Meet the Sonoma Stompers’ No. 1 fan

The Stompers season may be over, but Satya Briskin’s love for the team is just getting started.|

Satya Briskin is sad that the Sonoma Stompers baseball season has ended. She just may be their biggest fan, and the team considers Satya part of the Stompers family.

Satya was the bat girl for the Stompers’ final game. She once served as a guest announcer for a few innings, reading off the players’ names as they came to the plate. She’s also had the chance to throw out the first pitch and has joined the players on field to sing the national anthem. Satya had grandstand seats for almost every game, cheering on her team with joy and loyalty.

“I am so grateful for how kind and inclusive the Stompers organization has been to Satya,” said her mother Robin Briskin. “They have made her feel independent and important and part of the team.”

Satya has cerebral palsy and faces physical and mental challenges – and Robin said being a Stompers fan has made her feel like part of a community in a way she has never experienced before.

“The games are very exciting and cool,” Satya told the Index-Tribune. “And the players are so nice. You can high five them before the game.”

Satya met her first Stomper while participating in Becoming Independent – a nonprofit program that assists people with disabilities lead independent lives – where a former player, Danny Martinez, was working part time in 2016. The following season, when Satya noticed the Stompers had a booth at the farmers market, she was very interested.

“They had a cornhole game and you could win free tickets,” Satya said. “I got it in on my second try and they told me I could have as many tickets as I wanted.” From then on she was true blue fan.

Satya’s love of baseball first started when her cousin Das Jesson played in the minor leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals in the early 2000s. But that was nothing like the hometown attachment she feels for the Stompers.

“I have pictures,” she said, pulling out a small photo album of herself with players from the 2017 and 2018 teams, including several with catcher Isaac Wenrich. “I like all the players,” she said, but with some prompting admitted that Wenrich is a favorite.

Satya attends art and dance classes at Alchemia in Santa Rosa. She will be singing “It’s Quiet Uptown” from the musical “Hamilton” with Alchemia at the Speckles Theatre in November. She also works as a dog walker for her neighbor. She has two dogs of her own, Ben and Jax.

Satya also participates in the Everybody is a Star program as a singer. She has joined other Everybody is a Star performers singing the national anthem before San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s and Oakland Warriors games.

But being a Stomper fan is her greatest joy. “The Stompers have totally boosted her self-esteem,” Robin said.

She wrote a thank you email to the team’s assistant general manager Joey Samuelson, thanking him for the team’s kindness to Satya and telling him that Satya was “over the moon” about being bat girl.

“We consider Satya part of the Stompers family because she is a Stompers faithful,” Samuelson wrote in reply.

Satya will be wearing her Stompers sweatshirt in the off-season as she faithfully awaits the 2019 opening day.

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