LA Angels promote long-time media relations man Adam Chodzko to Director of Communications

The last year has been a very difficult one for the LA Angels public relations/media relations department.  One person who has held steady throughout this trying time, Adam Chodzko is getting his reward.

For the past eight years there has been a familiar face in the LA Angels dugout besides former Vice President of Communications Tim Mead. The face always seems to have a smile on it and is very welcoming. The face was that of Adam Chodzko who was hired as a full-time employee in February of 2012 as a media relations representative for the Angels.

Chodzko filled that role admirably from 2012 until the end of 2016 when he was promoted to Communications Manager for a year and then was promoted even further in 2018 to be the Senior Manager of Communications.It is a position Chodzko held until two weeks ago when he was named name the Angels Director of Communications.

On game days Chodzko is usually a fixture in the Angels dugout during pre-game and also the clubhouse both before and after the games handling all sorts of media requests and helping connect players with different children who were wanting to meet their heroes and were granted that wish through various charity organizations.

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During the games usually you would find Adam in the press box sometimes being on the press box mike to announce scoring decisions or pitching lines of pitchers who had been taking out of the game.  He also has travelled on the road with the team at times and it seemed like his job is never done.

Adam Chodzko was always observing and learning from the best in long-time Communications Director (which later would turn into Vice President of Communications) Tim Mead who held that position for close to 20 years and worked in the Angels organization in some capacity since 1981 until announcing that he would be leaving this past summer to take over as president of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

All of the sudden Chodzko and all of the communications department had to fill in the gaps and rise to the occasion. Less than one month after Mead left the Angels organization had a bombshell dropped on them when Tyler Skaggs was found dead in his Texas hotel room.  No one was prepared for this and what made it even tougher was the fact that the people in the media relations and communication department worked very closely with the players so they were not just players to them they are friends.

Chodzko held things together in the communications department even when his boss Eric Kay (23 years with the Angels organization) took a leave of absence at the end of July in the wake of Skaggs’ death, which we would find out more about in October.  When the proverbial “poop” was hitting the fan Chodzko stood tall and helped lead the Angels Communications Department through this tumultuous time.  There may be some more information about Skaggs’ death and Kay’s involvement at a later time, but for now the focus is back where it needs to be which is baseball.

The Angels have since hired a new manager in Joe Maddon just three days after the news about Kay broke.  The Angels also hired a few new coaches including Mickey Callaway as pitching coach and switched former third base coach Mike Gallego to bench coach. Recently the Angels have a big splash in free agency signing third baseman Anthony Rendon and trading for Dylan Bundy. Thursday the Angels also signed Julio Teheran as well.  All of this news is handled by the communications department and you can bet Adam Chodzko has a hand in it or is leading the announcements.

One announcement that did not get much fanfare, but it should is Chodzko recent and well-deserved promotion to Director of Communications in the beginning of December. Chodzko who graduated with a degree in business administration and marketing in 2008 from UCSD, will now be the point man that media such as myself will reach out to in order to gain access to player interviews.

Right out of college Chodzko actually started working for the Angels as a Post-Season Press Box Assistant in the fall of 2008 before being hired as a media intern for the 2009 season.  In Chodzko’s first month as a game-time intern he was around when Nick Adenhart was killed in a car accident in April of 2009.  He got to watch how his mentor Tim Mead handled things then which I know was valuable when the Skaggs death occured.

Chodzko worked one more year with the Angels in 2010 as a Media Relations Full-Time Intern before being hired by the LA Dodgers for a season as an assistant in the public relations department.  Chodzko was very happy when the Angels brought him back in 2012 as a media relations representative.

Chodzko has always been a pleasure to deal with and will bend over backwards to help you get what you need.  He is a great choice to assume the Director of Communications role for the Angels and here is hoping he will follow in his mentor Tim Mead’s footsteps and stay with the Angels for a long time.  Congratulations Adam and we look forward to working with you next season.