clubhouse in Fort Lauderdale Stadium.”
After graduating in December of 1980, Wiederecht hooked up with the Jacksonville Tea Men Soccer Club of the North American Soccer League the next month.
“I was hired by Dick Kravitz, the general manager,” he noted. “He had made his name as general manager of the Jacksonville Suns Southern League and Jacksonville Express of World Football League in its second and last season. I remembered in high school reading in The Sporting News that Dick Kravitz was 1973 AA Sporting News Executive of the Year when he was with the Suns.”
It wasn’t baseball but it was pro sports, and as it turned out, was relatively short-lived.
“Dick was the best person to learn how to sell advertising for game day programs, wall signs along the field, as well as getting advertisers to buy radio and TV time for the Tea Men,” said Wiederecht. “I worked two outdoor soccer seasons and two indoor seasons. Thomas J. Lipton decided in August 1982 to fold the team because of lack of attendance and the pending possibility of United States Football League coming to The Gator Bowl.”
Wiederecht went to the winter baseball meetings in Honolulu in December 1982 where he had lots of interviews with GMs and other executives of minor League clubs. He got only one firm job offer. It was with the AAA Albuquerque Dukes, the LA Dodgers farm club.
“Pat Mckiernan, president of the Dukes and former president of Eastern League, offered me the job,” he said. “He told me he needed someone to sell ads and tickets for the 1983 season. My salary would be $500 for the first two months. I agreed and was ready to go. A few days later he called me and told me to sell a $1,000 ad to my father and to make sure I brought a check with me. After I talked to my dad, we agreed it wasn’t a good idea to go all the way out to New Mexico. When I called Pat back he said you need to come out here with the check from your father because he already printed my business cards. I just finished with Pat by saying that I was still not coming out.”
With a job in baseball – or any sport – now looking bleak, Weiderecht looked elsewhere and got hired by Delta working sales and marketing in their Atlanta headquarters, eventually making his way to the airline’s Tampa office. He retired in August of 2020.
In June 2021, he was hired by the Phillies to work at BayCare Ballpark at the concession stand for the team’s spring training and the Threshers. Wiederecht has been with the team ever since.
“I was glad to be back in professional baseball, making hot dogs and working with some great people,” he said.
As noted, baseball has always been a big part of the Wiederecht family. Both his parents worked for the New York Yankees, his mom as a secretary to Ed Fisher in the promotions department at the team’s executive offices, starting in 1953. She handled fan mail, autograph requests, Old Timer’s Day invites, as well World Series ticket requests. Often she answered the numerous letters that Mickey Mantle and Casey Stengel received.
In 1955, there was a job opening for a statistician for the broadcast team of Mel Allen, Red Barber and Jim Woods. The job also required working with the new public relations director, Robert O. Fishel. His mom said there were more than hundred letters of people looking for jobs and she read every single one of them. After reading them, she gave them to Allen who put them in a briefcase, who then lost the briefcase! Allen asked her for a recommendation. His mom remembered one name in particular, although she did not know him personally. First name was Donald. He was a Fordham College graduate who had played baseball and had also been a former pitcher in the Yankees organization. He lived in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, not far from Yankee Stadium.
“That would be my dad,” Donald said. “He got the job and after spring training was with the team for all home and away games. He kept daily stats and after every game updated them and typed on a stencil which got copied so paper copies were always available.”
Mom and dad eventually dated and were married. His dad left in 1958 for a position with AMF Bowling. And mom?
“My mom left the Yankees after the 1957 World Series,” said Wiederecht. “With good reason. She was pregnant with me!”