Thunderbolts host families featured in Washington Post Magazine

By Christina Ianzito
The Washington Post

July 9, 2006; W08

Teaming Up: Hosting a college baseball player can make for an interesting summer

Dave Hedrick flips a batch of burgers for the 20 baseball players milling around Montgomery Blair High School's baseball stadium in Silver Spring. It's a hot June afternoon to be manning a grill, but Hedrick smiles as he prepares to feed the hungry members of the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts, a summer league team for college players, at their annual Meet the Players picnic. Hedrick is just getting to know the 21-year-old player he and his family will be hosting for the next two months. That's why he's smiling.

"I got a second baseman this year," he explains, and that makes him happy, because for the past three summers he and his wife, Patsy, have hosted pitchers at their home in Silver Spring. Frankly, pitchers can be a little anxious and intense. "They're just odd people," says Dave Hedrick, a 55-year-old Montgomery County Parks facilities manager who thinks it's a kick for his kids, Nick, 19, and Emily, 13, to share their home with an aspiring major leaguer. "In a lot of ways [pitchers] are kind of insecure. They don't get enough [playing] time or enough love, or something."

The summer games offer Thunderbolt players a chance to impress scouts from the big leagues. Most on the roster come from the Washington area, but seven players needed a place to live for the summer, including the Hedricks' guest, Ben Toth, a polite team member from New Hampshire who plays for Radford University. Ben's shy 20-year-old brother, Nate, a catcher at Radford, is also here, placed with a family less than a mile away from the Hedrick home. Still, Ben says: "This is really our first time being apart. We've lived in the same room basically all our lives."

Now he and Nate, who both arrived in Silver Spring six days ago, load up paper plates with burgers, Patsy Hedrick's deviled eggs, and slices of chocolate cake. The picnic has been organized to introduce the players to the team's handful of ardent boosters and host families.

The players, who are dressed in their white uniforms for an exhibition game against the Vienna Senators, aren't exactly mingling with the old folks; many are just trying to get to know their teammates. And the hosts are mostly chatting among themselves, some comparing notes on their players.

One host mother reports that hers is "as much a slob as my kids."

"They're all incredible slobs," says another, rather fondly.

Pitcher Zak Laws, a 19-year-old from North Carolina who plays for Wingate University and has the stubbly beginnings of a beard, talks to Garrett Kloots, who pitches for Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Kloots marvels at the reaction his arrival inspired from his host family's 10- and 11-year-old boys. "On the first few days they were kind of in awe, a little intimidated," Kloots says. "It's like, 'I just play in college, it's no big deal.' "

Laws, who is spending the summer with Aaron and Gina Lowe and their two sons, Nathan, 13, and Sam, 9, says he's never lived outside his home state. His first few days in Maryland have been a minor culture shock: "People are so surprised when you open doors for them and stuff." A few have even asked him to stop with the "sirs" and "ma'ams," he adds, "but it's just hard to break the habit."

Soon the burgers disappear, and the mosquitoes start biting. General manager Richard O'Connor steps beside the grill for an announcement. "For the third year in a row," he begins, importantly, "our senior bat boy is going to be Sammy Lowe." Everyone applauds, and the elfin 9-year-old with a toothy grin steps forward to accept his jersey. The hem reaches his knees. ("Maybe mom can do a little with it," O'Connor suggests. "Oh yeah, like I sew," Gina Lowe snorts.)

Sam puts on his new shirt, and the players gather up their trash and head back to the field. The season is about to begin.

Copyright 2006. The Washington Post Company.