What it takes to get the Detroit Tigers on the road

DETROIT – What does it take to get a professional baseball team on the road?

Local 4 was given access inside the Detroit Tigers locker room and beyond to find out.

Jim Schmakel is the clubhouse and equipment manager for the team. He's been with the organization since 1978 and it's his job to make sure all the players have everything they need when they head out for an away game.

"It's a whole process. It takes three days to get ready to roll," Schmakel said. "You have to commit yourself to the hours and to the days."

It takes a lot of preparation, organization and speed.

"They carry 12 bats per bag. Most guys carry maybe eight to 10 bats on a road trip," Schmakel said. "The packet of stuff that's got to go in each bag includes a BP top, a regular uniform, two pants minimum, long sleeve jacket, half-sleeve jacket, a mock, work out shorts."

Uniforms must be perfect and equipment needs to loaded orderly into a truck.

"The trainers have like five trunks. We run those up to the truck. We run all our extra bags, there's like 20 of them, up to the truck -- which include four helmet bags, which includes extra catcher gear," Schmakel said.

He said pre-packing of the team plane saves time, but it's always down to the minute to make sure everyone, and everything, gets to where they need to be.

"The whole thing to load the plane is like 50 to 55 minutes. If we don't do this pre-load then everyone sits there for an hour for me to load the plane. So we go out early, get the equipment on. It only takes 20 minutes once I get there," Schmakel said.

He said the job is exciting, but can't get caught up in all the celebrities.

"The bottom line is, it's a job. And you can't get mesmerized by the fact that you're working with an Alan Trammell or Kirk Gibson, or whether it's Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Torii Hunter, etcetera," Schmakel said. "Whether they're a rookie or whether they are a 10-year veteran, I try to treat them the same and I try to teach my employees to treat them all the same."

Still, it's a really special responsibility.

"I go to the end of the dugout where I usually stand in the first inning and I look up into the stands and I see 40,000 people. I know every one of them would love to be right where I'm at," Schmakel said.