Wisconsin Timber Rattlers thriving on and off the field as High-A affiliate of Milwaukee Brewers

GRAND CHUTE – Rob Zerjav has been with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers for 28 years. The UW-Whitewater grad started as an unpaid intern and, along with the ballclub, is a success story.

In 2020, Zerjav became a minority owner when Third Base Ventures, an entity led by Green Bay entrepreneur Craig Dickman, purchased the Timber Rattlers, the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders and Fox Cities Stadium.

Business has been good on and off the field, and this season the Timber Rattlers have a 51-30 overall record. They won the first-half Midwest League Western Division title to clinch their first playoff berth since 2016 and first division title since 2012.

Zerjav sat down with The Post-Crescent to talk about being president, CEO and managing partner of the Milwaukee Brewers’ High-A affiliate.

Did you expect to be CEO of a baseball team when you started with the Timber Rattlers all those years ago?

“CEO? No. The hope was to be a GM. Mike Birling was my GM in '97 when I was an intern. He was 24ish years old. So when I saw that, I saw it as an opportunity and I didn't know a lot about minor league baseball, but just fell in love with everything about it. I’ve always been a baseball fan – the family aspect, the entertainment, baseball. Everything combined and I just wanted to be in minor league baseball and if Mike is doing it at such a young age, I wanted to do whatever I could to get there and run a club as fast as I could. I just kind of immersed myself in anything and everything. You need help here. I'll help.

“I just wanted to learn everything about the business and figured I'd have to bounce around the country like everyone else and pay my dues and maybe eventually get to come back to the area. But every time I was ready to move on, something opened here. I was 27 when I got to be president and GM. And then CEO title and co-owner title happened in 2020 because of COVID.”

Among other people running minor league baseball teams, where do you fall on the age scale?

“You see, that's funny. I'm getting old now. I think when we look back at this and we're long gone and people look back, they're going to say that when it was the ’90s, it was the golden age of minor league baseball. We were all young and I was one of the younger ones. Even Mike Birling isn't much older than I am right now and he's running the Durham Bulls. Some of my really good friends like Mike Nutter, who runs the Fort Wayne TinCaps, is a little bit older than me, but he's the president of that club. Jim Jarecki, who is the GM in West Michigan, is again a little bit older than me but I always look at us as being about the same age.

“From the president/CEO, I'm still probably on the younger side. GMs are going to be a little bit younger. We were all so young at the time and have just kind of risen in the game. It was starting to get away from the mom-and-pop in the ’90s and then it became a business and a bigger business and now it's at the point where it's a very healthy industry. And you don't see a lot of teams taking a chance on a 24- or 27-year-old to run the whole thing.”

What’s the biggest challenge as CEO?

“It really came with everything happening at the same time with COVID − losing our season, MLB saying they were going to take over, they were going to reduce the number of teams. There was just so much uncertainty. We were a community-owned team. Very successful. Self-sustaining. But when it became apparent you're not going to have a season – if we're not making any money, we can't stay in business. MLB was saying, ‘Well, they can't even stay in business, let's just chop them off and they'd be one of the teams that are gone.’ So it was how do we save this club and keep baseball in Appleton?

“We've always been successful when we could play games. That was the biggest challenge at the time and we got through that and transitioned to an ownership group and I think it's been great. We've been able to purchase the stadium as well, so we got the team and the stadium and those need to co-exist. That's been a big, big help to our business and what we're doing here.

“But then it was Major League Baseball saying, ‘You made it. You're one of the 120. You have to sign this 10-year agreement. No questions asked. Here it is. You have to create new player amenities.’ We knew it was going to be millions and millions of dollars to do renovations, but we decided we were going to go with that.

“We knew what the playbook was. We knew we could be successful. We knew that we were going to be a Brewers affiliate, which is obviously every important to our organization and what we're doing here. Getting through all of that, it was happening so fast. To look back at it now, it's amazing how much we've accomplished in the last three or four years and where we were and where we've come. We're in such a good spot now.”

There have been a lot of renovations to the stadium since it was first constructed here in Grand Chute. What are you thinking about for future renovations?

“We've done a lot. I feel like ‘This Is Your Life.’ Just this past week two individuals I worked with who were on the full-time staff back in 1997 – David Frost, who was our director of promotions, and Gary Mayse, who was our assistant general manager – were in town and I gave them the tour. I took Gary up to the top of the big slide and he said, ‘I’m not going down the slide.’ I said, ‘No, let's just go take a look at the view because it's spectacular.’ He said, ‘Just think when we first started, nothing was in the outfield. From a revenue standpoint, from a fan amenity standpoint, look at what you've done here from the Miller Lite home run porch to the party deck in right-center field and the bullpens being in the outfield and the 360 degree concourse, the outfield lofts above left field and the Capital Credit Union slide.’ When I first started, it was just kind of swamp land back there.

“Everything that we've done just to make it a fun ballpark, all the different areas for all the different age groups, it's just a really great place to watch a ballgame. It doesn't matter if you're a baseball fan, a tremendous baseball fan, I'm a big believer in being able to walk around. You want to take advantage of viewpoints from different areas. We were able to accomplish all that. I feel really good about where we're at.

“As for the future, I'd love for an area where kids could play catch. We've got a great play area for younger kids. But kids in that 10-11-12 age, they bring their gloves. They don't want to watch it. They want to do it. We have a small area for that. It'd be great to develop an area where kids could play catch. Maybe it's a wiffle ball field and how we can tie that all together. Just make a really neat area for some of the older kids to play. That would be the next thing.

“If you'd ask our fans in April they'd say a dome, but I don't think that's going to happen.”

The Timber Rattlers have a promotion of some type at every home game. Is the Udder Tuggers the best promotion ever? Did you expect it to be as wildly successful as it has been?

“No, I didn’t. We really thought it was a great logo. You want to be borderline risqué because that's what gets the attention. We thought we were and we were a little worried on the kind of reaction we'd get. I remember when we dropped the Udder Tuggers because we had our golf outing – our charity golf outing – and it just exploded. Social media went crazy. We literally sold out all our merchandise in two hours. We were on the golf course trying to figure out how to get more merchandise and keep this thing going.

“It was just fantastic. It was lightning in a bottle and it's just continued. We've done it every year. And from one game, now it's an Udder Tuggers weekend with four days Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All four days we have great promotions and so many companies want to be a part of it. The uniforms are fantastic.

“If you can't make the one game, that's where we've seen the biggest success. There's an opportunity for four games. It's going to be a little bit different every time but you're still going to get that Udder Tuggers experience. Everybody just loves the brand and they take such pride in it. We were just featured on (ESPN) SportsCenter on Saturday morning. You could tell when it aired because we had 50 orders within three minutes. Not in my wildest dreams did I think it would do what it did.”

The contract for the Timber Rattlers runs with the Brewers through the year 2030. How is the relationship with the people in Milwaukee?

“It couldn't be better. We've always had a good relationship, but it's a point with the synergies that are there now we're all on the same page. They see the benefits of us. We see the benefits of them. What we've done here with our home clubhouse with the folks that have come in from Major League Baseball and from other minor league teams, we have the best home clubhouse in minor league baseball. The Brewers see that. The Brewers rehabs who come through have seen that. We just missed it timing-wise with Christian Yelich. He'd heard about our clubhouse and wanted to see it. That’s the kind of thing we wanted to do to show how important that relationship was. Getting the rehabs is important to our fanbase even though they can go to Milwaukee and see Yelich and Adames and Woodruff and Devin Williams. Having them back in their back yard is just special.

“It's so neat when they come here and you can get up close and personal with them and see them in a Timber Rattlers uniform. The Brewers know how important that is to us. They are trying to whenever they can to get the guys to get here but it all depends on timing. We have to be home and they have to be ready. We would have loved to have Garrett Mitchell come back here but we were on the road for two weeks.

“From the baseball operations side, it's fantastic. From the business side, it's just great. We have a great relationship with (Brewers president of business operations) Rick Schlesinger. We have great relations with that whole group down there.”

According to baseball-reference.com, the Midwest League is averaging more than 3,400 fans per game. How would you say it is faring?

“Really, really good. I think strategically Major League Baseball in reducing from 160 teams to 120 looked at what are the markets that can't sustain baseball anymore. Some of them have great tradition and history.

“You look at the Burlington Bees. They'd been a Midwest League team since the inception of the league. They’ve been a part of baseball in our area for a very, very long time but Burlington is just such a small market that they just can't sustain what minor league baseball has become. They've gone on to become a summer college wood bat league and have been extremely successful.

“They were really worried about it. They're still the Burlington Bees. Burlington looks at it as they're still our Bees. They're just not affiliated with the Angels anymore. They've actually cut their expenses because they don't have to pay the ticket tax to MLB like they used to. They're actually more successful now. So you're seeing it actually worked out well for some of these smaller markets that wanted to stay in minor league baseball but MLB looked at it strategically from that standpoint.

“The teams that remained in the Midwest League all were really successful. You look at the Dayton Dragons, who I believe lead all of minor league baseball in attendance. We're a single-A league competing against Double-A and Triple-A markets. I want to say the Midwest League is one of the strongest leagues in the entire country from operators to stadiums to just the close travel. Everything is going really well for us and a lot of the others.”

As is important with all jobs, are you having fun being in charge of a minor league baseball team?

“Yeah. It's a lot of fun when things are going well. A lot of dominoes have to fall in place and I look back and ask, ‘How did I not panic and go crazy or have a heart attack from worry?’ I think everything had to happen so fast. And there was not time to think. It was, ‘This is what we need to have happen and this is what we have to do.’ It was almost a survival instinct and I loved getting through all of that and how we got through all of that. During COVID, the vast majority of teams were laying people off and letting them go and we were able to keep everybody – full salary, full benefits. We kept everybody intact. We kind of looked at it as a long-range plan and said when COVID is done, we're going to come out of this running and we have and we haven't stopped. I'm just so proud of what we've been accomplishing and been able to accomplish and how we've built this on such solid ground. And knowing that in essence and, again I don't know if I can say it, but we saved baseball for Appleton and it's going to be here for a long time because of what we've been able to build and how we're looked at by MLB and our peers, the awards we've been given over the last couple of years.

“It's been really special and I just thoroughly enjoy it. I grew up as the baseball kid in a football town. And now that I'm part-owner of a baseball team, it's one of my wildest dreams knowing that anything is going to be possible.”