Long before the first pitch of the summer season, Max Eckert, the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts’ player development and assistant head coach, had a task that was just as important as any on-field training: He had to match his out-of-town players with host families who volunteered lodgings.
Benefits go both ways for the host families and college-age men who come to the Washington, D.C., area to play for one of the eight teams in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League. For about two months, the families — many of whom have baseball-loving children — forge a deeper connection with an area team while the players who come from across the country experience a new location and are able to chase their big-league dreams without worrying about paying for a place to stay.
“I know the impact the community can have on these kids’ lives,” Eckert, 39, said of the players. “It’s not just a free bed, it’s not breakfast in the morning — you can see things differently.”
One of the families that offered to take in a player were friends of Eckert’s who were also fostering a transgender 12-year-old boy. The boy had been reserved since moving into the couple’s home, mostly keeping to his room or only coming out for a snack, Eckert said. Eckert struggled with figuring out not only which player to place with his friends, but also whom he felt confident would be open-minded enough to handle the unique family dynamic.
After much deliberation and discussions with his players’ college coaches, Eckert landed on Tyson Gill, a 20-year-old infielder from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Just two nights into Gill’s stay in the house, Eckert learned he’d picked the right player: The 12-year-old boy had engaged in an hour-long conversation with Gill while he ate his lunch in the kitchen. That night the whole family ate dinner together.
“I get a text from the mother going, ‘Well we had our first family meal and it’s thanks to Tyson’, ” Eckert said.
Cultural connections
Eckert, who is Black and grew up in Takoma Park, said playing baseball exposed him to experiences he hadn’t had while growing up. Eckert was a standout player at Division III Stevenson University in Baltimore County where he hit the second most home runs in a single season in program history.
“I didn’t listen to country music until I got to college, and now I love country music,” Eckert said. “A Black gentleman like myself typically does not listen to country, but that’s just my vibe — when I think of baseball, I think of country music.”
Eckert believes his players can also grow from playing in one of the nation’s most diverse counties. He said a number of his players come from rural, conservative backgrounds. Every player but one on the current Thunderbolts roster is from Pennsylvania or a state south of the Mason-Dixon line.
“Hopefully when they leave here, they’re better young men from being exposed to things they’re not used to,” Eckert said.
Matthew Walters Jr. is an outfielder for the Thunderbolts and grew up in Granbury, Texas. Walters, 21, plays at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which helped prepare him for the stark cultural differences that exist between Montgomery County and his hometown of fewer than 13,000 people.
“I got to Cornell, and I was like ‘Oh, this is what the world is like,’ ” Walters told Bethesda Today.
He appreciated the cultural diversity of his college campus and that played a factor in his decision of where he wanted to play summer-league baseball. This is his second season with the Thunderbolts and during both he has been hosted by Elena and Darrell Lauterbach, who live in Arlington, Virginia. Walters stays in the family’s home with their 14-year-old son Jake and his twin sister Bailey.
“I think that’s what drew me to the Mid-Atlantic — it’s just another experience,” Walters said. “Learning a new family dynamic, learning a new area. I’ve met the family friends, got to find out the kids’ friends, just been totally a part of this whole area.”
Family dynamics
Like the Thunderbolts, the Bethesda Big Train utilizes the host family system to provide accommodations for its summer league players.
Amy Matush of Potomac has run the show as the Big Train’s host family coordinator since 2022, overseeing the matching of players with their summer families. Matush’s involvement stemmed from her younger son Owen’s love of baseball and attending Big Train games.
“We started going to Big Train games [in] 2012, 2013, when my kids were 4 and 1,” Matush said. “My little one, the only time he would really sit, would be baseball games.”
As her sons got older, Matush decided her family had the capacity to host players.
Owen, now 13, serves as the Big Train’s bat boy. Big Train is one of the Ripken league’s powerhouses — having won 11 of the 20 league titles awarded since the league’s founding in 2005 –- and draws some of its highest-pedigree prospects.
Los Angeles Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel played with the Big Train in 2021. Three years after collecting Schanuel’s bats and gloves, Owen watched on TV as the major leaguer hit home runs on baseball’s biggest stage.
When Owen celebrated his bar mitzvah earlier this year, Schanuel made a video congratulating him that the family played for Owen and his friends at the celebration, Matush said.
“The gratitude comes with the sort of continued keeping in touch,” Matush said, noting that she often hears from players wishing her a happy Mother’s Day or happy Hanukkah.
Paula Ross and her husband, who live in Germantown with their two children, have been hosting Big Train players for eight years. She said Matush’s matching process, which involves questionnaires for families and players about habits, allergies and other things, has made hosting easier.
This year the Rosses are hosting Kide Adetuyi, 19, and Emilio Gonzalez, 20, teammates from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
Like Matush, Ross’ desire to get involved stemmed from her son Alex’s love of the game. Alex is now a rising senior and aspiring college player at Landon School, a private boy’s school in Bethesda, where he pitches and plays in the outfield.
When the Ross family hosted Ty Madrigal in the summer of 2017, the pitcher from St. Mary’s College of California helped aid Alex’s development.
“He taught my very little son at that point how to throw a changeup,” Ross said. “Alex is still throwing that changeup to this day, it’s one of his best pitches and one of his favorites.”
The Thunderbolts’ Walters said he had a similar experience serving as a mentor for Jake Lauterbach.
“It’s just been a cool experience, I’ve gotten to go to some of his games, I’ve gotten to help out coaching a little bit,” Walters said. “It’s been cool to just relive some of the days when I was a kid, the joy of the baseball game.”
Walters hopes one day he can offer a player what the Lauterbachs have offered him.
“It makes me want to do it one day, with my kids,” Walters said. “Getting to host a player — I think that’s passing it forward. I think that would be a really fun and cool experience.”
