I know absolutely nothing about baseball. Like seriously, nothing. I mean, other than there’s a bat and a ball involved and you have three strikes until you’re out. I’m not even majoring in something like sports management or communications: I’m a psychology major! And yet, the Monday after the end of spring semester, I found myself walking into the Danville Otterbots stadium.
The Danville Otterbots are a brand new minor league team in baseball, replacing the Danville Braves. When the Atlanta Braves left Danville, Virginia, they took everything: equipment, players, staff, even the trash cans. All that was left was an empty, dirty stadium. Not only was I about to start my first internship in a sport I knew nothing about, but I was about to help build a team and an organization from the ground up. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous to start.
However, my fears of not knowing much about baseball were unfounded; we spent the first two weeks doing manual labor. This baseball stadium had been abandoned for over a year, and so much needed to be done. We scrubbed the bathrooms, cleaned up the concessions equipment, pulled weeds, washed the bleachers and seating for the fans, and so much more that I can’t even begin to list or else this article will get boring pretty fast. I know what you’re thinking: Leah, that sounds really awful. And guess what—you’re right! I mean, who actually wants to clean a dirty stadium everyday. I’m not going to pretend like I did. But while I was doing dirty work (literally) the first two weeks, I got to know my intern class a little better. And wow, I’m glad I did.
I was the youngest person (19 going on 20 next week) in an intern class of ages 21+ adults who, for the most part, either played baseball or had majored in sports management. However, they never made me feel left out or behind because of that. I can truly say that I made lifelong friends out of the people I worked with this summer. Hey, scrubbing toilets for two weeks together will do that to you.
However, that was only the beginning of my experience with the Otterbots. In between cleaning the ballpark, we also got to work behind the scenes in the business part of running a baseball team. We learned to make sales calls, plan events, and promote our organization over social media and more. We were even given our own events to create, plan, and run point on the day of. I was even in charge of my own team! I was able to lead our Military Appreciation Night, a local community night, and an Intern Olympics at the end of our season where all of my intern class played games in between innings to see which intern team was truly the greatest (spoiler: it was mine). While I wasn’t running point on these events, I’m also super proud that, in my small Southern hometown, we held the first annual Pride Night as well as a Juneteenth recognition ceremony.
The inaugural season for the Danville Otterbots began in early June, and I’m happy to say that it was a major success. We sold thousands of tickets for games this summer, and with the amount of smiling faces we saw leaving every night, I’m confident that they’ll be back when the season begins next summer. I’m telling you, the difference between my first day at the Otterbots and the night of our last game is drastic. What was once an empty stadium was completely full of life, laughter, and happiness.
So, it turns out that you don’t have to know a lot about baseball to work for a baseball team. All you need is to have an open mind, a willingness to work hard (and I mean really hard), and to know that everything you learn is going to help you in your future career. If you can come do a tarp pull at 7am on a rainy day, you can do that presentation in front of your boss. While I’m pretty sure baseball won’t end up being my career path, I wouldn’t trade my experience this summer for anything.
Long story short, don’t talk yourself out of doing something just because it’s outside your comfort zone. You might end up with amazing memories, connections, and experiences that will last you a lifetime. Oh, and if you ever find yourself in Danville, Virginia, go check out an Otterbots game—you won’t regret it.