Numbers Game: Q&A With Margot Douillet

Written by Melissa Karen Sances

Article published in Northampton Living (July 2023)

We sat down with Margot Douillet, a gifted analyst and the first female coach of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, a competitive summer league that mirrors the style of a minor league season. As the Director of Operations for the Pittsfield Suns, Douillet took the field -- and the helm -- last summer when she was 20 years old.

Northampton Living: Tell me about your sports background. How did you get into analytics?

Margot Douillet: This is so funny because growing up, I was not really into sports. I played softball in 3rd and 4th grade and hated it. And then I saw my dad reading a box score on the computer one day. I was probably about 13 and a box score is basically just like this mess of numbers that tells you everything that goes on in a game. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. He said, “Come here, I’ll show you how to read this.” After that moment I was just like, okay, I know what I want to do with my life. I’m going to go to school, I’m going to study statistics, and I’m going to work in baseball. I’m going to crunch the numbers.

NL: Is that what you were hired to do with the Suns, crunch the numbers?

MD: No. My first 2 years I was a front-office intern, so I basically got to do intern things, which was mostly laundry. I got really good at that. But yeah I tried to help the coach out as much as possible.

NL: So you’re doing the laundry, and you just start chatting up the coach?

MD: Yeah, pretty much. I think I was like 16 at the time. I was very shy at that age. At first I was just kind of like, “Hey, this is what I’ve been doing in my free time.” Then I actually started asking, “Now that you know what I can do, what do you actually need?”

NL: And that led to coaching one of the games last year?

MD: I was a head coach for one of the games, and that may be the most fun that I’ve ever had. It was an exhibition game and we had been playing back-to-back up in Vermont. Our coaching staff was tired, our players were tired, and our general manager was like, “Okay, what if we send the B-team up there and Margot can coach?” It was funny, I kept thinking that I was going to have moments that day where I was like, “This doesn’t feel right,” but the whole time it just felt so right. I was so calm, and I felt like I was in the right place.

NL: Did you win the game?

MD: No, but we won the Home Run Derby afterwards, and that’s all that matters to me. I still have an autographed baseball from all the players who played in that game. It’s one of my most prized possessions.