Playing Ball with the Boys by Ross Betsy;

Author:Ross, Betsy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 634495
Publisher: Clerisy Press
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

While Michelle grew up in sports-rich Massachusetts, baseball GM-to-be Kari Rumfield grew up in the small community of Hazen, North Dakota, where the closest Major League Baseball team was the Minnesota Twins. “Huge Twins fan,” said Kari. “My grandfather would take me to Twins games, back when Kent Hrbek and Kirby Puckett played. I really enjoyed going to the baseball games. I was the first grandchild, so I was probably treated a little more special because I was the first one. My grandfather would always take me along, and even though I was a girl, I’d be right there with him, or he’d listen to it on the radio or TV and I’d be right there, so I really grew up enjoying baseball.”

And that love of the game took her to the playing field. “I was in a small town that didn’t have a softball team, so I played Legion baseball with the boys. I found that extremely difficult in the beginning, because it’s not typically a girls’ game. I played second base, but then, of course, I got to play a lot of outfield because I was probably one of the weaker links on the team. I wasn’t very good, but I just loved being out there. I loved being part of that group sport. It took some time for everyone to accept me, but once they did, I was one of their teammates. Same with the community. It was a very small community, but it was something they just accepted.

So, her teammates accepted her—how about the parents of her teammates? Or the opposing players? “You know, I never really dealt with the parents of the players all that much. Once the players did take to me, though, they became very protective. Because when you’re playing an opposing team, the other players would say things, but my teammates would always stick up for me. They became my extended family and my brothers.”

So, sounds as if Kari was setting up for a career in sports. Well, it happened eventually—but not before a detour to Tennessee. “Baseball was only one of the things I was interested in,” she said. “I graduated early from high school, graduated as a junior, and I was always ahead in math and I had a great knack for cooking and I had a great knack for arguing. So my father tried to push me toward becoming a lawyer. So when I first went to college, I really was going to school to be a lawyer. Then after about two years I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore. That’s not my passion. My passion was sports and my passion was food. So then I thought, well, I’m going to go down the path of becoming a registered dietician and go to culinary school. I loved cooking. I still love to do it, it’s still one of my biggest passions, and I thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ And then I decided, well, I’m

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