Host Family Programs

The Needler

New Member
Dec 7, 2016
1,803
For the past 2 years my family and I have been hosting players from the local independent league baseball team (Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League). I wrote about the first year of our experience here: https://beechumcounty.com/2017/11/10/summer-of-patriots/

Curious if anyone else has done this or considered it and which teams/players they did it for?
That was a nice read, and it's very cool of you and your family to open your house up like that.
 

santadevil

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SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
6,460
Saskatchestan
My sister-in-law and her family are hosting a player with the junior hockey league here this year.
He's from Texas, so he's a ways away from home. He's a good kid and has come to any family functions we've had.
Plays with the other kids really well and everyone seems to like him.

I know there have been issues with other players in the past, so it can be hit and miss in that regard.

I haven't been hosted myself, but guys I played with in the summer league were and it mostly seemed to go really smoothly too.
If the host parents are invested (which they pretty much always are, or else they wouldn't host) it goes way better on both ends.
 

santadevil

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Aug 1, 2006
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Saskatchestan
And, shitty update today, actually yesterday. The player my SIL was hosting got cut. Initially told he was traded, but they weren't sure where yet. After still not being told anything, the player told the coach he was going home and wouldn't accept any trade. He'll be able to play with his old team and hopefully play college hockey next year.

I feel bad for my niece and nephew. Thay accepted him like an older brother right away. We had a bit of a going-away gathering this afternoon before he heads home tomorrow.

I get the business side of things, but the coach constantly said one thing and then did another. I've lost a lot of respect for him now. It's shitty that this happens to an 18 year old, but I think he'll end up okay in the long run.
 

loshjott

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SoSH Member
Dec 30, 2004
14,913
Silver Spring, MD
I haven't done this myself but several friends have for the Takoma Park-Silver Spring Thunderbolts, part of the Cal Ripken collegiate league in Maryland. They play at our local HS and not surprisingly a lot of the host families are parents of HS players. It seems like a great experience for the host families.
 

h8mfy

New Member
Jul 15, 2005
336
Orange County, CA
My cousin on the Cape hosted lots of Y-D Red Sox over the years, and even had the "dorm room" 3 of them stayed in was the subject of a makeover on Trading Spaces. She has good stories of an underage Buster Posey trying to sneak beer to his teammates living with her. She remains close with Brandon Morrow, which made a bit of conflict for me when my "step cousin" came in to pitch against the Astros, for whom I was rooting. It is good experience for both parties.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
36,920
Hingham, MA
Used to meet plenty of folks at the Cape league games who would do this over the summer. One told an awesome story about how they hosted Albert Belle. The husband of the family used to get up for a midnight snack every night, so one night Belle put banana peels all over the kitchen floor. Sometime in the early 90s, I was at Fenway for a Sox-Tribe game, and got there during BP. I told Belle that I had seen him play in the Cape league for Chatham, and asked him for a ball (it was a lie, I was a bit young for his tenure, I started going to games a couple years after he played there). Belle told me if I could name two players from that team who were in the majors, he'd give me a ball. I ran back to my dad who was in our seats and knows a lot of baseball. He gave me a couple names. I ran back to Belle, one of the names was right, the other was wrong. I ran back to my dad, he gave me another name, nope, wrong again. So I told Belle that I couldn't name another, but that I had a story about him from his summer in Chatham. I told him the banana peel story. He said I have no idea how you know that, but it is absolutely true, and he flipped me a ball.

100% true story.
 

BernieRicoBoomer

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SoSH Member
Sep 20, 2007
805
Bound Brook, NJ
Love reading these stories, thanks for posting them. It really sucks though when a player gets cut. We had one as I noted in the story and it was really tough. I had found out about it through twitter just before he came home that night. I told him he could stay as long as he wanted, but he ended up leaving that night. It all happened so fast. I felt so bad for the kid. Like santadevil said, it's the business side of things.
 

Cumberland Blues

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Sep 9, 2001
5,193
The family of a kid I've coached in Little League for years always hosts a player or two from the VT Lake Monsters (A's NY Penn League team). They've done it for 5 years or so now, so it's obviously been a good experience for them. They've had kids who were first round picks and kids who were undrafted FA's...all of the kids they've hosted have made a point of coming to at least one or two games to watch our boys play - always cool for the little leaguers to have a pro player cheering them on.
 

BernieRicoBoomer

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SoSH Member
Sep 20, 2007
805
Bound Brook, NJ
I hope it's okay to mention this here, but I am doing a fund raising thing with my website. For every person that signs up to follow me with their e-mail address between now until Christmas I will donate $1 to Alzheimer's Association up to $1,000 (I'll probably make sure that happens either way). I have reached about $50 so far, but hoping to get the full $1,000. Please sign up if you are interested, and if not you could also make your own donation here: https://act.alz.org/site/Donation2?df_id=32112&32112.donation=form1&set.custom.wt=nov-b
It's a charity that is really important to my niece, so I wanted to help her out. Thanks!