Baseball was Amanda Hopkins’ life right off the bat.
Her dad, Ron Hopkins, is a special assistant to the general manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates and would always take her games, regularly making trips to the Alaskan Summer League or the Cape Cod League in summers.
‘I’d go out with my dad and they’d be like ‘Oh what do you want to do when you grow up?’ And I’d tell them, ‘I want to be a baseball scout,” Amanda said. ‘It’s like this little girl telling them that and it’s like, ‘Oh that’s cute. She wants to be like her dad.’ But really, I think it was kind of like she’ll grow out of it. That’s kind of what everyone thought.’
Amanda Hopkins on a women in baseball panel on August 15 before the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles game
She would run the radar gun and pass along the speeds to her dad when she was as young as eight.
‘She learned at an early age the difference between a curveball and a slider. As she got older it just sort of grew on her,’ Ron said.
She majored in psychology while playing softball at Central Washington University, but that didn’t satisfy her desire to be around baseball.
Amanda (center) talks with Sarah Gelles (left), director of analytics and major league contracts for the Baltimore Orioles and Kelly Munro (right), Mariners senior manager of baseball information
‘The whole time I was in there I wanted to be a baseball scout,’ Amanda said. ‘And I remember probably my freshman year, sophomore year, I was like I really don’t want to do anything but that. So why am I trying to almost talk myself out of it and find a different path?’
Two years ago, Amanda, 24, got a phone call that would change her life – and history.
It was call that she often dreamt of and one that would break barriers within the sport.
In December 2015, Amanda broke barriers when was hired by the Seattle Mariners to be full-time baseball scout becoming the first full-time female baseball scout since Edith Houghton, who became a baseball scout for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1946.
Amanda shaking the hand of Jeneane Lesko. She played professional baseball in the early 50s
She had served as an intern in Seattle’s baseball operations department a year before she go the offer but worked mostly with amateur scouting.
However, the Mariners decided to sponsor her for scout school and about a month after returning, she had the job of her dreams.
But at first her excitement was mixed with reluctance as she was unsure if she wanted to discuss her place in baseball history.
She wanted more experience as a professional before talking about a career and also didn’t want to be viewed as a trailblazer but rather just as a baseball scout.
Ron Hopkins as he watches his daughter being introduced on the women in baseball panel
As a scout for the Mariners, her responsibilities include the Four Corners area of the Southwest, taking her to destinations like Greeley, Colorado, and Hobbs, New Mexico, two of the more challenging places to get to from her base in the Phoenix area.
That’s not the only challenge she faces as a female baseball scout.
‘I think if anything people are more shocked sometimes when I will go meet with a player in the office or something like that. Maybe they just know, hey the Mariners’ scout is coming in to meet with you today and they walk in and they’re like, ‘Oh.’ That kind of thing,’ Amanda said.
However, Amanda said the shock soon becomes curiosity as they just want a brief rundown of how she got to where she is.
‘All the players, all the coaches, are incredibly respectful to me,’ Amanda said.
‘I was a little nervous myself because I knew she was going to be breaking a little bit of a barrier and she was pretty young,’ said Tom McNamara, who hired Hopkins and is currently a special assistant to the general manager with the Mariners.
Tom McNamara, director of scouting for the Seattle Mariners MLB baseball team, talks to reporters on January 22, 2009, in Seattle, Washington
Franklin Gutierrez #30 of the Seattle Mariners is congratulated by teammates after hitting a walk-off home run to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 in ten innings at Safeco Field on July 26, 2015 in Seattle, Washington
‘I went into Jerry Dipoto’s office and I had a lump in my throat and I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And he was all for it. He didn’t even hesitate.’
Hopkins was part of a panel on August 15 in Seattle about women in baseball organized by the Mariners. She is starting to get comfortable with the history she has made. But she doesn’t want that to be her entire story in baseball.
‘I have so much to learn still. This is such a profession that takes so many years to fully understand and you’re continually learning,’ Amanda said.
‘My dad, 40 years into scouting, is still learning something every time he goes to the park. So I definitely think that I just want to be the best area scout I can be right now. But I love the scouting aspect of it. I really think that I want to stay in the scouting side of the game.’
Edith Houghton in 1946 after being signed as a baseball scout for the Philadelphia Phillies