Host Families Bond With Boys of Summer

It's well after 3 a.m. when the garage door on Jill Berman's house clicks open. From her bedroom on the second floor, her "mother's ears" kick in. Berman can't sleep soundly unless she knows everyone is home safe.

The two young men slipping into her dark house in Burke aren't Berman's sons -- they're away for the summer. They're minor league baseball players, Cory VanAllen, 22, and Adam Carr, 23, who have just finished a grueling six-game road series in Lynchburg, Va.

On the kitchen table is a Tupperware container for each of them. Freshly baked oatmeal cookies for Carr; white chocolate chip with macadamia nut for Van Allen. The fridge is stocked with enough leftovers to feed them both.

Jill and Howard Berman are hosting the two Potomac Nationals players for the summer. Host families are vital to college and minor league players who aren't paid enough to afford market rents, especially in the Washington region.

The majority of minor league teams across the country use host families as optional housing, but most can find affordable places for their players to stay. Teams in this area -- including the Potomac Nationals, Bowie Baysox and Frederick Keys -- rely heavily on host families.

More than 100 host families in the region serve as a family away from home for players. For players from other countries, host families act as ambassadors, not just offering a place to live but also advice on how to do such routine chores as banking.

"Our main focus is to keep them focused on baseball," says Lamar Boone, Booster Club president for the Potomac Nationals. "They have fun with some families, and others are just a nice, comfortable place to live."

When Potomac Nationals third baseman Brandon Powell, 26, was injured this season and was sent to Florida for rehab, his host family was concerned.

"It was hard," says Janet Shannon, 47, Powell's host mom.

The Shannons began housing players this season as a way to inspire their 12-year-old son, Karl, and to fill the void left when an older daughter moved to Texas. Now outfielder Justin Maxwell, 23, has moved into their daughter's pink bedroom.

"We thought it would be a good role model for a little boy," says Shannon, who started hosting players in her four-bedroom Montclair home this season. "Baseball people are just the most wholesome people in the world."

For older players and coaches who don't need a substitute parent, but do need housing, such people as Bowie Baysox hostess Mary Wolman, 74, offer a comfortable option. Wolman, of Mitchellville, started housing Baysox coaches in her basement in 1999 when her husband, Benjamin, brought home a player. Wolman, now a widow and a great-grandmother, says she wanted to continue housing coaches because she enjoys the company -- and they are low-maintenance.