ICView Magazine

Not all of the IC alumni affiliated with the Yankees were fans of the team growing up, but all recognize they are with a premier franchise.

Mike Medvin ’03, a YES producer, traveled and stayed in hotels with the team for 10 years while working on game broadcasts. “Traveling with the most recognizable logo in all of sports was an incredible experience,” he said. “It wasn’t unusual to arrive at a hotel at 3 a.m. after a night game and see fans lined up waiting to see Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez, and other high-profile players.”

“The New York Yankees brand resonates, whether you’re a fan, whether you’re trying to become an employee, or whether you’re holding a Cortaca football game at the stadium,” said Justin Pintak ’18, who works as a specialist on the premium sales and service team. “The power of the brand is global, and it’s strong.” 

“The coaching staff there was great,” Locastro said. “They welcomed me with open arms, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life.” He still speaks and texts frequently with his former IC coaches George Valesente ’66 and Frank Fazio ’67, and many teammates. “We know each other’s swings, and we know each other’s style of play,” he said. “And it’s nice to have an outside perspective.” 

His strong collegiate play put him on the radar of pro scouts, particularly in his junior year when he earned all-American honors and was named Empire 8 Player of the Year while leading the Bombers to a third-place finish in the Division III College World Series. They qualified for the World Series in Tim’s hometown, Auburn, beating rival SUNY Cortland.

He joined the Toronto Blue Jays organization that summer, 2013, following his junior year. “My teammates and coaches helped me get there. They put me in a position to succeed,” Locastro said. “Then you’ve got to go out there and perform.”

Locastro has done just that, playing with 10 minor league teams and three major league squads (Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Yankees) at six positions—all but pitcher, catcher, and third base. Among his many attributes, his speed has set him apart. He holds the Major League record for most steals without being caught to begin a career with 29. Taking better advantage of his speed was also the reason he transitioned to playing the outfield, giving him a leg up covering a more expansive territory than in his IC position at shortstop. “Whatever this team needs—whether it’s coming o! the bench to pinch-run, pinch-hit, or play late-inning defense, or to start a game—I’m willing to do that to help this team win,” he said. 

As for Kaitlin Maniscalco ’21, who also majored in integrated marketing communications, she played travel softball with the daughter of an executive producer with the YES Network. He invited her to come in for a day to observe, and that led to a summer internship before her junior year. In the spring of her senior year, they o!ered her a job as a graphic coordinator for digital media. “I’m very appreciative for the Park School of Communications and the experience that I was able to get outside of the classroom, on and o! campus,” she said. “I think that translates exactly into the work that I’m doing today.” 

A touchstone learning moment occurred for Perlish as a junior at IC during a semester-long internship in Los Angeles. On his first assignment assisting a cameraman at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game, his supervisor told him he would be interacting with superstar athletes and celebrities, and advised him to “act like you’ve been here before.” So, as they were setting up a camera by the tunnel outside the Lakers locker room, Kobe Bryant walked by and said, “Sup man; how ya doin”—followed closely by Shaquille O’Neal, with a similar greeting, then the Lakers cheerleaders—and later, actor Jack Nicholson was seated nearby. “I’ve always been taught to focus on my job and to take it seriously,” Perlish said. “The hard part isn’t getting your foot in the door; it’s staying there.” 

As the Yankees’ executive director of financial operations, Mike Parker ’06, MBA ’07, has a distinctive view of the team: he works with all 60-plus Yankees departments to develop budgets and forecasts that give senior management and the ownership a full view of the operation. He’s not involved in player salary and acquisition decisions, though he says he’s occasionally called upon to lay out the impact on the budget of “signing Player X,” considering the salary cap and luxury tax implications.

But those aren’t the only responsibilities for Parker, who majored in accounting at IC before getting his MBA: “We’re a big brand obviously, but we’re still kind of a small, family-run organization. The front o!ice is only about 200 or 250 people,” he said. “So, each of us takes on something a little bit outside of our day jobs.”

His department also manages the club’s game-used authentication program, working with a Major League Baseball representative at each game to authenticate items that were used in the game— baseballs, bases, broken bats, and whatnot—that will go up for sale. This is one way the league combats counterfeiting. Fulfilling those duties led to one of his fondest Yankees memories when, during his first year with the team in 2013, he needed to be in the locker room on Old Timers’ Day as former players gathered and signed memorabilia.

“Just to see Yogi Berra, Don Larsen, Bobby Brown, Bobby Richardson, and some of those great players from the great teams in the ’50s and the ’60s was another of those pinch-me type moments. It was just cool to be a fly on the wall in that situation to see those guys reunite and swap old war stories.”

The pinch-me atmosphere often bubbles up, he said. “The goal of what we’re doing is to try and help the team win the World Series. And just the fact that that’s the ultimate goal of what I do is a little bit unbelievable, like ‘How the heck did I get here?’” 

COVID also threw a curveball at the YES Network, shutting down live games, but leading the network to explore new ways of putting content on the air, according to Medvin, a producer of both live game broadcasts and studio programs who was scheduled to travel with the Yankees in 2020. Instead, he and his colleagues worked at home, producing shows with Zoom interviews. And when baseball came back in summer 2020, they still produced all their games, home and away, from Yankee Stadium. “One of the silver linings of COVID for the television industry was learning how to do things differently that may be beneficial in the future,” Medvin said. “For example, in the past when we did a studio show and wanted a guest to join from home, they would call in, and it would be voice only. Now, because of COVID, they can Zoom in. It’s funny how things work.”