Lisa VanderSchaaf calls them her “summer sons,” the young baseball prospects who stay with her New Lenox family from April to September while pursuing their dream of making the major leagues.
The VanderSchaafs are just one of many southwest suburban families that open their homes to guys who play for the Joliet Slammers minor league baseball team.
But the VanderSchaafs have been doing it the longest.
Since daughter Alissa VanderSchaaf, now 24, was 11.
Lisa, a sixth grade teacher at Spencer Crossing school in New Lenox, said the family’s embarkation into the hospitality world began after she received free tickets to a Slammers game back in 2005.
“We love baseball anyway. But at the Slammers stadium, we sat in the front row. You could see the players’ watches,” she said. And all three kids — Ashley was 13, Alissa 11 and Andrew 9 — sat through all nine innings.
“It was just so cool,” she said.
At that very first game, Lisa spied a notice in the Slammers program that the team was in need of host families. A light bulb went on.
“I thought ‘Well, we’ve got a basement,'” she said.
A basement indeed.
The downstairs area of the family’s two-story home in not only outfitted with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchenette, it is entirely baseball themed.
More than 40 players, from all over the country as well as Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, have stayed with the family since it signed on as hosts.
Doug VanderSchaaf, an accountant who works from home, said, “This is our way of giving back to community.”
It’s also their way of giving young athletes a shot at their dream.
The summer before pitcher Kaleb Ort signed with the Yankees minor league system in 2017, he stayed with the VanderSchaafs.
The 26-year-old Michigan native is headed to Spring Training in two weeks.
“If it weren’t for Doug and Lisa there would have been no way I’d have been able to play (for Joliet),” he said. And playing for Joliet is what landed him with the Yankees, he said.
“It’s huge (that families open their homes to players). It helps us a lot,” he said.
The VanderSchaafs, he added, “have got quite the little mancave down there. It definitely was the best host family I’ve stayed with.”
Without host families, most players would not get a last shot at making the majors, said Heather Mills, general manager of the Joliet Slammers, now in its 26th season as a member of the professional independent Frontier League .
“Most of our players don’t make a whole lot of money. Minimum salary in our league is $600 a month, maximum is around $1,600. In this market you can’t live on that,” Mills said.
“So the way we are able to have these players here is by couples or individuals opening their homes from May until September. Some have guest rooms, some have lofts, some have basements that they’ve outfitted. Some offer beds, others pull-out couches, futons, air mattresses, whatever,” Mills said.
Some hosts are empty-nesters, some have small children with whom the players talk shop and play whiffle ball, she said.
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The program, Mills said, “really makes the lives of these players a lot easier.”
The guys, who can’t be older than 27 per league rules, mostly hail from smaller Division 3 colleges that didn’t get scouted, she said.
“We have guys who have played affiliated ball in a major league system who’ve gotten hurt or maybe had a real great prospect ahead or behind them in their division and so got cut. Some got injured during their senior year of college and have rehabbed and are getting a second chance,” she said.
“We do have some pretty good players,” Mills said. “Last year, we had three guys sign to the major league, which is our goal. The more we can get back into affiliated ball, the happier we are. That’s what their dream is so that’s what we try to make that come true.”
Host families, who receive season tickets, can be as involved in a player’s life as they want. Some hosts simply provide housing but most, Mills, said, also provide food.
“Most families go above and beyond,” she said.
And many of the hosts, the VanderSchaafs included, take in more than one player at a time. Because they have two extra bedrooms and a set of bunks in their basement, the VanderSchaafs almost always have four players at a time.
“I always say I am only going to take two but we always end up with four,” Lisa said.
It helps that she and Alissa, who teaches at Lincoln-Way West, are home most of the summer.
Though the team travels for 48 of the 96 games, Sunday home games are always in the afternoon and the family tries to sit down with the players for a big dinner afterward.
Alissa said, “We always text them on Sundays to remind them we’re having a big dinner. We make ribs and five casseroles. They often bring extra players for dinner.”
Doug does most of the cooking. “I try to make a variety. Chicken, beef, tacos. These guys are from different countries. So sometimes I make rice and beans. They love when I grill.”
In exchange for their hospitality, Doug said the family often develops lifelong friendships with players.
“We stay in contact with a lot of them. One of our guys went onto be a secret service agent at the White House and said if we’re ever in the area and want a back stage tour, let him know,” he said.
Once, during Cubs Spring Training, they texted Vince Perkins, who had been picked up by the Cubs Triple A team while playing for Joliet.
The VanderSchaaf’s son Andrew was playing high school baseball at the time.
“Vince texted back and said, ‘I’m in the clubhouse, I’ll come out and talk to you,'” Doug recalled.
Then he introduced Andrew, a catcher, to Cubs catcher Geovony Soto.
“It was nice,” he said. “It was the first time we’d ever known a (Major League) player.”
Last year, after Hurricane Maria devastated much of Puerto Rico, the VanderSchaafs said they reached out to two players who lived on the island and had stayed with them for a summer.
“Thankfully, both were OK,” Lisa said.
For more information on the Joliet Slammers host program, call 815-722-2287 or email [email protected]. For more information on the team, go to http://www.jolietslammers.com/.
Twitter @dvickroy