33-year-old was rejected from a baseball internship, now she's the team's general manager: 'I never pictured I could have a career in baseball'

Brooke Cooper was 12 years old when she thought her career in baseball was over.

She had aged out of her local Little League offerings and there were no more opportunities for girls to play the sport, Cooper tells CNBC Make It. She tried playing softball next, which is traditionally seen as the female counterpart to baseball, but says she “didn’t have the same passion.”

“I loved playing baseball,” Cooper, now 33, says. “I never pictured I could have a career in baseball.”

In March 2024, Cooper became the general manager of the Worcester Red Sox, a Triple-A minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is the first female general manager in Boston Red Sox franchise history.

However, Cooper says she was rejected the first time she applied for an internship with the team, then known as the Pawtucket Red Sox. That summer, the then 20-year-old waited tables and volunteered at a sports marketing firm instead, she says.