Holland steps down as P-Nats GM

By Robert Daski

Published: March 11, 2008

Bobby Holland is leaving the Potomac Nationals to be general manager of the Ripken Experience baseball facility in Myrtle Beach.

Holland served as Potomac’s general manager, vice president and most recently senior vice president during his two-year tenure with the team.

“I’ve definitely enjoyed my time here,” Holland said. “We’ve definitely worked hard to spice up our entertainment and advertising program. My family and I, even before my wife and I got mar-ried, always wanted a job opportunity that involved the ocean and baseball.”

He will report to the Ripken Baseball Office in Baltimore next week to complete a training pro-gram. He begins his new job March 24 at a complex designed to host youth baseball tournaments and spring camps. Holland said college programs play games and train at the facility.

The youth tournaments are affiliated with the amateur baseball portion of Ripken Baseball, a sales and marketing company based in Baltimore that represents the business affairs of Cal Ripken Jr. and his brother Bill.

Being able to work for an organization with Cal Jr.’s name attached to it was too good an oppor-tunity for Holland to refuse.

“The thought of working for the most prominent and respected athlete in all of major league baseball was one of the top reasons,” I took the job, Holland said. “It’s a growing company. It’s growing so fast.”

Holland will oversee the operations of Ripken Experience and look to recruit travel teams to play there. His other duties include planning special events for the venue, developing sponsorship programs and assisting the public relations and marketing staffs.

“In an amateur baseball facility, you’re trying to bring in teams to use it,” Holland said. “It’s al-most like Disneyland for amateur players. We have 12-14 fields for all age groups.”

This opportunity also brings Holland full circle.

“It encompasses everything I’ve done in my entire life from being a baseball player to a coach to a business person,” he said.

Holland, 31, became Potomac’s general manager in 2006 after serving as Director of Marketing for the Washington D.C. and Baltimore markets for Live Nation, a concert marketing and promot-ing agency.

He was promoted to Potomac’s vice president following the ’06 season while keeping his general manager duties and promoted to senior vice president after the ’07 season.

Potomac Nationals owner Art Silber says Holland’s work with Potomac was outstanding.

“He did an absolutely wonderful job for us,” Silber said. “I can’t tell you how sorry we are to see him go.”

Silber said the position of senior vice president will be vacant for the near future.

NOTE: Silber also said several companies are reviewing proposals and are agreeing to listen to proposals to possibly purchase naming rights that will be integral for Potomac to have a new sta-dium. But as of Tuesday, no deals have been negotiated.