WAPPINGERS FALLS — Tyler Tumminia’s love of the game began with her father, John, a longtime scout with the Chicago White Sox. To this day, some of the best times are simply when father and daughter talk, and yes, argue, baseball.
This game has long been dominated by men, but Tyler has created her own path in the game, like the red stitches on a baseball.
She brings charisma to the field and front office as senior vice president of the Goldklang Group, which owns four minor league teams and a collegiate league team, and knows everything from marketing to field maintenance. She is just 33 years old.
Tumminia is not afraid to get her hands dirty. Last October she graduated the MLB Scout Development Program in Phoenix. That experience gave her new respect for her father’s job.
“For me, it was an eye-opener. The report writing is absolutely insane,” Tumminia told the Post at Dutchess Stadium, her passion for the game coming through in her voice. “I’ve looked over my father’s reports through the years. I sat with him plenty of games. He’s taught me a tremendous amount, but there is so much going on to be able to evaluate a player, and the multi-tasking is remarkable.
“It was tough, but it was something I
wanted to do. I’m on the business end of this game, but I’m always preaching to expand knowledge. I love this game, and I want to know everything about it.”
She smiled and added, “If I failed scout school, my father would have disowned me.
“Pops and I, that’s our thing. We always go to a game together. We always argue. We just have healthy disagreements about players. My mother at times has gotten very anxious when we’re going at it. My dad is Sicilian, I’m half Sicilian. The combo is probably deadly. Then we just look at each other and say, ‘All right, what are we having for dinner?’ ”
“The thing I love most about Tyler is that she is honest and genuine about what she’s trying to do in a business that can be tough,” John said of his daughter’s career. “There is a lot of authenticity in everything she does. She wants to learn all aspects of the game. She thrives being around baseball people, and she was like this when she was a kid. She takes after my wife [Susan]. She has her determination.”
Did we mention that all it takes is one look at Tyler to see that she adds new meaning to the phrase: the beauty of baseball. And yes, she is married to one of the bright young minds in the game, Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington. They had their first child in July, a girl named Adwen, which happens to be Tyler’s middle name .
You can imagine the many conversations the past few weeks between husband and wife, as Cherington engineered the blockbuster trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Dodgers, shedding $261 million in payroll from the Red Sox’s books to give the failed team flexibility to try to get back to the championship days of 2004 and 2007.
“We have a lot of fun talking baseball,’’ Tyler said. “Baseball is kind of what brought us together, but we do really try to make a conscious effort at the end of the day to remember that it’s a marriage first, and now we’re father and mother first. We try to make sure that we don’t become boring, always talking about baseball. We have a limit on that.
“We have disagreements about baseball,’’ she said. “That’s what is so great about the game.”
As for the difference in personalities, she noted, “Ben is a lot quieter than I am.”
Asked for her evaluation of the trade, she laughed and said: “I’m smart enough not to do that.”
Asked who loves baseball more, her or her husband, Tyler said, “That’s a great question. … I think we like it in different capacities. Everybody asks me, do I want to work in the major leagues? My makeup is not for that. At that point, the work is already done.”
In the minors, the game is a bit more fun.
Cherington is quick to take note of talent when he sees it, and told the Post this about his wife via email: “As a leader in a very successful and innovative company, and as a mentor to many throughout baseball, Tyler has made a huge impact on the game. But I’m most proud of the person she is and the positive influence she has on those outside the game and away from the public spotlight.
“I’m one of the lucky ones who is much better off being on her team.”
Yes he is, and her influence in the game will continue to grow. There’s even been some talk that someday Tyler Tumminia could become president of minor league baseball.
“My day pretty much entails anything from marketing, baseball ops, financial ops, everything there is to do to run a business,’’ she said.
She loved baseball so much she left the high-tech financial services and crisis communication field to intern for the Hudson Valley Renegades at age 26. Minor league baseball is where her heart lies, where the fan experience is much closer to the game.
Plus, she added with a devilish grin, “I couldn’t pull off half the promotions I like to pull off at the major league level.”
Promotions like the recent souvenir “cup” day for the collegiate league Pittsfield Suns.
“In typical fashion we gave 500 cups away to the first 500 fans,’’ she said. “It was an actual cup, a protective cup, so I don’t think I can get away with that.”
Yes, cup as in an athletic supporter, not a beverage container.
“That’s who I am,’’ Tyler said. “If somebody says to me, ‘You can’t do that.’ I always say, ‘Why not?’
“I like to have fun. This is a game at the end of the day. It is a business, and I have to make sure the revenue numbers are where they’re at. I have a boss I have to report to Marv Goldklang (a Yankees limited partner), so I have to make sure the teams are fruitful and the general managers make these teams very successful. We’ve got the best general managers in all of minor league baseball.”
Tumminia also is a good athlete who played softball.
“I have a plus, plus arm,’’ she said with a smile. Scout talk comes natural to her. She rides horses and owns a retired racehorse named Brave Soul. “My grandfather was a mounted police officer in Coney Island.”
Her current responsibilities include overseeing operations for five teams — the Charleston RiverDogs, a Yankees’ affiliate; the Hudson Valley Renegades, a Rays’ affiliate; the Twins’ Fort Myers Miracle; the Independent League St. Paul Saints; and Pittsfield, a team for which she is part owner.
She deals with marketing and broad scale sponsorship, baseball operations and communication. She developed the marketing philosophy, “Be your own fan.” Her development of the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame has received recognition throughout the industry.
“I always wanted to get into baseball, but it’s hard,” she said. “Everybody thinks it’s a walk-on because I knew some people, but you really have to have the whole package in order to walk in and knock the door down. You have to have smarts between the lines and outside the lines. You have to have the energy, desire and patience, baseball is a long, long day. Baseball is not a normal life. I don’t have a typical job. It’s kind of a role reversal.”
Over the past year Tumminia spoke at the SINC Conference in D.C. during the “Marketing Sport: Action & Adventure to Professional” panel and has given talks at many colleges, including Columbia, NYU, Michigan, San Diego, Florida and Georgia. In September, she will be speak at the NCAA Women’s Leadership Symposium in Boston. In October, she will take part in the world’s leading digital sports media conference Blogs with Balls in Toronto, and in November will speak at the Ivy Sports Symposium at Columbia.
She gives an in-depth look at the challenges of operating five minor league teams. She also uses that time to recruit top talent for Goldklang. Jesse Leeds-Grant, the marketing coordinator for the company, first got Tumminia’s attention when he asked some excellent questions at a talk at UMass five years ago.
“She essentially took me under her wing to mold me into not only the executive but the person I am today,’’ Leeds-Grant said. “I am proud to call her my role model.”
The scout in Tyler Tumminia always is on the lookout for talent on and off the field. It’s simply that way, when the game is forever in your blood.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com