Logan Bement ’16 may have stopped playing baseball after high school, but his love of the game has never diminished.
With a passion for marketing, a strong grasp of data analytics, and a powerful dose of initiative, Bement has launched a career that he hopes will enhance the best of Major League Baseball—both for the fans and the players.
As a UConn undergraduate, Bement spent three summers using his marketing skills with the Boston Red Sox, helping to promote the team’s two fan organizations, Red Sox Nation and Kid Nation. During the time he worked there, the Kid Nation program quadrupled its membership to 50,000, making it arguably one of the most successful children’s marketing programs in professional sports.
“Fenway Park was my office,” said Bement, a native of Kennebunk, Maine. “Working there was a life-long dream.”
His responsibilities included organizing and attending promotional events with the players, all of whom were extremely generous with their time, he said. He also worked on other fan-engagement events and promotions, using data when possible to make informed decisions.
Bement was able to shine when one particular promotion for Kid Nation was not meeting expectations. The Red Sox were offering a free child’s ticket with the purchase of an adult ticket for each child that signed up. They anticipated it would be a popular promotion, yet sales were sluggish.
“I wanted to jump in and see what value I could add to the team,” said Bement, who spent time analyzing the data about who was purchasing the tickets—and who wasn’t. “I used my initiative to see what I could do.”
Bement determined that the promotion was most popular with families that had three or four children and lived within 75 miles of the stadium. By refocusing the promotion to the fans who were most likely to redeem it, the discounted package became enormously successful.
“I think it is important to ‘think outside the box,'” Bement said. “We went in thinking one thing, and then had to double back. After some digging, we came up with a better solution.”
“I was also able to tackle projects such as membership growth, ticket sales and forecasting and retroactive analysis about what events and promotions worked and what didn’t,” he said. “Baseball has used analytics extensively with the players for years, but applying it to the fan base is much newer.”
Based on the work he did for Kid Nation, Bement recently won an inaugural $1,000 business intelligence and analytics scholarship from Izenda Inc., an Atlanta-based software company.
Bement graduated from UConn in May with a degree in marketing as well as a certificate in information management. A former high school shortstop and third-baseman, Bement also worked with the UConn baseball team as a video operations assistant, filming games using team software to help coaches and players with video analysis, which was used to make adjustments and for scouting.
He has just started a job with MLB’s Detroit Tigers, where he is assigned to its farm team, the Connecticut Tigers, who play in Norwich. Using Trackman Baseball data, gathered through a proprietary 3D Doppler radar system, Bement will measure the location, trajectory and spin rate of pitched and batted balls, enabling players and coaches to maximize their performance and development.
“Hopefully it will lead to better productivity on the field,” Bement said. “That’s why I want to work in baseball—to help a team win games.”
“My career path is awesome. It’s really cool,” Bement said. “A number of my friends who didn’t go to UConn are struggling to find jobs and career direction. My classes helped me follow my path and my passion. I think the combination of my classroom knowledge and the advice of my professors got me where I am now.”
