Blair Hoke has an important job as the assistant general manager and vice president of ticket sales and service for the Salem Red Sox.
Just ask the Low-A Carolina League franchise’s general manager, Allen Lawrence.
“It all starts with ticket sales,” Lawrence said. “If we don’t sell tickets, we can’t sell food, we can’t sell drinks, we can’t sell merchandise, we can’t sell sponsorships, we can’t have a team.”
Hoke, a 36-year-old Christiansburg native whose maiden name was Blair Evans, graduated from Eastern Montgomery High School in 2006 and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Radford University in 2010.
After a brief stint working in marketing for Shelor Motor Mile, she served as the general manager of the Pulaski Yankees of the Appalachian League for 3-1/2 years.
She made an instant impact. Hoke was named the Appalachian’s Woman of the Year in 2016 and the Rookie League’s Executive of the Year in 2017.
She took a break from baseball after the birth of her second child, but when Lawrence became the interim GM in Salem, he knew who to call.
Lawrence is thankful that Hoke answered and joined the Red Sox family.
“Here at the ballpark, she’s the person that holds this place together,” Lawrence said. “I don’t even want to think about where we’d be without her. She’s the person who makes this place go.
“We were lucky to get her. I can’t imagine life without her.”
There is another family somewhere saying the same thing.
* * *
Hoke’s mother, Marsha Singleton, died in 2009 from liver disease at the age of 46.
Not yet 21, Hoke made a vow to honor her mother in some way.
Two years ago came the answer. Hoke was told that her godfather needed a liver transplant. What better way to fulfill her pledge?
Early in the 2023 Carolina League season, Hoke traveled to Charlottesville for two days of tests at University of Virginia Medical Center, with the hope of qualifying to donate part of her liver.
She struck out.
While the transplant team told Hoke she was a match, the right lobe of her liver was not an anatomical fit to donate to another adult.
The disappointment took some time to fade.
But then a thought: What about donating to a child?
She would have just one opportunity. So with two healthy children and no nieces or nephews, Hoke placed her name on a donor list for an anonymous recipient.
In June 2023, she discussed the possibility with her immediate family, her friends and her employers. A month or two later, UVa found a match for Hoke to donate part of her liver to a pediatric patient.
The surgery was performed Sept. 29, several weeks after the Red Sox ended their 2023 season.
While surgical teams worked on Hoke and the recipient in adjacent operating rooms at UVa, Hoke still does not know the identity, age, gender or hometown of the recipient. The child’s family does not know the identity of the donor.
Regardless, she feels an intense personal connection.
“That was a very overwhelming moment for me,” she said. “When they were wheeling me to the O.R., I remember passing the pediatric transplant wing door, I just felt … happiness. It’s a little hard to put into words.”
Hoke did so anyway.
In November she received the inaugural “Hero Award” from Diamond Baseball Holdings, which owns and operates 35 minor league franchises including the Salem Red Sox.
Hoke received the award at the DBH fall meetings in Las Vegas in November. It sits somewhat inconspicuously behind her desk in her office at the ballpark.
“I didn’t do it for that reason,” she said. “I want the spotlight to be more on the education piece of it than my act individually. It gave me the opportunity to tell more people about organ donation.”
Turns out Hoke is good at that job, too.
“In 24 years in the business, that was one of my special moments,” said Lawrence, who also made the trip to Las Vegas. “She really is a great ambassador.”
* * *
Hoke would talk explicitly about the actual surgery, if she could remember the details.
“It’s a little bit of a blur,” she said. “It is a large abdominal surgery. My incision’s about 11 and a half inches long. It can be a little overwhelming. For me, you’re pushed into an [operating] room with about 15 people, the transplant team. I’ve never had anything like that in my life.”
What Hoke does remember vividly is the lead-up to the surgery, the professionalism of the medical personnel, the feelings of goodwill that she took home from Charlottesville.
“The whole experience was extremely eye-opening to me,” she said. “One, how wonderful UVa Health’s transplant team was. The education and the materials I learned just from going up there for the initial consultation.
“[However,] it was really remarkable just to see the demand of donors versus the need from recipients. I think when people hear ‘organ donation,’ they immediately think what’s on your driver’s license, what you’re able to donate after you pass.
“Being a living donor has several benefits. It takes someone to the top of the list who may be waiting for other organs. Also, for the transplant team, it’s typically a better outcome for the recipient because you know the anatomical makeup and the health of the donor.”
Hoke said she never felt pressured or hurried during the testing or the consultation, or in the short hours before the procedure.
“They take the donor’s well-being at the forefront of the process,” she said. “They want to make sure there’s no pressure whatsoever, it’s exactly what you want to do. You have all the resources that you need. Should you ever want to change your mind, all that is available.”
Hoke was accompanied to Charlottesville by her husband, Ryan, for the eight-hour surgery performed by Dr. Nicolas Goldaracena and the ensuing three-day stay in the intensive care unit. Their two children, now 13 and 7, stayed with grandparents.
The kids nevertheless received a first-person lesson in humanity.
“I’m able to show my children how important it is to be selfless, and I get to experience really a miracle in itself,” she said. “The conversations were very different with each one, because they’re at different points in their lives. I didn’t want it to be a scary thing for them, but they were very aware of the basis of it.”
Hoke said her liver has regenerated to the maximum 90% of its normal size and 100% of its function. More importantly, the pediatric recipient is healthy.
“I am told the recipient is doing very well,” she said. “They want to protect both parties. I would love to meet my recipient, but I absolutely respect their decision.I can only imagine what they’ve gone through, all the hospital visits over the course of the child’s life.”
* * *
Hoke played softball and basketball at Eastern Montgomery. With an English degree from Radford, her life plan was to become a high school teacher and coach.
“I grew up with a father of an only child. I was always a bit of a tomboy,” she said. “When you realize you’re not going to play professional sports, your next choice is to be a teacher and a coach.
“I’ve always been very passionate about baseball,” she said. “I wasn’t aware of all the opportunities in the sports world. Everyone thinks you have to be a professional athlete and that’s it. And there’s so much more to it.”
Hoke worked in the marketing department at Shelor Motor Mile in Christiansburg until David Hagan and the Shelor Automotive Group led by Larry Shelor purchased Calfee Park from the town of Pulaski in 2014 and spent millions on improvements to the facility that eventually attracted the Yankees to operate an Appalachian League franchise.
She already had worked with the late Lee Landers, the former Appalachian League president, after the Seattle Mariners pulled their franchise out of Pulaski.
The door had swung open for Hoke’s entrance into professional baseball.
“Right place, right time,” she said. “I had a very unique pathway into the industry. I kind of jumped head-first into minor league baseball and absorbed everything that I could.”
However, with two young children, Hoke opted for a job that would not require so many nights spent at a ballpark. She became the economic development director for the city of Radford.
Hoke stayed in that job just 10 months. When Lawrence and former Red Sox GM Ryan Shelton came calling, the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd were too much to ignore. She signed on in Salem, where suddenly the size of a full-time staff at her disposal was a big change.
“In Pulaski, Appy League had two full-time staff members. Here we have 15, 16,” Lawrence said. “It was such a small staff she was forced to do it all. Since she’s come here, while she’s got some different areas she focuses on, she’s still very involved in many other parts of the business.
“We all wear a lot of different hats in minor league baseball. She probably wears more than anybody.”
Hoke describes her current job as “a little bit of everything.”
That includes ticket sales, partnerships, group outings, hospitality, working with local businesses.
“I don’t like to use the word ‘sales.’ I try to provide fans with a memorable experience at the ballpark. I make sure it’s getting done, and we’re hitting budgets.
“This position allows me to be creative, enjoy sports, meet so many interesting people and come to work every single day and not feel like it’s work. We get to be the best part of everyone’s day.”
How about being the best part of an anonymous child’s life?
“I think it speaks to who she is, and how giving and caring she is for others,” Lawrence said. “She was willing to do something that impacted her life very dramatically to improve the life of somebody she didn’t know.”
With 12 years in professional baseball, where will Hoke next make an impact? Just what is in the Christiansburg native’s future?
Her experience in the sport has been limited to the Rookie League, High-A and Low-A levels, but for now Hoke would have it no other way.
“[Rookie League players] didn’t care what hotel they were staying in. They were just happy to be playing ball,” Hoke said. “It’s very similar in Low-A. They’re younger. They’re eager. They’re happy to be signing an autograph.
“You meet your fans on a more intimate level. They know our names. We know theirs. We get invited to weddings.”
Hoke, who earlier this year graduated from the Roanoke Regional Chamber’s Leadership Roanoke Valley program, has just one ambition at the moment.
“My goal is to focus on raising my kids the best way I can, watching them get to grow up here at the ballpark,” she said. “Who knows in the long term? I’m certainly not trying to limit myself professionally. I think there’s something down the road for me that’s bigger. When that comes, I’ll know it.”
