Put Me In, Coach: VAR Brings Client Appreciation To New York's Citi Field

Citi Field in Queens -- the new home of the New York Mets -- was the setting for the fourth annual client appreciation day put on by Advanced Vision Technology Group, a Hauppauge, N.Y.-based solution provider.







Advanced Vision President Sam Ruggeri has been welcoming customers and vendor partners to take in Mets games for some years now as a way to say thanks and strengthen relationships. This year the action shifted to Citi Field's Modell's Clubhouse -- a fully loaded, field-level box with capacity for about 75 people -- following three years in suites at the former Shea Stadium. About 45 customers, vendors, Advanced Vision employees and friends joined in the fun, and so did Channelweb.com. Take a look.

Citi Field's main entryway is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, devoted to the titular baseball legend and adorned with a epigraph on the nature of integrity that reads: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

Ruggeri (center) and his staff were ever the gracious hosts. From left: Angela Ruggeri, client service executive at Advanced Vision (and Sam's daughter); Ronald Ongley, director of global IS operations for Russell Reynolds Associates; Ruggeri; Sammy Ruggeri (Sam's son); and David Pfister, manager of global systems infrastructure at Russell Reynolds Associates.

The Modell's Clubhouse is at field level on the right field side -- not a bad place to take in warmups or outfield pop-ups during the game. The chain link fence limits the view of the infield a bit, but at this particular moment, Cardinals relief pitchers Jason Motte and Blake Hawksworth don't have much to see, either.

From left to right stand Advanced Vision Technology Group's Eric Solt, David Torres and Ward Ruland. Oh, and the Mets' starting pitcher for the day, former Cy Young award winner Johan Santana.

Clockwise from upper left: Ana Pelinsky, partner business manager at Hewlett-Packard; Tim Markart, senior account executive at Tech Data; Mark Villinski, director of channel marketing at Kaspersky Labs; Alex Buonincontri, national account manager, Northeast Field Sales at Tech Data; Javier Lescano, east district sales manager at Hewlett-Packard; and Betsy Larson, vice president of channel sales at NEC Display Solutions.

From left: Alex Buonicontri, national account manager, Northeast Field Sales at Tech Data; Advanced Vision President Sam Ruggeri; Bruce Kenney, channel sales technical support at IBM; Rich Hume, general manager of global business partners at IBM; and Tim Markart, senior account executive at Tech Data. In front: Bernadette Ramos, HV Storage BDM NE Region - Channel Sales.

NEC Display Solutions' Betsy Larson with Lee Solt, Advanced Vision Technology Group's Director of Managed Services.

Mets hurler Johan Santana, seen here during warmups, is a two-time Cy Young Award winner (2004, 2006) who spent seven seasons as a Minnesota Twin and joined the Mets in 2008. He was shaky in early innings but soon stabilized, giving up just two runs on seven hits over seven innings. There were 41,221 fans on hand at the game -- not bad for a day game, and according to the New York Daily News, the largest crowd that had yet assembled at Citi Field.

A good day for baseball, agreed Mark Gallagher (right), Network Systems Manager at Gemini Fund Services, and Ian Breslin (left), a software developer at Gemini Fund Services.

A lazy afternoon turned into a thrilling finish (see next slide), but for most folks, a baseball game under blazing sunshine was enough reason to celebrate; It was the first afternoon without rain in a week and a half in the New York City area. Thanks again, Advanced Vision!

The Mets won a tight game, 3-2 -- a decent pitchers' duel between Santana and the Cardinals' Chris Carpenter that ended with a close-shave save from Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez.





Can the team stay consistent long enough to hang around for October? They'll have to be if they're going to add to this wall.