Pride decide it's a Woman's Job

By Tom King

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)

May 18, 2006
Section: High School Sports

NASHUA - The Nashua Pride have tried to break new ground in recent weeks under new owner John Stabile. Today, one week before the start of their first season in the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball, the Pride will do it again when they announce they've hired a woman general manager. And a Hall of Famer, no less.

The team will name 29-year-old former North Shore Spirit assistant general manager Robin F. Wallace as its new day-to-day boss. Wallace, who hails from Newton, Mass., is also an attorney and was inducted into the National Woman's Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. Additionally, her Team USA jersey is on display in a new women's exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"One of the other owners in the league said, 'I've got somebody you should talk to,'" Stabile said. "It didn't take me more than one meeting to realize she was the person for the job." Wallace replaces Marty Wheeler, who resigned in late April after the owner expressed dismay about the club's lack of ticket and advertising sales over the winter. But Stabile feels Wallace can open up some community doors that previously had been closed to the team.

She was introduced to the players and the rest of the organization at a team function held at the owner's home on Wednesday night.

"She's bright, articulate and she knows baseball," Stabile said. "I think she's a very believable baseball person. She'll come to people with Hall of Fame credentials." Wallace has an extensive background as both a player and baseball administrator. She became the first female varsity high school baseball player in her hometown of Mobile, Ala., and played on the men's varsity squad at Division III University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., in 1997. Wallace played club baseball at Tulane University, where she graduated cum laude in 2000.

"I'm a highly competitive person, and I'm up for the challenge," said Wallace, who is also the junior varsity baseball coach at the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass. "The challenge is probably what makes this job that much more appealing. I believe if baseball is going to make it here, it will make it under the ownership of a guy like John."

She was a member of the 2004 USA women's national team that took the silver medal in the Women's World Series in Japan and the gold medal in the first Women's World Cup of Baseball in Canada. She is also the executive director of the North American Women's Baseball League.

Wallace will help form what Stabile feels will be a strong front office team, as Chris Hall will continue as vice president in charge of baseball operations. Interim general manager Jim Stabile, the owner's nephew, will stay on as a consultant even while returning to his full-time role in sales administration at the Stabile Companies.

"He's going to work (with the Pride) for awhile and stay a bit," the elder Stabile said. "They'll all work together and do it the right way. I think we've got a pretty good front office staff. I don't think we can put together a better team than that."

Wallace, who has been the Spirit's assistant general manager for the last two years, is anxious to get started.

"The organization seems like it has great potential," Wallace said. "John Stabile will be a great guy to work for and it's just a wonderful opportunity to continue in the field of professional baseball."

She attended Suffolk University Law School in Boston as well as the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa. However, Stabile hopes she won't be working in a court of law anytime soon.

"I had to convince her not to become an attorney and stay in baseball," the owner said.

And though she recently passed the Massachusetts bar examination, it wasn't a very difficult sell.

"I guess my passion lies in the baseball world," she said.