Grodin’s Grind: getting the Reno Aces where they need to be

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - He broke into sports dancing on dugouts.

Now Reno Aces Marketing & Baseball Operations Coordinator Chase Grodin is responsible for getting the Biggest Little City’s club in the dugout.

“If things go wrong there’s really only me that can make sure things get put back into place,” Grodin said of his responsibilities.

Grodin handles all things travel with the 775′s AAA club - planes, buses, hotels, whatever.

Boy does he have stories.

“We landed in Salt Lake three hours before first pitch,” Grodin remembers of one stressful travel situation. “We had Brandon Pfaadt on the mound that night and wound up winning so that was a fun one.”

Former Aces outfielder Alek Thomas has needed Grodin at a moment’s notice.

“He texted me and said ‘can you come get me?’ I said ‘yeah, I can come get you.’ I picked him up at 11:30 that night,” Grodin said of Thomas getting sent to AAA toward the end of the 2022 season. “He ended up helping us win a league championship.”

And Chase is always chasing the next arrangement, like making last-minute flight changes when a series finale in Tacoma, Washington doesn’t go as planned.

“I was playing an Easter kickball game and got told while I was playing that (kickball) game that our (baseball) game was going to be cancelled. We had to get as many people home as he could that night,” said Grodin.

When smoke rolled into Reno late last season Grodin scrambled to get the club to and from Sacramento. Fans got to see the the Aces clinch the division at home because of his maneuvers.

Reno won the Pacific Coast League by a single game over El Paso.

“Feeling like I’m a part of the team makes it all the while,” Grodin remarked on what gets him excited to come to work every day. “I think everything is really well done here. It’s a unique job I’m not sure I would have had the chance to do anywhere else.”

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