There are two outcomes when you grow up in a small town.
The first is that the same faces and same places of the community drive you away in a quest to find and discover bigger and better things.
The second option is that you become so engrained in that close-knit environment that you cannot find any reason to leave the comfortable confines of the town.
Scott Walker chose the latter, and he couldn’t be happier.
Scott Walker is the new general manager for the State College Spikes after being promoted at the end of last season. He likes to tell people he grew up “six ridges down” in Pleasant Gap. (The ridges he is referencing are the ones that adorn the view from Medlar Field out in the outfield working from center field down the line to left.)
He attended Bellefonte Area High School in 2002 and then graduated from Lock Haven University with a degree in Sports Management.
As part of his degree requirements Walker had to complete an internship before he graduated. This led Walker to becoming an intern with the Altoona Curve, the AA Minor League team for the Pittsburgh Pirates. “That was really just a foot in the door to work here (State College),” he says.
The Curve just so happened to be owned by Chuck Greenberg, the managing owner of the Spikes. When Greenberg sold the Curve, Walker joined him at his dream job and began working for the Spikes in December of 2008.
Walker often tells the story of how he saw Medlar Field being built as he used to drive to work on campus up Curtain Road. “I was watching this place being built,” he says. “And I knew I wanted to work here then and there.”
Now, seven years later, after being groomed by Greenberg and former GM Jason Dambach as the Vice President of Sales, he now runs the team and its business.
What exactly does a minor league general manger do? “Everything between the lines and the dugout is the Cardinals,” Walker explains. “We run the business of minor league baseball.” This involves food vending, organizing groups and events for game day, making sure the field is ready and establishing promotions and advertisements.
On game days, Walker is “sprinting from one end of the stadium to another” making sure everything is running smoothly, meeting people from the community, and helping out wherever he can. Walker loves the game of baseball, but that is not where he really sees his calling. “I’m a baseball guy at heart, but I’m a salesman by trade.”
Minor league baseball teams thrive in small markets. The games have become a staple of summer nights around the country. State College, a town which buzzes during the Penn State football season, used to lack the all-year passion and excitement from a sports team. But since the introduction of the Spikes 10 years ago, the town has embraced the team. Community involvement, according to Walker, is the biggest thing for the Spikes and the reason the team averages around 3,000 fans a night. “We try to give back as much as we can.”
The goal of a minor league ball player is to make it up to the big leagues. Walker cannot express that same goal. “I’m the GM of the minor league team in the town I grew up in. How cool is that?” asks Scott Walker as he adjusts the 2014 NYPL Championship Ring on his finger. “”I like where I’m at, I don’t see myself ever leaving the industry. I feel like I was built for it, wired for it.”
