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The Indiana Daily Student

sports baseball

IU baseball bus driver relishes experiences with the team

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There’s only one job in the world better than Gary Schlotfieldt's.

Schlotfieldt and Larry Pieri, an usher at Target Field, are talking less than an hour before IU and Ohio State will play an elimination game in the Big Ten Tournament. They both share personal stories with one another, minutes after meeting.

They both envy each other.

“You took my dream job,” Schlotfieldt jokingly tells Pieri.

But Pieri also envies Schlotfieldt.

Schlotfieldt is a bus driver. Not a school bus driver, he’s already done that job. Instead, Schlotfieldt drives college students, college athletes to be more specific.

This week, Schlotfieldt has been tasked with driving the IU baseball team around Minneapolis during the Big Ten Tournament. The assignment was randomly distributed, but Schlotfieldt is grateful for being assigned to this particular team on this particular week.

“Living the dream almost,” Schlotfieldt said. “Not quite that but just to sit in Target Field at 8 o’clock in the morning and watch the shadows. It’s pretty cool.”

Schlotfieldt has lived in Minnesota since 1993, moving from North Dakota more than 20 years ago, and has been a Twins fan ever since.

So sitting in the first row next to the home dugout at Target Field is understandably a nice job perk. He’s also getting paid to sit and watch postseason baseball.

“I love baseball,” Schlotfieldt said. “I just drew the lucky straw. I really love baseball.”

But being at Target Field and getting a front row seat to what has been one of the most entertaining Big Ten Tournaments in recent memory is not Schlotfieldt’s favorite part of the job.

Schlotfieldt calls himself a people person, so his favorite part of his job is the players he drives around and the people he gets to meet.

His favorite trips aren’t the ones with high-profile teams or athletes. Rather, it’s the Division II and Division III teams he likes driving around the most.

“Those guys, they’re like your brothers almost,” he said. “They’re just really laid-back.”

But he also said this IU team is special. The Hoosiers have a certain Midwestern quality, he said, making them more personable, just like him.

“They make me feel like they’ve known me all their life,” he said. “I almost get emotional, I really do. It’s nuts, from the handshakes to the pat on the back. ‘Gary I’ll see you in the morning.’ ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you’ from all the players. It’s pretty neat.”

Schlotfieldt said when IU Director of Baseball Operations Roger Rodeheaver first called him for introductions, he asked Schlotfieldt if he wanted anything.

Schlotfieldt said he could always use a good hat.

“That was the first thing he handed me when he got off the plane was this hat,” Schlotfieldt said.

The hat Rodeheaver handed Schlotfieldt is the same hat he’s wearing Thursday morning at Target Field. He’s worn the red hat with an IU pitchfork across the front since IU got off the plane in Minneapolis.

He wore the hat Wednesday as he laughed and joked about the Hoosiers with their families and friends, recalling the brief moments he’s had with the team.

“Good guys,” is how Schlotfieldt described the Hoosier team. “Just above and beyond, they’re personable. It’s always, ‘Gary what can I do for ya? Gary what can I get ya?’ It’s priceless, I’m telling ya.”

Meeting these gracious young men and women and traveling to these special places make this job special. These things make his job one of the best in the world, he said.

“This is it,” he said. “This is good, absolutely. And I get to wear a nice hat and look good in it.”

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