MILT THOMAS

Verotown LLC, the partnership managing Historic Dodgertown, has added a new member to its veteran team. Brady Ballard is the new vice president of marketing. Ballard comes to Vero from his position as general manager of the Florida State League’s Daytona Cubs, a position he held for four of his eight years with that organization and just this year was honored as Florida State League Executive of the Year.

According to Historic Dodgertown general manager, Craig Callan, “We have been building a top rate organization since CEO Peter O’Malley took over last year. Now that he has brought back the Historic Dodgertown name and added Brady to our team, we are ready to take it to the next level. He brings high energy, a strong sports background and knows the basics of running an organization like ours.”

Ballard is a lifelong baseball player and fan, almost from the time he wore diapers, he says. He grew up in Marion, Illinois, home of the federal prison which was as he puts it, “Pete Rose’s temporary home,” referring to the Cincinnati Reds star who fell from grace with a betting scandal.

“I played on multiple T-ball teams as a kid and after high school spent a year at junior college. I was a late bloomer and sprouted during that year, then went to the University of Illinois and played on their baseball team from 2000-2001. After graduation, I stayed two more years as a coach.

Then I made the important, but difficult, decision of choosing between coaching and the business side of baseball. I was offered an office job with the Jacksonville Suns ten years ago and a month after taking it, was offered a junior college coaching position.”

But Ballard stayed on the business side, partly because of his fiancée, now his wife, Gina. “She was at Illinois working on her master’s degree when I took the Jacksonville job and was ready to get out of the corn and beans, so I turned down coaching. It was definitely the right decision.”

After two years in Jacksonville, a position opened up with the Daytona Cubs as director of sales. “I spent one season in that job, then three years as assistant general manager and four years as general manager.”

History means a great deal in baseball and the Daytona Cubs were a part of it. “Jackie Robinson played his first integrated baseball game there.”

Then came the opportunity in Vero Beach. “To have a chance to work at Historic Dodgertown, which has an even greater history, and working for a legend like Peter O’Malley, it just doesn’t get any better than that.”

Ballard will be responsible for obtaining sponsors, promotions, public relations and outreach, locally, regionally and nationally. Callan adds, “He’s here to complement what we’ve been doing. The foundation has been laid, now we’re building the house and Brady is the general contractor.”

At age 34, Ballard has come a long way from playing T-ball and dreaming of a life in baseball, to living his dream.