
The latest edition of The Base Path Podcast takes a trip out of the studio and out to Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford, Conn., for the 14th annual Kelly Rodman Summer Rivalry Classic.
The podcast includes a collection of interviews from the Summer Rivalry Classic, which served as the summer’s final scouting event for 2023 MLB Draft prospects at the high school and college levels.
Organized by New York Yankees regional scouting director Matt Hyde and Boston Red Sox regional scouting director Ray Fagnant, the Summer Rivalry Classic pays tribute to Kelly Rodman, one of only three female major league scouts at the time of her death in 2020. Rodman started as a Northeast amateur scout for the Yankees in 2017 and was the only female on the draft floor at the 2019 MLB Draft. She died after a battle with cancer at the age of 44.
“She was the best,” Hyde said. “She was a difference-maker. She was a person who left an incredible legacy. And we never forget her and her saying, ‘Be great today.’ Her memory lives on. And I think that’s such a cool thing because games are named after people pass. But honestly, we all felt Kelley Rodman today. We felt that she was here.”