State College Spikes host families reflect on a summer without their players

The cancellation of the 2020 minor league season left a hole in the fabric of the typical Centre County summer, as it meant no State College Spikes games for fans to attend.

But beyond the missed opportunities for eating Dippin’ Dots at the ballpark on a hot July night or watching postgame fireworks, the hearts of “host moms” like Joanne Broderick, Tara Shaffer and Michelle Spaide ached for another reason — the players.

“It’s not about us, and it’s not about us missing seeing games or missing seeing our friends at the ballpark,” Broderick said. “More importantly, it’s just breaking my heart that these young men that worked so hard all their lives to realize this dream of playing in the major leagues have, by no fault of their own — it’s just come to an end for them.”

She added: “They find their dream gone in a flash.”

Broderick has been hosting Spikes players since 2010, when her then 11-year-old son heard about the program at a Spikes game. Shaffer and Spaide have also been hosts for nearly a decade, hosting since 2011 and 2012, respectively.

All three knew once they started hosting, they wouldn’t stop.

Beyond financial incentives, being a host family gave them opportunities to make a difference in players’ lives, and give their children a good role model.

Broderick and her family relished the craziness that occurred every summer, and saw it as an opportunity to give her children good examples of people to look up to.

“Their impact on us is just seeing these young men who are dedicated to their sport was wonderful for my husband and I, but was also really great for our young boys to see that, to give them an example of someone who had a dream and worked hard for it,” Broderick said.

Spaide would primarily host players from South American countries, as well as a few North American players. Venezuelan players would often bring their wives with them, as the Cardinals organization allowed them to due to the country’s political turmoil.

“It’s an opportunity for them to have somebody who’s going to teach them, take care of them, help them learn to grow and hopefully thrive in the United States,” Spaide said.

Spaide has continued to keep in contact with some of the Latin players who have remained in the United States during this unexpected offseason and checks in occasionally to see how they are doing.

For the past decade or so, Spaide, Broderick and Shaffer’s summers have revolved around the players they host. Beyond not having baseball games to go to, the trio also misses the busyness that comes along with being a host family.

The lack of making sure players are getting to practice on time, picking them up from road games, and going to all the home games make this summer feel somewhat empty for them.

“It’s definitely been different. We were just saying the other day, we have a lot of free time that we didn’t have before, because we would often go to the game,” Shaffer said. “We even had planned a summer vacation, which ended up getting canceled. We planned it around when the guys would be home and when they would be away. We like to spend time with them when they’re home and not on road trips.”

Beyond the season, many hosts would keep in contact with their former players, whether or not they continued to play professionally. These relationships made the experience more enriching, as host families became more than just that — they became “lifelong friends,” and continued to be present in these players’ lives.

“It’s been really great to see them kind of advance through their careers and then see their lives beyond the sport,” Shaffer said. “When the sport decides that they’re done, and to see them getting married, getting engaged — we still stay connected with a lot of our players.”

Broderick, like Shaffer, continues to stay in contact with some of her former host players. When Minor League Baseball announced the season would be canceled, she didn’t hesitate to reach out to them.

“I was texting all of our previous players that I knew were still playing like ‘Are you OK, what’s going on?,” she said.

While the future of the State College Spikes and New York-Penn League remains unclear, one thing is clear to these host families.

If the season returns next summer, they will host players again.

“I would love to be able to be a host family again,” Spaide said. “I don’t do it for the glory, I do it because I enjoy it and I enjoy helping other people.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 5:26 PM.