MIRACLE

Minor league baseball: Fort Myers Miracle hires minister Ben Hemmen as new boss

DAVID DORSEY
USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA

Three months after the Fort Myers Miracle’s “Bobblection” once again accurately predicted the outcome of the presidential election, the Minnesota Twins' Class-A minor league affiliate hired a new man to oversee the next one.

Ben Hemmen, 38, an ordained minister and a Kansas native, has been named the Miracle's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Ben Hemmen, new executive vice president of the Fort Myers Miracle, takes in his new surroundings.

Steve Gliner, who held a similar role for the past 13 years, will be returning to Hudson Valley, New York, this time as the president of the Renegades, a Tampa Bay Rays affiliate in the New York-Penn League.

Andrew Seymour will continue in his Miracle front-office role as general manager and senior vice president.

Hemmen, born in Lawrence, Kansas, and raised by a Methodist minister in Hiawatha, Kansas, graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in business. He did not realize, at first, that his destiny would lie in promoting minor league baseball.

“I went from personal banking to real estate to being a substitute teacher for third grade in Kansas,” Hemmen said.

In 2008, Hemmen journeyed to Las Vegas for the baseball winter meetings, looking for a job.

“They had a business in baseball expo,” Hemmen said. “That’s where all of the minor league teams look for interns and look to fill job openings. There were 710 people there looking for jobs and 400-450 some jobs available.”

Hemmen became a 30-year-old intern making $900 a month in Omaha, Nebraska. There, he was involved in the move from historic Rosenblatt Stadium to the new Werner Stadium, and a rebranding from the Omaha Royals to the Omaha Storm Chasers. He also helped book musical acts, such as singer Selena Gomez, to perform after games.

“I credit that as a master's and Ph.D. of baseball operations,” Hemmen said of his Omaha experience. “The biggest thing in this business is to build a stadium or renovate a stadium and then help rebrand a team.”

Hemmen spent the past two years as the general manager of the High Desert Mavericks in the California League. He also has worked for the Bowling Green Hot Rods of the Midwest League.

“I’ve been blessed to be around great people,” Hemmen said. “Everything goes back to where you start, in Omaha.”

In Omaha, Hemmen became an ordained minister, which led to him marrying four couples at home plate as part of a promotion. He has some other ideas in mind for the 2017 season and beyond at Hammond Stadium and CenturyLink Sports Complex. He also will be overseeing spring training for the first time, with Gliner assisting him during the transition.

“The whole staff, they do a great job already,” Hemmen said. “For me, it’s all about family, fun, affordable entertainment. In Omaha, we’d do a game with fireworks and a concert of a top-10 contemporary Christian artist. I would love to bring in a big festival like that. It’s a great outlet for youth groups and men’s groups. That’s definitely going to be on the radar.”

Seymour said Gliner would be missed.

“He gets to go home, so to speak,” Seymour said of Gliner. “A place where he really got his feet wet and got himself established. It will be fun for him and his family to go back there. He’s still got great friends up there.”

Fans won’t miss any fun at the ballpark with the arrival of Hemmen, Seymour said.

“Ben comes from a good mindset of entertainment,” he said. “He’s a fan-first thinker. It will just mean a new angle of more fun at the ballpark. He’s an enterprising guy. He brings a good deal of experience with him.”