33-year-old was rejected from a baseball internship, now she’s the team’s general manager
Brooke Cooper was 12 years old when she thought her baseball career was over.
Cooper told CNBC Make It that local Little League offerings are aging and there are no longer any opportunities for girls to play the sport. She later tried playing softball, traditionally seen as the female equivalent of baseball, but said she “didn’t have the same passion.”
“I loved playing baseball,” says Cooper, now 33. “I never thought I could have a career in baseball.”
Cooper in March 2024 became general manager The Worcester Red Sox are the Triple-A minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is the first female general manager in Boston Red Sox franchise history.
But Cooper says he was rejected the first time he applied for an internship with the team then known as the Pawtucket Red Sox. That summer, he says, the then-20-year-old was working a desk job and instead volunteered at a sports marketing firm.
From intern to general manager
Two years later, he says, he applied again for a retail internship, this time as an MBA student at Providence College, and got the job.
“I tried to act cool the first time, which sounds ridiculous because I was 20 and had no idea what I was doing,” he says. “The second time I made it clear how much I wanted it, how hard I was going to work, and I’m sure after a few years I had a better sense of maturity.”
As an intern, Cooper says he balanced business school classes with sweeping and managing product inventory at the team store.
“I was running my own small business within a larger business,” and although the job only paid him minimum wage, the experience itself was “professionally fulfilling,” he says.
He soon began climbing the ranks, first as the sales manager’s assistant and then as the sales manager. He helped brand the Pawtucket Red Sox on an interim basis as the team’s director of marketing and sales. hot sausages He was promoted to vice president of marketing in 2018 and became the team’s executive vice president a year later.
Coping with imposter syndrome
Cooper says he didn’t think a career in professional baseball was possible when he played for the Worcester Red Sox in 2015. There was only one other woman working in the team’s front office, and Cooper says her dream was already to open a community center similar to the YMCA or the Boys and Girls Club.
“I say I don’t have imposter syndrome, and when I define that, that’s the definition of imposter syndrome,” Cooper says.
Looking back, he says imposter syndrome worked to his advantage because it allowed him to speak openly and share his candid thoughts with managers and in meetings without fear of losing his job.
‘I’m really happy to be part of an organization where this can be normalized.’
Cooper never felt excluded because she was a woman, she says. He says his managers and team leaders treated each promotion as if it were real and recognized that he was the best person for the job. Cooper says becoming the first female general manager of the Red Sox franchise wasn’t a “big deal” in her organization until it was publicly announced.
between 120 Second League 14 of the baseball teams serve as developmental programs for the 30 Major League Baseball teams. female general managers in the 2025 season, according to the league. In 2020, Kim Ng became the first and only female general manager to lead a Major League Baseball team. ng left his role With the Miami Marlins in 2023.
“I’m really happy to be a part of an organization where this can be normalized,” Cooper says of the Worcester Red Sox. “I find working in Minor League Baseball challenging in a good way from a professional standpoint, but also personally fulfilling… I’m kind of living my dream.”
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