Rosenbaum spoke about her remarkable journey from childhood fan to front office executive, while also reflecting on growing up Jewish in Maryland. Eve will be the speaker at The Associated’s Jewish Professional Women’s Kick-off Event on November 15. 

How would you summarize your role with the club? 

I am the conduit between the various departments that we have within baseball operations. Some of our main departments are Research & Development, Scouting, and Player Development. Our R&D team includes a lot of people who are really great in math, computer science and analytics. They are constantly coming up with cutting edge research findings and producing actionable baseball data. I work with them to make sure that the information is presented clearly on our database and then I work with our Scouting and Player Development departments to make sure that we are utilizing these findings when we scout and when we sign players. 

Then, once those players are in our organization, I help ensure that we are driving their progress and coaching them, essentially making sure that we use our findings to grow players from prospects into consistent Major League players.   

At the same time, we are also making sure that the theories which our scouts or our coaches have from working hands on with the players is being communicated back to R&D so that they can look into these ideas further to make sure that the numbers support these theories. So, I connect the dots among all the different areas throughout the department.  

How do you feel about being a pioneer in your field? 

I can say that I have had a positive experience being a woman in a traditionally men’s field. I think that part of that comes from my personality and who I am. 

I grew up in Bethesda and played on a boys’ baseball team and boys’ soccer teams. In elementary school, I sat at the boys’ table for lunch, which was always a big deal. And I have two brothers, so it has always just been a part of my personality to be the woman on the men’s team. 

Fortunately, when I was playing soccer and baseball, I was one of the better players. In Bethesda Chevy-Chase Little League my baseball skills stood out and that did most of the talking, so I never really thought of myself as being different. I just saw myself as being part of the team because I was accepted for being a good player, and they wanted me there to contribute. 

Thinking back, did I ever get weird looks? Or did I ever have an opposing team say things like, ‘Oh, they have a girl who is playing goalie, we can definitely score on her. Yes. Sure that happened, but I just never thought about it.  Because my personality was just, this is who I am, I like to play sports, these are the teams I play on, I am good. I fit in. 

The media attention definitely reminds me of the extra pressure on me to do well, because if I do well, then I can open the door for other women to do well. If I do not do well, someone might say that she was not good at her job, so other women would not be good at this job either.  I am generally really good at ignoring it, but some days I am more consciously aware of it and that can be somewhat stressful.  But I think that this just makes me human. Some days I feel pressure and some days I don’t. 

O’s Fan Credentials 

From Moses to Koufax 

The juxtaposition of old and new was particularly interesting. Like I had taken a class in college on Tel Aviv, from its founding to its position as an international tech hub. Being able to see it in person right on the water, it was just so gorgeous, and Israel seemed like such a great fun place to live. So the Birthright experience is still seared into my mind and really informs my connection to the broader Jewish community.   

Any standout Jewish memories from growing up? 

I went to Jewish nursery school at [Rockville’s] Temple Beth Ami. I also remember Hebrew school where we used to play this game — like a no vowel game — where the instructor wrote Hebrew words on the board without vowels, and we’d split into two teams to guess what words sounded like. I am competitive! [Laughs] 

Holidays stand out. I remember Purim. It was like Jewish Halloween and my temple would have this big party with a haunted house and carnival games. It was always so much fun. Also, Passover. As a kid I remember thinking Passover was just another silly long holiday that was just way too late at night. Then as a young adult when coming home from college and even now, it totally changed. We started going to my best friend’s house in Bethesda. At that point, being seated at the long kids table as a bunch of 22 and 23 years olds everything was suddenly so much fun. 

Our apologies in advance for the avalanche of calls from Jewish mothers and grandmothers trying to introduce you to people after this publishes. 

[Laughs] That is totally fine. And that reminds me to ask you to please send me a link when this posts because you know who saves every article I am ever mentioned in? My parents! And they will send it to my grandmother as well! 

It also reminds me to share that I have a group text thread with my best friends from high school called ‘Jewthesda.’ Although we graduated high school twelve years ago, we still talk on this thread every single day. Actually, most of us even still live in the Baltimore/DC area, and a huge portion of our thread is focused on bagel and babka places.  

Ice Cream. Babka. Bagels. What were we supposed to be talking about again? 

I think food covers all the important Jewish bases! 

Dippin’ Dots at Camden Yards in 2021? 

Sure thing. 

Ira Gewanter is a Baltimore-based freelance writer. 

Eve will be the speaker at The Associated’s Jewish Professional Women’s Kick-Off Event on November 15.