Ex-Rockridge softball star pitches in for Cubs
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By Craig DeVrieze | Sunday, March 30, 2008 |
She was so avid a Chicago Cubs fan growing up, Hayley DeWitte borrowed her softball batting stance from Andre Dawson.
Of course, DeWitte never could dream of taking a spot in the Cubs batting order.
So after pitching the Rockridge (Ill.) Rockets to the state quarterfinals in 1996, then winning all-conference acclaim at Black Hawk College two years later, DeWitte put her bat and glove away.
Now, though, a decade later, she find herself pitching in significantly for her favorite childhood big-league club.
The 30-year-old former Andalusia, Ill., resident is the new executive assistant to Cubs vice president and general manager Jim Hendry.
“It is pretty unbelievable,’’ the 30-year-old DeWitte said last week from Cubs spring training headquarters in Mesa, Ariz., where she has been camped since Feb. 8. “I never would have imagined this. It was one of my dreams growing up to work for the Cubs or Chicago Bears.’’
DeWitte actually has worked for the Cubs since scoring an internship shortly after her graduation from Northern Illinois University in March of 2001.
She spent the last five seasons as the coordinator of mezzanine suites at Wrigley Field. When Arlene Gill , executive assistant to a succession of Cubs general managers dating back a quarter of a century, retired after the 2007 season, DeWitte, 30, stepped up and applied.
She got the job in late November, started in January and a week later was sitting at a dinner table with Hendry, Kosuke Fukudome and the Japanese outfielder’s cadre of agents while the coveted free-agent’s contract details were finalized.
Among her myriad duties is administering contracts for the Cubs 40-man roster, serving as a liaison between Major League Baseball and Hendry, handling expense accounts and leasing accomodations for the baseball operations staff, and seeing that visas are in order for foreign-born players like Fukudome and a host of Latin-bred Cubs.
Early in spring training, she was busy escorting Carlos Marmol, Carlos Zambrano and the rest of those foreign-born Cubs to a Mesa drug store to have pictures taken for the passports each will need when the Cubs travel to Toronto for an inter-league series vs. the Blue Jays in June.
“I am enjoying it a lot,’’ she said of days that have and will encompass long hours at the ballpark. “Jim is great to work with and people have been very helpful. It is long hours but overall very worth it.’’
Since she has been around the team for several years, DeWitte said she isn’t constantly pinching herself over her regular proximity to famous baseball players.
“You don’t take it for granted,’’ she said, “but you sort of become in the moment.’’
Still, she confessed it is a kick to come across former childhood Cubs heroes who now work with the club’s minor leaguers.
“You remember growing up watching Ryne Sandberg and Bob Dernier, and there they are, just sitting there,’’ she said.
Meanwhile, the girl who couldn’t dream of a big-league career is fostering new dreams as she learns the front office ropes.
Maybe someday she will be a general manager.
“It is a good opportunity to get in this side of it, learn as much as I can and try to move up,’’ she conceded of her new job.
The former fireballer hasn’t offered to pitch batting practice yet.
“I thought about going out there and throwing some,’’ she said with a laugh. “I’m a rookie, though. Maybe next year.’’
Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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