Dawn Sullivan, a TDS field services assistant in Monroe and Verona, Wis., loves going to Madison Mallards baseball games. But not for the reasons you’d probably guess. She’s not a huge fan of tailgating, Major League Baseball, or the roar of crowd. As a matter of fact she’d probably tell you the other fans can be a little distracting. That’s because when Dawn’s at the game she’s got her eyes fixed on one pitcher, her son, number 55, Daniel “Danny” Sullivan. Dawn says, “It means a lot to watch him play in a Mallards uniform. He’s put in so much work.”
Baseball is engrained in Dawn’s family. Her father, husband and brother all played baseball. Now, Danny and her younger son, Cole, play. Dawn remembers the day Danny, a senior at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Mich., called and told her he was offered a spot on the Mallards. Dawn says, “I was driving when he called and said, ‘our dreams have come true.’ I almost drove off the road because I wasn’t exactly sure what he was talking about.”
This is the last season Dawn will sit in the TDS Triple Play Club and watch her son pitch. Danny will graduate next year with a degree in marketing and to play for the Mallards you have to be enrolled in school. Dawn and Danny hope there’s a life in baseball for him once he graduates.
The next time you’re at a Mallards game you’ll have an added reason to root, root, root for the home team, number 55, Daniel Sullivan.
