Briggs: How a business card at an Indianapolis Indians game showed me this city is special

There is a lot of talk about how to set Indianapolis apart from other cities — why it might be a good home for Amazon, why young professionals would want to move here.

For me, the answer is a business card.

I've had this business card since the early 2000s. I put it in my wallet. I finished college in Michigan, moved to New York, moved back to Michigan and then moved to other cities including Milwaukee and Baltimore.

Each time I bought a new wallet over the years, I'd take out some things I didn't need anymore — a New York City MetroCard or those stamps Subway gave out for free sandwiches. The business card always made the cut.

I can't really explain why I kept it, so I'll explain how I got it.

I was a college student in the early 2000s (I don't recall the exact year) when I came to Indianapolis for an event. I had some free time one night and walked over to Victory Field to watch an Indianapolis Indians game. A man sitting near me introduced himself. It was Cal Burleson, who at the time was the team's general manager.

Burleson graciously asked me about myself. I told him I was going into journalism. We talked about baseball and the Detroit Tigers, a team I followed obsessively at the time.

Now, let me reiterate: I was a college kid sitting alone at a minor league baseball game. Neither Burleson nor anyone else in Indianapolis had a good reason to notice my presence.

But Burleson did. After the game ended, he showed me around the ballpark and handed me a baseball-shaped business card with his contact information on it. He encouraged me to reach out sometime.

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I did last week — more than a decade after that game and two and a half years after I showed up to work for IndyStar with Burleson's business card in my wallet. Burleson, now the team's senior vice president of community affairs, met me at a coffee shop. I asked him about why he makes the effort to connect with people he doesn't know.

"There's nothing I enjoy more than talking with people around an Indians game at Victory Field," he said. "The ballpark creates a wonderful atmosphere for good conversation."

Anyone who's spent time thinking about tourism or economic development in Indianapolis has heard the lament that there are no mountains or oceans here. Indianapolis was not blessed with interesting topography. The people here have to make up for the inherent advantages that other cities have.

One night at an Indianapolis Indians game wasn't life changing, of course. But my personal interaction there left me with a constant reminder that someone was unnecessarily kind to me once when I was a visitor here.

I'm not sure how many times I noticed that business card over the years. It must have been dozens — each time planting a seed in my head that Indianapolis is full of friendliness and unexpected experiences. I remembered that Indians game when I had an opportunity to work and live here.

Major sporting events and conferences give Indianapolis opportunities to do more than show people a good time for a day or a weekend. They are chances to introduce people to a special city in which visitors can have unique and personal encounters in stadiums, restaurants and museums.

Burleson, appropriately, is working in a public-facing role now, which he described to me as "more of a focus on what's good for the community in general, realizing that if we're able to make improvements in Indianapolis and in this region, that will benefit the Indians."

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Burleson launched RightFit, an after-school program at IPS Schools 96, 46 and 56 and Holy Angels Catholic.

As part of his job, Burleson also is working with the Indy Chamber and advocating for regional improvements such as transportation — the types of public policy initiatives that are considered important to Indianapolis' bid to land Amazon's second headquarters.

"As we begin to develop more of a regional approach to what's going on here, that will make for better experiences for all of Central Indiana," he said. "We have to expand our horizons and grow."

There are many ways to grow. Building new public amenities and luring corporate headquarters are the quick ways. Burelson is an example how smaller-scale interactions can play a role in shaping people's opinion of a city.

Burleson's card, once white, now has the color of a worn-out baseball to go along with its round shape. When I showed it to him, he was quick to offer me a new, updated one.

I plan to hang on to it.

Call IndyStar business columnist James Briggs at (317) 444-6307. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesEBriggs.