By: Jake Gonzalez
The L train rumbles and screeches its way down the track. The train makes occasional stops as it picks people up, but no one is getting off.
Not yet.
As the L rumbles and rattles its way along the track, bright white picket fences begin to appear in the distance above the rooftops. The passengers anxiously await the historical building that those picket fences help encase.
Old Yankee Stadium begins to appear. The large white Louisville Slugger bat towers near the home plate entrance. George Chavous is not interested in heading straight into Yankee Stadium.
“We would wait until the second or third inning and go to the right-field entrance,” Chavous revealed. “We had an usher down there who would let us hop the turnstile. If we gave him a dollar. We started calling him Dollar Bill.”
Today, Chavous is the director of customer service for the Birmingham Barons. The Baronsare the Double-A minor league affiliate for the Chicago White Sox. He was an usher for four years with the Barons and served as the head usher for nine seasons in Birmingham before taking his current role in 2013.
Chavous’ wrinkled dark skin is offset by his large white smile that fills up the room with a glow. It wasn’t a “direct path” for Chavous to get here but when he got his opportunity, he jumped at it. Chavous spent 30 years of his life working in music and marketing before ending up in Birmingham. Chavous’ focus was to get the music onto black radio stations and take artists to record stores and concerts to market their albums. He would focus on the secondary markets before taking it to big markets such as New York, Chicago and Detroit.
“The marketing we did was mostly the black music,” said Chavous. “[Record labels] never really penetrated the black market too much. They did a feasibility report and found that there is gold to be made in the black market.”
Chavous worked with Columbia Records, Universal Records and Philadelphia International before going independent. His work sent him all over the country and from ballpark to ballpark as he worked with the likes of Bob Marley.
His passion and love for baseball never left him. He grew up playing little league, and his father would take him to the Negro League games in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
“There were two things I always made time for,” he said. “A baseball game and a golf course.”
Chavous spends his days at the ballpark now. Enjoying his “peanuts and a bottle of coke,” while the Barons take on one of their Southern League opponents, he helps welcome each guest who strolls into Regions Field.
“It’s a good gig,” said Chavous. “I really enjoy doing it.”
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