Clippers gameday mainstay got his start in '67 

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- If you’ve attended a Minor League Baseball game in Columbus, Ohio, at any point over the last 56 years, then one thing is almost certain: Marvin Dill was there in the ballpark with you.

In 1967, Dill began working for the Columbus Jets, assisting in the visitors' clubhouse. He was barely a teenager then, adrift and directionless, describing himself as “one of those kids who just didn’t care.” Working at Jets Stadium -- later renamed Cooper Stadium – provided the stability and structure he was otherwise lacking.

“The ballpark gave me a life that I wouldn’t have had,” said Dill, speaking prior to a September Clippers game. “It’s just a job that really helped me out. It made me a better person, in my opinion, because I didn’t care about life. I’d rather fight with you then look at you, and [working at the ballpark] taught me not to do that no more.”

The Jets – Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates -- relocated to Charleston, W.Va., following the 1970 season, leaving Columbus without a professional baseball team for the first time since 1894. Triple-A ball returned in 1977 with the arrival of the Clippers, who operated out of Cooper Stadium until 2008. Dill spent the entirety of that time as the International League team’s visiting clubhouse manager, a period which included a brief affiliation with the Pirates (1977-78) and a lengthy one with the New York Yankees (1979-2008).

When the Clippers moved to their current home of Huntington Park in 2009 -- the same season in which their ongoing affiliation with Cleveland began -- Dill transitioned to the role of “Support Service.”

In this capacity, a combination of security guard and receptionist, Dill says he “sends people where they have to go in the ballpark.” Just look for the entrance with a big blue baseball cap over the door and there you’ll find him, sitting behind a desk while welcoming a steady stream of ballpark denizens. These arrivals include coaches, scouts and gameday employees of all stripes, many of whom have known Dill for decades. When Jalal Leach, now a scout, walked through the door, Dill introduced him as a “gentleman who played in the International League back in 1995.”

“1994, ’95 and 2002,” clarified Leach, a member of the Clippers in each of those seasons. Their ensuing conversation ended with Leach exclaiming “See you next year, Marvin!” Indeed, he will.

Encounters with people like Leach provide Dill with the opportunity to reminisce about the three-plus decades he spent as the Clippers' visiting clubhouse manager. He crossed paths with thousands of players and coaches and, during the time in which the Clippers were affiliated with the Yankees, traveled to Fort Lauderdale to work Spring Training as well.

Over the years, Dill witnessed a stream of luminaries go from the International League to Major League stardom, often meeting them again as they returned to Columbus for exhibition games or rehab assignments. Willie Stargell, Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs are just three of the future Hall of Famers he got to know.

“When you give respect, you get respect,” said Dill, succinctly summing up his overriding philosophy regarding clubhouse manager-player relations.

It’s hard work being a clubhouse manager, comprised of bleary-eyed bus unloading, unorthodox errands on behalf of the players and, of course, endless loads of laundry.

“I quit counting,” he said. “But I told somebody the other day, ‘I’d like to have a dollar for every time I washed a uniform.’”

Dill looks back at it all with fondness, exuding gratitude for the game of baseball and what it meant -- and continues to mean -- to his life. He even met his wife, Mary, better known by her nickname of Wezi, at Cooper Stadium. She was working concessions, and the two were introduced by her aunt.

“I told her, ‘Baseball’s my life,’” recalled Dill. “In the summertime you won’t see me.”

In other words: If the Clippers are playing, then Marvin Dill will be working the game.

“I’ve been around this ballpark since I was a kid,” he said. “This is my home away from home.”