SEATTLE — It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it.
Former prep softball standouts, and current Seattle University players, Maddy Kristjanson and Alyssa Reuble are spending their summers guarding foul territory at Safeco Field as ball girls for the Seattle Mariners.
“It’s probably one of the best jobs a college student — who loves baseball — can have during the summer,” said Kristjanson, who starred at Mountlake Terrace before graduating in 2014. “Sitting in the sun, watching baseball, talking to fans. It’s definitely a dream job.”
“It’s so much fun,” added Reuble, a 2013 Meadowdale grad. “It’s really rewarding because the kids, when they get the ball, they’re so excited and it’s the coolest thing to them. I like interacting with the people at the game. It’s a really great job.”
Reuble and Kristjanson had to try out with 60 to 70 other prospective ball girls, with about 14 making the cut. Part of the process was pretty easy and another part was a bit more difficult.
“You sit down on a stool and they hit you the hardest groundballs you can imagine. The guy just wailed on the ball,” Reuble said. “They also interview you about your greatest moments playing and how big of a Mariners fan you are, which was pretty easy because I’m a huge mariners fan.”
Usually, the two get to work two to four games a month, depending on how many home games the Mariners have. Their day consists of helping take down the batting practice equipment, assisting with pregame promotions and first pitches and other tasks that might arise as the Mariners prepare to take the field.
Once the game starts, Kristjanson and Reuble post up on their stools by the fans and prepare to spring into action at any moment.
“There are games where you get 10 balls and games where you get nothing,” Reuble said. “… That happened recently. We were playing the Angels and I got hit the hardest groundballs. I was so scared.”
The pair offered tips on how to snag a baseball from the ball girls.
Their biggest advice: be a kid.
“Most of the time, we usually try and give them to little kids because that’s who we get the most reaction from,” Kristjanson said. “You see their little faces just light up.”
Another big thing is to be supporting the right team.
“You have to have a lot of Mariners gear on and most of the time you have to be a little bit younger,” Reuble said. “Mariners gear is the biggest thing. I have a lot of people wearing gear from the other team and we’re not supposed to give it to anyone who’s not wearing a Mariners shirt.”
Both Kristjanson and Reuble have had their share of fans going over the top to try to score a souvenir, including one fan who tried several different angles with Kristjanson.
“Some older guy tried to tell me that he was a former Mariners player and the people who were sitting next to me overheard and looked up his name and never found anything on him,” Kristjanson said. “I don’t think he was actually ever a Mariners player. He just really wanted a foul ball. He offered to give it to his little niece because it was her birthday so I told him to bring her down and he never did. I don’t think he had a niece there either.”
Another fan went a slightly different route with Reuble.
“I had a guy come up to me with his checkbook and say that he’d write me a $100 check to switch places with him,” Reuble said. “We get bribed a few times.”
The pair are both in their second year as ball girls. The Mariners put a three-year limit for ball girls this season, which gives Reuble and Kristjanson a maximum of one more year on the field.
Interacting with the fans is something both ball girls love. Unfortunately, Reuble and Kristjanson don’t get enough foul balls to hand out to every kid and Mariners fan. However, the duo also give out bubble gum and baseball cards to kids, especially those with a birthday or attending their first-ever game.
While talking with the crowd, however, they have to be on their toes. Foul balls can sail in quickly and it’s up to Kristjanson and Reuble to get a glove on them.
Reuble shined at that Angels game, even earning a few highlights in the ROOT sports rewind segment on the big screen late in the contest.
“During that Angels game I got seven balls hit at me. They did the sports rewind and put every single catch I had on there,” she said. “That was a moment I ended up on the big screen which was kind of embarrassing. But kind of cool too.”
Kristjanson, too, has made a couple good catches that elicited cheers from the fans in her section. And while she’s yet to make a Sportscenter Top 10 play, she is more worried about staying off another particular list.
“I’m more worried about making the Not Top 10 on Sportscenter,” Kristjanson said. “There was a Cleveland ball boy recently who grabbed a live ball. I just don’t want to do that.”
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