According to a 2015 Northwest Florida Daily News interview, a catcher nicknamed “The Badass” due to her speed on the field, Hopkins was selected with the eighth pick in the Atlantic League’s annual draft. Founded in 1998, the Atlantic League is at the highest level of professional baseball outside of Major League Baseball (MLB) and is the official partner league of MLB based in the Southeast region of the United States. More than 40% of the league’s players have MLB experience, and each, on average, the league sells more than 50 player contracts to MLB organizations per year, according to the league’s website. The Genomes, for which Lindsey Gardner is a hitting consultant, said in an Instagram post that several women at the club will help the team “continue to change the face of professional baseball.”
Dreams Come True
“We’re thrilled to give Scrappy the opportunity to play in Lexington and become the first woman in the Atlantic League,” Genomes manager Mark Minicozzi said, according to LEX 18, the Kentucky-based NBC affiliate.
“We’re thrilled to see her start her career in professional baseball,” Minicozzi added.
When asked in college to write down a dream, Hopkins shied away from listing professional baseball as a real goal.
“I’m very excited about this,” Hopkins said in the video. tweeted Atlantic League.
“I was going to fire a professional baseball player, but I didn’t actually do it because I thought, ‘This will never happen,’ but I think we’re making a dream come true today.”
The Genomes are scheduled to play their first home game of the season against the Lexington Legends, with whom they share Wild Health Field, on July 4th.