In the world of sports careers, Mike Feder hit a home run. The Tucson-based sports executive has enjoyed a 30-year, highly successful career in baseball team management as well as five years in football. As the current coordinator of Southern Arizona special projects for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Mike has the distinction of being the only person in minor league baseball to receive the “Executive of the Year Award” in all league classifications – Class A, Double A and Triple A.
A unique opportunity in February provided Mike with a chance to share his passion for sports and also demonstrate how Jewish involvement impacts the world at large. The venue was Tucson’s Congregation Anshei Israel, which hosted a three-week “Wisdom of Jewish Tucson” adult education series. As a presenter on three occasions, Mike elaborated on the connection between Jews and sports, while throwing out interesting statistics on Jewish business connections to teams, as well. Many in the audience were surprised to learn nearly half the principal owners of NBA teams are Jewish, as are the league’s current commissioner and its immediate past commissioner. He also peppered his talks with stories on sports icons such as Mark Spitz, Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, who became legendary for his bold stance of not pitching on Yom Kippur.
“I’ve always paid attention to all the Jews in sports, whether they were commissioners, players, general managers, coaches or players, both past and present,” explains Mike. “I’ve always taken pride in who the Jewish participants were.”
Mike also explored the reasons why Jewish kids were drawn to baseball early in the sport’s rise to becoming America’s favorite pastime. “The game had an allure to inner city kids, who started out playing stickball while dreaming of becoming baseball players,” he says. “It also was new territory yet to be claimed by an ethnic group.”
Richard Fink, president of the congregation and a huge baseball fan, gave Mike a high score on his talks. “He’s been highly successful in the sports industry,” Richard says. “I believe it’s come from his Jewish upbringing. He brings the ethics and values of Judaism to what he does. He’s very proud of his Jewish heritage and speaks of it often in his business life. He totally engaged the audience, and it was interesting that there were a lot of people there who did not realize the extent of Jews in sports.”
College baseball games set the stage for Mike’s lifelong love affair with the minor league game. “I just loved going to see the Iowa Oaks with my fraternity brothers,” he explains. “That’s when I realized there was a future working in sports.” Becoming general manager of the Burlington Bees Class A team in Burlington, IA, got the ball rolling on a career that consistently climbed to new professional heights. Mike went on to become manager of the Wausau Mets in Wisconsin, with later management jobs in Cocoa Beach, El Paso, Daytona Beach, Jackson, MS, Tucson, Davenport and New Orleans, where he was the director of regional sales and marketing for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints.
“I grew up in Chicago, idolizing Ernie Banks and being an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs,” Mike says. “You can officially say my first job in baseball was cleaning Wrigley Field,” he adds with a laugh. “My friends and I each took one row, lifting the wooden seats and cleaning the stadium. Our reward was a free ticket to the next day’s game. We then went out and got autographs.”
In 2006 retirement beckoned, and Mike returned to Tucson. Fate said “not so fast” and he promptly became general manager of the Tucson Padres in 2011. Ultimately the team moved to El Paso and for the last two years Mike has been the coordinator of special projects for the Arizona Diamondbacks, serving in a variety of capacities: ticket sales, marketing, community affairs, and baseball outreach and development. The outreach programs identify and execute programs that enhance the connection with new and existing fans in the region. “It’s important to have a presence in Tucson and for the people in Southern Arizona to be more involved with the Diamondbacks,” he says.
Mike points with pride to the philanthropic activities of the Diamondbacks organization, which recently gave $76,000 to the Tucson Jewish Community Center to support a youth development area. “They also provided six underprivileged Little League organizations with hats and uniforms for all players in Diamondback colors, a program that has already been successful in the Phoenix area.”
Mike has an equally strong altruistic passion. During his 20 years in Tucson, he has served on the boards of numerous organizations such as the Father’s Day Council, which raises money for Steele Research Center helping kids with type 1 diabetes, the Tucson Police Foundation board and Caballeros del Sol civic organization. He is also an honorary commander at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.
After working in baseball for more than 30 years, Mike has some reflections to share. “The years I wasn’t working in it, I was a fan. I love the people in the game differently than a fan does. I know the athletes as human beings, not as numbers. I also know how hard they’ve worked to achieve what they have; they are the best of the best.”
Melissa Hirschl
