This Anchorage family is proof that host families are the lifeblood of the Alaska Baseball League

First of two parts.

Even though his team’s Sunday doubleheader was rained out, Anchorage Bucs pitcher Michael Sarhatt still had the appetite of a hurler who had just thrown a complete game.

At 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds, the aptly named “Big Mike” polished off his second plate of chicken tortellini before enjoying some dessert.

Sarhatt was joined by nearly a dozen teammates and summer media interns around two tables at the home of the Bucs’ housing coordinator, Jennifer Mattingly.

As large as the crowd sounds, this wasn’t even the full cast of characters who usually join her for dinner three or four times a week. Typically, both tables are full and a few more eat their meals on the couch or outside on nice days.

[Part 2: Meet the ‘epitome of a host’ for Anchorage Glacier Pilots players the past decade]

“We’ve housed with three (of our own) kids in the house and went from one player to two players to four players and here we are with two houses,” Mattingly said.

She and her husband, Shane, have hosted both players and coaches during the summer Alaska Baseball League season in 20 of the last 24 years.

None of the family members are actually living under the same roof as the players this year because they don’t have the space, but they’ve opened up their second home to seven players and helped put up another five players and three media interns at the Voyage School House.

“I take them dinner three or four nights a week and try to go in on the weekends and change the sheets, spiff up the place, and do all the Costco grocery shopping,” Mattingly said.

She said this summer, the family spends anywhere from $1,400 to $1,800 on groceries every 10 days.

“We can feed 14 for just under 100 bucks (per person),” Mattingly said.

While she does have some go-to meals, Mattingly likes to mix it up from time to time.

“Tacos are good, but I try not to repeat too many,” she said. “We do lasagna, we’ve had curry chicken, we’ve had tikka masala, lots of pasta with chicken and breakfast burritos.”

Her late father-in-law, Dennis Mattingly, who helped start the Anchorage Bucs in 1980 and was the club’s first general manager, introduced them into the concept of becoming a host family.

“Dennis called and said, ‘Hey, I need you to house some kids,’ ” she said with a chuckle. “We’ve had coaches and we’ve had players.”

[Alaska baseball icon Mattingly calls it a career]

For Sarhatt, Mattingly’s home cooking has been a ray of sunshine during what’s been one of the wettest summers in recent memory.

“Jen is the best,” he said. “Weight has always been a struggle for me, especially during summer ball. Last year I lost 15 pounds out in the Northwoods League and I’ve actually gained a few pounds up here.”

While the University of Nevada Reno pitcher gave some of the credit for his weight gain to a good lifting program, Mattingly gets the bulk of the praise for her culinary skills and generous hospitality.

The 21-year-old said that he has always been a big eater and takes pride that his teammates all pointed to him when asked who eats the most of the bunch.

“They know that if they don’t finish their food, I’ll finish it for them,” Sarhatt said.

The hospitality the Mattinglys offer doesn’t stop at room and board. Their family has a cabin on the Kenai Peninsula that the players are welcome to use to unwind when they have time off, whether they want to go fishing or just get away from the grind for a day or two.

”We’ve been down once already but struck out fishing the first time,” Sarhatt said. “There’s a big salmon run at the end of the month that we’re going for ... when we get three days off in a row and hopefully we’ll come back with some good fish meat.”

While the family has hosted dozens of players over the years, this is the first year that the team has had media interns, which Jennifer Mattingly says has been an “awesome” experience for everyone.

“Last year we had no radio, so you couldn’t even listen to the game unless we were at another ballpark,” she said. “It’s really nice, you can get on YouTube and listen to the game with announcers. They’re a great group of announcers and you’d never think they were out of college.”

One of the interns who does radio for the team is Jace Andrews, who recently graduated from Oklahoma State University and has been an admirer of the ABL from afar. He happened to come across the position opening on social media and applied on a whim. He is originally from Austin, Texas, and has already made a lot of his Alaska summer with fishing, a glacier trip and musk ox visits.

“It’s really nice,” Andrews said. “Last summer I worked in South Carolina, so coming up to Alaska is a big change but it’s way better up here with nicer temperatures except the rain.”

Answering the call to action

Mattingly is in her second year as the Bucs’ housing coordinator and is likely setting a record for the most players and league personnel ever hosted.

“We were just tight on host families,” she said. “Before the season even started, we were down 14 returning beds before we even had a roster. People had family coming to town or were traveling outside town this year.”

They hope that it won’t be nearly as tight next year, since some of the host families they lost this summer are expected to be back for the 2024 season. They could always use more host families, though, to lessen the burden on those who have to take care of more than one or two.

The couple has three daughters but had no sons, so in the same way that they serve as surrogate parents and families each summer, she says the players are like the sons they never had.

“They’re Shane’s fix on young sons,” Mattingly said.

For the vast majority of the players who join the ABL each year, it marks their first time coming to Alaska, and Mattingly does her best to ensure their only concern is honing their craft during the time they’re here.

“They come up here to play ball and my job is to make sure that they play ball and don’t have to deal with life,” she said. “It’s hard to do food this year because we’re split between two homes, but I’m just here to be a semi-mom and support them and help them get to their dreams.”

The Mattinglys’ daughters are 24, 19 and 14. The youngest two still live with them at home, so they’re not quite empty nesters — and don’t plan to be for at least the two to three months each year that double as the ABL season.

There is no ABL without host families

While the players are the main attraction and what fans come to the ballparks to see, Mattingly believes host families are the lifeblood of the ABL. Without their selflessness and generosity, the league wouldn’t be sustainable.

“A team can’t afford to house kids in apartments and they deserve better than to have to fend for themselves all summer,” Mattingly said. “They go to school all year to play ball and this is their dream, to continue on and try and get to the bigs, and they should be able to play ball while they’re here and not have to worry about how to make ends meet.”

The Bucs have had numerous former players get drafted over the years, including 10 this past week — such as Jaxon Jelkin, who stayed with the Mattinglys last summer and was selected in the 14th round of the 2023 MLB June Amateur Draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of South Mountain Community College.

When their oldest daughter was 5 or 6, the Mattinglys hosted retired three-time All-Star pitcher Jered Weaver. They still keep in touch with him and some of their other former summer sons.

“When Dennis was sick with cancer, Jered donated a whole bunch of signed memorabilia for his auction to raise money for his cancer treatment,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly believes that the experience of being a host family is its own reward.

“It’s a great way to see other sides of life and opportunity and how hard people work to reach their dreams,” she said. “Especially up here in Alaska, where we don’t get a lot of interactions with colleges and internships.”

Being a die-hard baseball fan isn’t a requirement to host a player, but it does come with some perks in the form of season tickets to any league game except the annual July 4 doubleheader, a small stipend that can help with groceries, and “meeting some great kids.”

“We’ve (hosted) with babies, we’ve (hosted) with teenagers and we’ll continue doing it when we’re empty-nesters, I’m sure,” Mattingly said.

Up next: Meet the “epitome of a host” for Anchorage Glacier Pilots players the past decade.