July 29, 2020
Bethesda Community Base Ball Club (BCBBC) is pleased to announce that Chris Rogers has been named General Manager of Bethesda Big Train baseball. Chris takes over as General Manager after serving two seasons as Big Train's Assistant General Manager.
In making the announcement, Founder and President Bruce Adams said, “We are very pleased to have Chris on board as our permanent General Manager. While serving as acting GM since BCBBC retook stewardship of Big Train on June 1, Chris has been a whirlwind of activity. Under his leadership, Big Train produced three shows each week on bigtrain.tv to entertain our fans deprived of baseball by Covid-19 and three issues of an online magazine format Big Train Beacon while raising more than $50,000 to help us prepare to bring the fun back to Shirley Povich Field in 2021.”
“Chris has an amazing baseball operations mind, is multi-talented and possesses an extremely strong work ethic. His leadership skills, data driven business acumen and outstanding attitude ensures the Big Train championship tradition will continue while also bringing new and exciting experiences to Big Train fans and the community,” said BCBBC Vice President Eric Cole.
“I want to thank Bruce, Eric, Director of Baseball Operations Sal Colangelo, and the rest of the board for this fantastic opportunity,” Rogers said. “Big Train baseball has been a huge part of my life for many years, and to be in the position I am now is a dream come true. I am excited to continue to expand Big Train’s community presence and bring the Povich Field experience to new heights, both on the field and in the stands.”
Bruce Adams also announced that the founding board elected six new members to the club’s Board of Directors. “We are really excited about the new members. They bring diversity, energy, and expertise to our founding board.” The new members are:
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Katelyn Engen, a native of Kensington, serves as an athletic trainer at the University of Maryland;
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Manny Hidalgo, of Silver Spring, is executive director of Shepherd’s Table;
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Marjorie Lane, of Potomac, is a marketing consultant and co-owner of Bruster’s Real Ice Cream of Gaithersburg;
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Ramin Nejaddehghan, a Potomac native now living in Washington, DC, practices commercial real estate finance law at Krooth & Altman LLP;
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Emily Waldman, of Bethesda, has served as the Big Train’s host family co-coordinator since 2016; and
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Donnie Wright, a Bethesda native now living in Chevy Chase, was Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year for baseball while a student at B-CC High School. Donnie serves as a Managing Director of Investments at Wells Fargo Advisors in Bethesda.
More complete biographies of the six new board members may be found here. The new members join the founding board members: President Bruce Adams, Vice President Eric Cole, Secretary-Treasurer John Daniel, Rebecca Crowley, William Hickman, Richard Lipsky, Rachel Northridge, and Alex Thompson.
The original Bethesda Community Base Ball Club was founded in 1998 by Bruce Adams and John Ourisman. BCBBC built Shirley Povich Field in Cabin John Regional Park in 1999, launched Bethesda Big Train baseball and ran it for 13 seasons from 1999 to 2011, and made $600,000 of improvements to youth baseball and softball fields from Germantown to Anacostia. In 2012, BCBBC dissolved and turned operations of Big Train baseball over to BCC Baseball. BCC Baseball operated Big Train for eight seasons before returning stewardship to a recreated BCBBC on June 1, 2020.
During his time as Assistant GM, Chris Rogers helped strengthen Big Train’s internship program and improved the organization's online media presence. Chris started with Big Train in 2015 as a writing intern, and subsequently spent two summers as the head intern and volunteer coordinator before joining the front office in January 2018. Chris has attended Big Train games since he was a kid. He holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Maryland, where he spent two years as the managing editor of the Maryland Baseball Network. At Maryland, he also wrote for Stories Beneath the Shell, the Greenbelt News Review, and Capital News Service.
For more information about Bethesda Big Train baseball, please visit www.bigtrain.org or contact:
Bruce Adams
Founder & President
bruce@greaterwash.org
240-855-8727
Chris Rogers
General Manager
crogs@bigtrain.org
301-365-1076
