HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — When the Huntsville Stars were set to come to town, Cynthia Giles, then Bragg, knew she wanted a spot on staff.
Cythnia came up with the idea to mail her resume by certified mail to ensure the Stars management saw it.
“I quickly prepared my resume, and I sent it in, and I thought I was going to send it certified so they at least have to look at it once,” Giles said. “‘Kent Pylant, the assistant general manager, said he had to go pick it up and there was postage due, so not only did he have to touch it, he had to pay to get it.”
The Giles look fondly back at the thought of accidentally making a potential employer pay to see your resume.
“They remembered her from that,” Kirk Giles said with a laugh.
Despite the small mishap, Cynthia got the job as the first ticket manager of the Huntsville Stars, a job that would change her life.
When she began working, Joe Davis Stadium had not yet been built. Stars’ staffers crammed into two offices on the second floor of the police academy.
At that time, there was a young traffic cop with the Huntsville Police Department named Kirk who worked on the same floor. He began to get to know the Stars staff pretty well. One staff member caught his eye, and from there, the chase was on.
“Well, you know we always get our man. I will have to say when I met her, I was taken aback by how beautiful she is and still is,” Kirk said. “I would always look in that office when I walked downstairs.”
Eventually, the two began dating and were married a few years later. Both look fondly back on the days of the Huntsville Stars.
Cynthia thrived in her role as ticket manager even with the high demand for Stars’ tickets.
“It was nonstop, we put in many weeks over a hundred hours, but there was such positive energy,” Cynthia said. “We just had fun going to work.”
During the years of working security at Joe Davis Stadium, Kirk made a few memories himself. The times that he looks at so fondly are when Michael Jordan came to town as a member of the Birmingham Barons.
Because of the large crowds and demand to see Jordan, Kirk was tasked with standing with him in the dugout and making sure he got around safely. This gave him one of the most unique pieces of sports memorabilia out there — A signed lineup card from Jordan’s last professional baseball game.
“It was just sitting there, and I thought why not, cause like I said, we kind of developed a relationship, and so he signed it,” Kirk said.
“That turned out to be the very last lineup card of his last professional baseball game,” Kirk said.
Forty years later, the love found at the ballpark still burns bright for the Giles, all because of professional baseball in Huntsville.
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