For the families of Major League Baseball players who push deep into October, the pursuit of a championship means trading routine for a high-stakes balancing act of travel, childcare, and sleep deprivation. While teams chase pennants and rings under the bright lights of the postseason, life off the field for spouses and young children is defined by survival mode, makeshift schedules, and relentless logistics.
Miller Rasmussen was born during opening week of the 2026 MLB season. The birth was difficult, requiring a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for the newborn daughter of Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen and his wife, Stevie. With baseball demanding attention every single day, Stevie found herself instantly thrust into a lifestyle where long-term planning took a back seat.
“I told myself, ‘Just get through the end of the season,'” Stevie Rasmussen recalled. “Then the season’s like a little bit longer, and a little bit longer.”
Because their rental home in St. Petersburg, Florida, was leased through September, the family had to relocate late last month, opting for a full-month lease through October. The team’s deep playoff run—reaching the World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers—extended an already hectic year. Along with seven-month-old Miller, the couple has a four-year-old son, Rhett, whose preschool back in Arizona encouraged the family to send pictures of him in his Rays gear until he can rejoin classes.
“I’ve kind of had to let all that go, which is not really my personality,” Stevie Rasmussen said of maintaining schedules. “In order to see dad—you can either have a schedule and not see dad as much, or you can have no schedule and be a free-for-all. Seeing him run up to Drew post-game when I’m exhausted, I’m like, ‘OK, this is worth it.'”
Managing the October grind is a familiar challenge for veteran baseball families. Brianna Betts, married to former MVP Mookie Betts, has experienced deep postseason runs across multiple organizations, including in 2018 when her husband won his first World Series with the Boston Red Sox while she was 37 weeks pregnant with their first child. The couple brought a hospital carrier and diaper bag on the road in case she went into labor during the series, an experience that convinced her pregnancy stress during the postseason rivals the demands of parenting.
Today, the Betts family has three children: seven-year-old Kynlee, three-year-old Kaj, and seven-month-old Khari. Though Mookie Betts’ Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated in this year’s National League Championship Series, Brianna maintains a strict routine to keep her children grounded amid the professional sports bubble. Even during home games in Los Angeles this season, Kynlee attended school on game days, balancing late nights at the ballpark with early morning classes to preserve a sense of normal life.
“I like for her to do her own activities, have her own friends, play dates, and just have her own life,” Brianna Betts said, noting that the family lives in Los Angeles year-round. Traveling with three children presents its own unique hurdles, from airplane trick-or-treating during late-season flights to Toronto last year to rationing iPads, snacks, and activities to keep children entertained during marathon night games.
Organizations help ease the burden by providing crucial infrastructure. At Tropicana Field, the Rays offer daily childcare with trusted providers who have known the Rasmussen children since birth. For the World Series, the franchise extended that support by bringing the same childcare providers on the road. Traveling families also lean heavily on one another, with younger wives without children assisting with car seats and luggage while flying separately from players on crowded charter flights.
Behind the glamour of the Fall Classic, the reality for mothers remains intensely practical. Stevie Rasmussen, who is still nursing Miller, described standing in the corridors of the World Series holding a pump bag.
“I had my mom take a picture of me the other day standing at the World Series holding my pump bag,” she said. “I was like: ‘This is what it’s actually like to be a baseball wife.'”
