We are about two weeks away from the new Danville Dans baseball season at Danville Stadium, and Managing Partner Jeanie Cooke says that as always 32 players will be living here over the summer, and the Dans are still in need of 11 host families. Cooke says, for anyone hesitant about welcoming a player into their home for the summer, consider this: the complaint she hears the most often is, they wish they could spend more time with them. Because after all, these are collegiate baseball players from all over the country, from maybe as far away as Hawaii, playing over the summer to get better.
AUDIO: They play 60 games a year, in literally two months. They are either practicing, they are on a road trip, or they’re playing a game late; they’re likely to get home at midnight. So they really are very, very busy. But their parents are entrusting us to take care of them as community. We’re just asking people to step up and help us take care of these guys so the Dans stay in Danville for a long, long time.
Jeanie says the friendships host families make with these players often last many years. And sometimes, the families go on the road years later to see them.
AUDIO: We had one family here in town that last summer went all over the south visiting ballplayers and their families that had been with the Danville Dans in the past; not always living at their house, but maybe even another player that spent a lot of time at their house.
If you’d like more information on becoming a Danville Dans host family, call 217-918-3401, or e-mail to DansBaseball1@gmail.com.
