Hosting baseball players keeps Rob Thomas feeling young.
The Williamsport Crosscutters stadium announcer first offered players a place to live while they played here in 2017.
“Hearing their (players) stories, how they've been playing ball and where they've been playing ball, so on and so forth. They've all been good kids,” he said.
The team’s host family program typically rotates among 10 to 12 host families who take in up to three players. The team has about 25 who need a place to stay.
Players compete in the MLB Draft League. Draft League players compete to improve their chances of getting drafted by major league teams. The season, between June and August, is separated into two halves.
Hosts take in different players in each half.
“It's a great way to help some young guys that are basically either just out of college or in college or just graduating high school,” Crosscutters client service director Nate Schneider said. “They can't really find their own places to live because of the short period of time they're here. It really is a nice benefit to help some guys out while they're in Williamsport playing baseball.”
Hosts don’t earn rent. Their benefits include up to four seats of full-season tickets and an allotment of “Cutters Cash” for food and drinks. Hosts also become a part of the Crosscutters’s MVP Club that includes early park entry.
“We offer that as a way for them to come see their guys play,” Schneider said.
Longtime Williamsport native Dwane Stuck has hosted for a decade. She said the players keep her active.
“I’m getting older, so I don't know how many more years I can do it. But I enjoy what I'm doing. I just enjoy it. I think it makes me a little bit young, because they're so young and outgoing and everything,” she said.
The host family program began more than 20 years ago. The Crosscutters were still a minor league affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2007, the team became affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies. The team lost its major league affiliation after that, but joined the MLB Draft League in 2021 and continued the host program.
Donald Burleigh has hosted since 2001. He was one of the first to open his home to aspiring minor league players.
“We've had players who moved up with the Phillies and Pirates,” Burleigh said. “It’s created friendships forever. Most of them all keep in contact with us.”
Before the program, players stayed in Pennsylvania College of Technology dorms. It became an issue as students returned.
“Then usually the last three weeks in August, we’d have to get them out because the kids would come back to school,” Schneider said.
Families would take players in for the final three weeks of the season. That’s how the current program began.
“Then at some point, they just thought why don't we have them stay with families the whole time rather than move them around,” Schneider said.
Hosting creates lifelong bonds. Host families remain in touch with players, some of whom made the major leagues.
Thomas keeps in touch with three major leaguers who lived with him: Philadelphia Phillies third baseman, Alec Boehm; Phillies shortstop Bryson Scott; and Detroit Tigers left fielder Matt Vierling.
“So I usually go to spring training in the spring, and I get to see them,” Thomas said.
Stuck has met and hosted dozens of players herself. They include Baltimore Orioles’ pitcher Seranthony Dominguez and Washington Nationals coach Feliberto Sanchez.
“He (Dominguez) wasn't with me very long but he made an impression while he was there. I saw him last year here at the ballpark, so he made an impression,” Stuck said. They're (players) just a lot of fun to be around.”
New interested hosts can contact Schneider throughout the year, but the best time to ask is in the spring.
Stuck encourages more people to open their homes to players.
“I would encourage people to take the chance and open their homes for the young men because they're just really delightful. You learn a lot from them and it's just a very good experience,” she said.
