Photo: AMANDA CROPPER / LITTLE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL
W
hen Liz DiLullo Brown was a child, she often would ask her father, “Where’s Papa today?” delighting at the thought of her grandfather, old-school baseball scout Ralph DiLullo, traipsing the Northeast in search of the game’s next rising star.
Liz DiLullo Brown
Little League Baseball and Softball |
Vice President, Marketing and Strategic Partnerships
“They called him The Jet,” Brown said, “because he could get to four or five games in a day. He could be anywhere in the Northeast. But he always made time in the summer to take us to Reading Phillies games and he always found a way to come watch me play field hockey.”
Brown followed her grandfather into baseball, albeit via a far different path. It’s a background that includes years of agency work, including a period with Velocity Sports and Entertainment before joining Little League. In her current role, she has worked to identify the needs and preferences of both parents and children and helped design a plan to help the organization evolve to better serve them.
Brown’s grandfather, who was perhaps best known for signing Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter, scouted into his 80s and lived until almost 90, but he didn’t make it to see his granddaughter take her job with Little League 5 1/2 years ago. That’s something she considers as she continues her work with the organization.
“He used to run camps for kids,” Brown said. “It would have been amazing to have this job and talk to him about it.”
— Bill King
- Notable professional achievement: A proprietary research study I led (for Little League). It all focused on youth participation in baseball and softball. That set an action plan for us moving forward that is still our guide.
- Biggest professional disappointment: My grandfather was a professional baseball scout. He passed away in 1999. If he were alive now, we would have amazing conversations about my job, because he used to run camps for kids.
- Best advice received: Came from (Little League CEO) Steve Keener: Never compromise your integrity — ever.
- Causes supported: I volunteer for my local Little League. My kids are involved, so it’s relevant and important to me. I’m on the advisory board for sport management at East Stroudsburg University. And some personal things, like diabetes and cancer research.
- Woman in sports business I’d most like to meet: Christine Brennan. I just find myself nodding my head in agreement when I read her work.
- Most memorable sporting events attended: The most memorable was being at Talladega Superspeedway. There is nothing quite like that. The best may be the New York City Triathlon that I worked a couple of times. They swim in the Hudson, bike on the West Side Highway and run in Central Park.
- If my colleagues were asked to describe me, they would say I: Am about as detailed as they come. And that if my hair is pulled up, that means I have a lot going on.
