During the summer in Peoria, Arizona, running a baseball operations tower at USA Baseball’s National Team Championships is a full-time gig.
And the staff at the Padres tower is keeping it in the family.
Rob Moran and his kids, AJ, Adriana, and Mo, have captained the operations tower at the San Diego Padres’ spring training facility and quad of fields for the past five summers at USA Baseball’s National Team Championships in Peoria, Arizona.
It all started with AJ, who invited his dad to work with him after scoring games at the event for a summer. Rob joined, and soon enough, he was running the operation as tower supervisor. Now, the whole family reconvenes every summer to work the competition and run the best tower possible.
“Priority number one is score the games, make sure everything's going good,” Rob Moran said. “But we have fun when we're up here. We try to treat everyone that comes up here with respect and make it fun, and we take care of our task force — it’s just an awesome experience.”
Together, they score games, make sure participants and parents alike stay cool, and oversee operations during the Champs event to a tee. Most importantly, they have fun while doing it.
“We do whatever we can to make the experience the best, not just for the teams, but the parents,” Rob Moran said. “I mean, they come out here, it's hot, we're hot, so we just try to make the best out of every moment that we're here and and enjoy it and have fun while we're doing it.”
Originally from California, the now-Arizona-based family revels in the time they get to spend together while in the tower each summer. As a high-school teacher during the year, Rob’s summer makes up for some late nights during the school year. When June begins and the National Team Championships begin, the timing is just right.
“My dad's been super busy during the school year, and there's times where it's late evenings, early mornings, so there's not a lot of time, but we're going to make up for that time here,” AJ Moran said. “And I look forward to that. We’re not really trapped in this tower, but there’s nowhere else we could be… We’re like, ‘This is great, let’s spark up a conversation, spend some quality time together and catch up on things.’”
However, as the family grows older and years pass by, it’s hard for the them to find time together. However, they all look forward to operating the Padres’ tower every summer.
“It gives me an opportunity to spend time with them,” Rob Moran said. “As they're getting older, they're starting to do their own thing. So any opportunity I can get to be around them is great.”
Not only does spending hot afternoons in the Padres tower bring the family together, it gives Rob a chance to watch his children grow, learn, and develop as individuals.
Whether it was with AJ, who Rob was able to watch graduate college while working the tower, or his younger son, Mo, who moved from measuring throw velocities to scoring games, summers in Peoria give him a chance to see his kids grow up right before his eyes.
“I just enjoy watching them grow as young individuals — allowing them to communicate with other adults and other people that have been in this game for a long time,” Rob Moran said. “For me, it's a win-win, because they're learning a lot of these skills.”
AJ and the rest of Rob’s kids know just how special their time is with their father.
“I don't think there's anywhere he'd rather be than right here with us, just working, watching baseball, talking baseball and all that,” AJ Moran said.
While the time the Moran’s have is special for their family, they don’t mess around at Padres Tower. In fact, according to staff, the Moran’s run the best tower at all of Champs Arizona, and they take pride in doing so.
USA Baseball’s Task Force — the scouting group responsible for assembling national teams at National Team Championships — always looks forward to visiting Padres Tower. In return, the Moran’s couldn’t say enough about working with the staff that they often host throughout the day.
“I can't say enough about the staff, on how they treat us and how they interact with us, and they come up here, they check on us, they support us,” Rob Moran said. “It's something that we look forward to every year.”
While they love the staff, Rob and company also appreciate the relationships they build with family and participants throughout the hot summers in Peoria.
“We feel appreciated by USA Baseball and all that,” Rob Moran said. “But to feel that appreciation from the parents and the kids too — sometimes the athletes will come up here and tell us, ‘Hey, thank you for all your work.’ But that's every year, I love just seeing them and looking forward to that, and then kind of sharing their appreciation for us and what we do.”
Every summer’s a blast for the Moran’s at Champs Arizona. After creating a dynasty of “Tower of the Year” they aren’t planning to stop anytime soon.
“It's really nice to do it every year,” Rob Moran said. “And so as long as they continue to like what Padres tower is doing, and we continue to strive to be the tower of the year, then we'll keep coming back.”
