M Streets resident Kellie Fischer has a baseball buff’s dream job, in which she regularly trades pranks with baseball legend Nolan Ryan and watches at-bats from her office window.
When Fischer launched her career in finance and accounting in 1995, she didn’t anticipate landing in the world of professional sports. But today, she’s chief financial officer of the Texas Rangers and vice president of Hicks Sports Group Inc., and offices next door to Ryan above Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
Fischer says she was happy with her post-college, number-crunching job in the audit division at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, but when a friend told her about an opportunity with the Rangers, she couldn’t pass it up.
“I knew if I didn’t give it a shot while I had the chance, I’d just kick myself for it.”
Ten years later, Fischer oversees all financial matters, information technology and ticketing operations — on any given day she could be buried in paperwork or attending meetings with Ryan or Rangers general manager Jon Daniels.
“I never know what a day might bring,” she says.
Fischer drives daily from her neighborhood home to Rangers Ballpark. She says that even when gas cost her $12 a day, it was worth every red cent, because as far a workplaces go, it’s a real sweet spot — in fact, she’s not the only M Streets neighbor making the commute.
“I have three neighbors — all of us live within 10 blocks of each other — who are high-level executives with the organization.”
There is Thad Levine, assistant general manager, who lives on Llano; Dan Fine, vice president of ticket sales, who lives on Martel; and Terry Turner, vice president of human resources, who lives on Mercedes.
Kelly says it’s probably a coincidence that in this big city, they chose to work for the same organization and live in the same neighborhood, but maybe it has something to do with personality.
“We are a pretty hilarious group … we work hard, but we have a lot of fun, too,” Fischer says.
Case in point: Fischer was out of the office one day when the office staff’s photo ID credentials arrived.
“Nolan got a hold of my photo and colored in the teeth.”
She got back at him.
“At my own expense, I had ‘I heart Ventura’ T-shirts made.”
Robin Ventura was the Chicago White Sox player whom Ryan — shortly before retiring from pitching — notoriously secured in a headlock and delivered an on-the-mound pummeling.
“The whole staff, Jon Daniels included, wore them to the office on the same day and waited for Nolan in his office. Nolan was talking on his cell phone when he entered the office. He stopped dead in his tracks and said, ‘Lemme call ya back.’”
Fisher recalls Ryan’s reaction to the stunt: “He put me in a headlock.”
Turner says that sort of atmosphere isn’t unusual among the group.
“The beauty of working in sports is that you know you have everyone kind-of pulling on the same end of the rope, and people are really passionate about their work,” Turner says.
That passion seems to translate to an intense work ethic, too. Take Fine, who handles ticket sales for all Hicks Sports Group teams. During this interview, he’s on a train to Liverpool, England — home of Tom Hicks’ Liverpool Football Club. Here in Dallas, Fine runs the Rangers/Dallas Stars in-city ticket office near the Crescent Hotel that opened in 2006.
“I was born and raised in Dallas, and the Rangers have been my favorite team since their first season,” Fine says. “I have a passion for the team, win or lose. That’s it.
“Sometimes over the years, it has felt like a one-way love affair, but you take the good with bad, and with our core team, it’s real easy to support them and find a large group of fans to support the Hamiltons, Youngs, Kinslers … and watch out — something really big is about to happen.”
And like a true salesman, Fine enticingly leaves it at that.
Turner, the human resources vice president, also handles risk management at the ballpark. We caught up with him the day after Rangers Opening Day. An avid sports fan since he was a kid, Turner says it would be just about impossible to have a more enjoyable career.
“The president of the company is a baseball legend — Nolan Ryan — it doesn’t get any better than that,” Turner says. “The fact that he has the ability to make and take jokes is refreshing, too. It’s hard to imagine working for someone better than that.”
Perhaps the unique character that makes these folks so successful and gregarious landed them in a neighborhood that arguably has just as much character. Nestled among rolling hills with a bustling lake to its east and an expressway to Downtown to its west, the M Streets (a portion of which is also known as Greenland Hills), is one of East Dallas’ sought-after neighborhoods. For the most part, the homes aren’t ostentatious or boastful but individualized, historic, quaint and often pampered with lush and colorful landscaping peeking out from behind big old trees.
Turner says his house was built in 1928, and before he and his wife moved in, it hadn’t been remodeled since the ’70s.
“Now we’ve got it pretty much the way we want it,” he says.
Fischer lives in a newly built home, and says Levine influenced her choice of residency. Levine spent six seasons working for the Colorado Rockies and moved here in 2005 to fill the assistant general manager position when Daniels was promoted to general manager.
“I knew he’d researched the neighborhoods since he was moving from Colorado — no one does research on real estate like someone moving from out of town,” Fischer says. “So I sort-of followed.”
True, Levine and his wife spent a good deal of time researching the area. “We ultimately made our decision based upon going to Tietze Park one Saturday morning and interacting with some families at the playground who raved about the neighborhood,” he says. “We were sold.”
Fine loves living in our little pocket of the world just about as much as he loves the Rangers.
“I always loved the neighborhood. I love Glencoe Park. I love eating with my favorite waiter in the world, C.M. Jones, at Kirby’s,” Fine says. “I love the characters that walk up and down our street and enjoy the outdoor activities around the ’hood.”
As for making the commute from their neighborhood homes to the Arlington office, the M Streets gang agrees it’s not that bad.
“I wish more people realized how easy it is to get [to the ballpark] from here,” Turner says.
Though the job doesn’t come without stresses, this group agrees they hit a home run with their respective careers.
“Even if I’m slaving away at my desk, I can look out the window and see the field and the big new scoreboard,” Fischer says.
And Levine calls it a “dream job”.
“There is not a day that goes by without me thinking how exceptionally fortunate I am to love my job. Shy of being a professional baseball player, I cannot think [of anything better],” he says, “and I work with a group of people that I respect and consider good friends.”
