Villanova senior Emily Cahill received a text from her cousin late last November. It was a link to the Phillies’ Ballgirl application, and some encouragement to apply.
For Cahill, a lifelong Phillies fan, it wasn’t a tough decision to fill it out.
“It was four days before the application was due, and I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll do it,’” Cahill said. “Within 20 minutes, I was like, ‘I’m going to apply.’”
The Ballgirls’ most visible action is fielding foul balls during Phillies home games, but the Ballgirls also work to sell 50/50 raffle tickets during games. They also spend off-days traveling to children’s hospitals and youth baseball and softball clinics.
As for the process of joining the Ballgirls, Cahill said that she needed to submit recent videos of her playing softball and answer questions about what the Phillies meant to her. Cahill played softball from the age of four through high school, but does not play at Villanova.
“I had to attach videos of me hitting and fielding from the last six months,” Cahill said. “Since I don’t play in college, I had to go get my friends to go out with me and record me hitting and fielding.”
Cahill, a Bucks County native, joined the Ballgirls at the start of the 2024 season in March. She learned she had gotten the job two days before Christmas after a post-application process that involved a Zoom interview, an in-person interview, in-person hitting, fielding and throwing sessions at Citizens Bank Park and a short Phillies history quiz. She said that the in-person interview was the most important part of the process.
“They went through questions about certain scenarios, just wanting to know more about me, which was very personalized,” Cahill said. “They definitely had my resumé in front of them, very specific questions.”
Cahill said she studied for the quiz, but still only got roughly half of it correct.
“The quiz was impossible,” Cahill said. “I probably got 50 to 60 percent of it right because I had studied so intensely the last two days before that, but I was like, ‘I don’t know how people know these answers.’”
On weekday game days, Cahill has to be at her post selling 50/50 raffle tickets an hour before first pitch. On weekend game days, she is there an hour and a half early. The Ballgirls rotate who works on the field, so a lot of what Cahill does is walk around the stadium peddling raffle tickets. The 50/50 is a raffle where half the pot goes to the individual with the winning ticket and the other half goes to charities associated with the Phillies.
During her second game as a Ballgirl, Cahill was tasked with selling 50/50 tickets to the luxury suites. She opened the door to one of the suites to find recently retired Eagles players Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox, who had both thrown out ceremonial first pitches.
“I was obviously working, so I wasn’t asking for pictures,” Cahill said. “I was very professional. That was super cool.”
Being on the field during play is a “surreal experience,” according to Cahill. When she was first introduced as a Phillies Ballgirl on her first day of working the foul line, Cahill was excited.
“Six-year-old Emily would have never thought I would be on the field, I would see myself on the scoreboard at the Phillies game,” Cahill said. “I was emotional, but not to the point where I was going to cry… Being able to be on the field of my favorite team, I can’t even put it into words”
Even with the experience of being on the field, Cahill’s favorite moment working with the Phillies so far came in the concourse.
Cahill said a little girl came up to her while she was selling 50/50 tickets and asked for her ball card. Ball cards are baseball cards featuring the picture and name of each Ballgirl. Cahill handed the child one, and wished her and her dad a nice day. Five minutes later, the girl came back in tears. She had lost the card.
“The dad goes, ‘She lost the ball card already, she’s super upset because her name is Emily, too. She was so happy to see that your name was Emily,’” Cahill said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, take as many ball cards as you want. I don’t want you to lose it.’ She gave me a hug and said, ‘Thank you so much, I want to be just like you when I grow up.’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to cry.’”
