Company made up of baseball families ensures players on the move get their cars to new homes

The 2022 season was a whirlwind for Michael and Kali Papierski.

In May, Michael was traded from his original organization, the Houston Astros , to the San Francisco Giants .

He made his major-league debut a week later, was sent back down to Triple A a week after that and was traded to the Cincinnati Reds a month later.

Within a six-week period, Papierski, a catcher, was on the roster of five different teams.

And during much of that time, he and his wife, Kali, were without their truck, which disappeared into a shipping vacuum.

Advertisement We were stressed, Kali said over the phone last month.

Not only did the Papierskis have to scramble to rent cars throughout this period, but they also were without many personal items, including Michaels 2021 American League championship ring he earned with Houston.

Your whole life is in there, she said of their truck.

Professional baseball players and their families are always a phone call away from having to pick up and move to another city.

One of the most stressful aspects of an in-season move can be getting their vehicle from point A to point B.

When a trade happens, whatever a player cant fit in his luggage will get packed into his vehicle.

Those items can range from irreplaceable heirlooms like Michaels ring to essential daily life items.

One transaction creates a lot of moving parts, said Milwaukee Brewers longtime minor-league clubhouse manager Travis Voss.

With spring training only weeks away, players around the country are making arrangements to get their vehicles to their teams spring complex.

Having lived through the stress of moving vehicles for years with Michael, Kali jumped at an opportunity last spring to join Getaway Day Agency, a vehicle shipping company that aims to make the car shipping experience as smooth as possible for professional baseball players.

Founded by Laurel Sharpe, wife of longtime minor-league pitcher, scout and now Athletics international scouting director Steve Sharpe, the company says it shipped 785 vehicles for more than 600 clients 75 percent of whom were baseball players; the others athletes in other sports in 2024.

Laurel Sharpe, 44, has a team of six agents, including Kali, who work on commission.

All six are wives or significant others of current or former professional ballplayers, so they all are living or have lived the baseball life.

Getaway Day Agency is part of a growing industry focused on the logistics of helping professional athletes, particularly baseball players, manage their lives and their stuff before, during and after the season.

Many of these businesses are women-owned.

Sharpe got into the business nearly a decade ago through her father-in-law, who had dabbled in classic car transportation.

As a spouse of a baseball player, she knew that getting a vehicle and all the stuff inside that vehicle from place to place can be one of the most trying aspects of the transient baseball lifestyle.

Advertisement The business appealed to Sharpe as a way to generate income for her family while also maintaining a flexible schedule.

As the business grew, Sharpe began to see it as an opportunity for other baseball families as well.

After nearly 10 years working on her own, she launched Getaway Day in January 2023, building what she called her dream team of agents.

These girls get it.

Theyve lived it.

They know it.

And I just wanted to provide that opportunity for other women, she said.

The agents, who work remotely, have all had experience with their own vehicles on the move at one time or another, and bring to their clients the knowledge of what has worked well and like in the case of the Papierskis temporarily AWOL truck what hasnt.

Kristen LaRoche, whose husband, Andy LaRoche, is currently a coach in the Kansas City Royals minor-league system, was looking for an opportunity to work while traveling with her husband during the season and raising their two daughters, aged 2 and 4, when she learned that Sharpe was hiring in early 2024.

LaRoche says her first year at the agency has been fulfilling and allowed her to grow.

Being a stay-at-home mom, that in and of itself is like seven jobs, but being able to have my time and feel like I have more of a purpose than just my kids and being a wife, it makes you feel better to be able to contribute to the family, LaRoche said.

Agents bring in and manage their own clients and earn commissions from the jobs they handle.

Though theres no guaranteed income, Papierski enjoys the flexibility that comes with the job.

Before joining the agency, she had a remote work job that required six hours a day.

Team travel hours and sometimes spotty WiFi at hotels made meeting the commitments of that role difficult.

With the agency, she can jump on jobs as they come up but isnt tied down to a specific work schedule.

Advertisement Being a significant other of a professional athlete often means putting ones own career ambitions on hold, says Sharpe.

She hopes every woman who joins the agency can grow professionally and she wants to add even more agents to her team over time.

We want meaningful work, Sharpe says of athletes significant others.

To be able to have the flexibility to be with your significant other, your children, be on the road, be sitting at a ball field, and being able to do work and help another player somewhere else whos trying to move their car, and I think make a good income from it, it is really terrific.

Some organizations help players facilitate their vehicle transportation through their clubhouse managers, who work with agencies like Getaway Day to get the vehicles moved.

Others leave the details entirely up to the players themselves.

Those players, in turn, often lean on their agents to handle the details.

Brian Grieper, a longtime player agent at Paragon Sports, has worked with Sharpe for nearly a decade.

He says Sharpe has become like an extension of me in our group, to some degree, and thats very reassuring, knowing that the process is just streamlined at this point.

Grieper points to the lived experience of the Getaway Day agents as being key to meeting his clients needs.

They understand players are going to stuff their vehicles to the fullest to move this around, because everything goes into the vehicle, Grieper said.

They know that, they anticipate that.

People that are not involved in the baseball industry dont really understand that concept.

In addition to their agents, players often rely on their teammates to recommend the best vehicle transportation solutions.

The agents at Getaway Day leverage their baseball networks to recruit new clients.

LaRoche has connections throughout the baseball world, not only through her husband, who played professionally for 14 seasons, but also her brother, former MLB infielder Scooter Gennett.

Through her brother, LaRoche connected with Voss, and helped move 15 to 20 cars for members of the Brewers organization this past season.

Voss has spent the last nine years working out of Milwaukees Arizona complex.

Beyond his official role, he often helps advise Brewers players new to professional baseball on what they need when they move from city to city during a season.

Clubbies have so many details to handle behind the scenes, Voss added, that whenever a player is on the move anywhere in the farm system, its vital that all aspects of that process be as seamless as possible.

Advertisement Once you start working in a role like this, and especially the longer you do it, you see the behind-the-scenes stuff that the average fan going to the game has no idea about, Voss said.

Madeline Poteet, whose husband, Cody, spent last season with the New York Yankees , has worked with several car shipping brokers during her husbands playing career, which began in 2015.

Sharpe was the last broker she worked with before joining the company herself.

The flexible hours drew Poteet to Getaway Day, but she also knows as an 11-year veteran of the baseball lifestyle, that being flexible to meet her clients needs and being available at all hours are equally important.

We live the schedule, Poteet says of her clients, noting that speed and accuracy are critical for clients who are uprooting their lives, often on a moments notice.

Youre on the road for nine or 10 months of the year, and some guys have a family with them.

Some guys have animals with them.

Some guys dont, Poteet says of the players.

But either way, your focus needs to be what happens on the field, and so getting the right people, the right businesses, the best agent and the support people around you to help you with the other stuff, so it doesnt become a distraction to the job that youre supposed to be doing thats really demanding ...

you need a support system that does that.

Poteet noted that the items in the vehicle often baseball gear but also family necessities like pack-and-plays for babies so everyone can sleep on the road or toys to make kids feel more like they are at home are often just as important to the client as the vehicle itself.

Youre living essentially out of a truck and we (as clients) need to trust somebody to get it from point A to point B.

These are all of our things to live, Papierski said.

Advertisement On top of being able to provide a key service for players and earn income for their families, several of the Getaway Day agents expressed the additional benefit of being able to lean on their coworkers for advice as they continue to live the nomadic baseball life.

Kali and Michael Papierski welcomed their first child, a boy named Deacon, on Dec.

9.

The agents in the group with children have offered plenty of advice about what Kali should expect when adding a baby to her traveling party this coming season.

Its a great camaraderie, like a good friendship weve all started to build virtually, said Poteet, who has two children.

Were on calls together, and its really sweet to know that other women want to bring in some income to supplement their spouse, boyfriend, fiance, whatever it may be, that were all just on the same page.

You dont need to say too much because people just get right where youre at and what youre going through.

LaRoche says the baseball world is one close-knit unit.

You just show up and meet people and theyre like family forever, LaRoche said.

I wish thats how the whole world was.

That friendship piece is pretty special, Poteet added.

I think that a lot of other jobs Ive had Ive had (several) other positions over the course of the years and this is by far the most fun.

A lot of that is thanks to the team that Laurel really hand-picked for us to be a part of.

(Top images: From left to right: Bryson Brantly, son of Rob and Milene Brantly, waves to his familys car as it departs; Cars are loaded up for shipment on a truck; Photos courtesy of the Brantlys and Getaway Day Agency).

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