On her journey around the ballpark, Catie Griggs settled into Section 86 for the sixth inning of Monday’s Orioles game against the Chicago White Sox. She has made a habit of this since arriving as Baltimore’s president of business operations — walking around Camden Yards, watching and listening and enjoying the baseball experience among the fans.

In each section, she notices something new. It’s all new to her, really. She was hired in July from the Seattle Mariners to help overhaul the Orioles’ business aspects, but before she can dive into making changes, she stops and listens.

And sits in Section 86 — the Bird Bath Splash Zone — for the Orioles’ largest offensive inning in weeks. Baltimore rattled off six runs, and Griggs experienced Mr. Splash spraying the section with a hose. She was soaked by the end of the adventure.

“It was a lot of fun,” Griggs said. “It’s been a joy, really, just getting to walk around the ballpark, get to understand how this space works, get to understand how it fits in our community, and then spend a lot of time getting to know our staff.”

Griggs has been through this, so her approach is measured on purpose. When she arrived with the Mariners as president of business operations, having led MLS team Atlanta United previously, she took the same thorough approach to learning the community.

Only then, when she had a feel for the Pacific Northwest, did she shape the Mariners’ business operations in her vision. It led to a successful three-year stint in Seattle that left former co-workers raving about her impact.

“She’s a hard charger; when she has conviction for something, she will run through the wall to make sure it happens,” said Kevin Martinez, the senior vice president of marketing and communications for the Mariners. “But she really wanted the information and the background and the history and the ‘why’ to everything. I really appreciated that approach. After she did that for a while, she had such clarity on where she wanted to go based on what she had heard and socialized the ideas with the senior leadership team in a very collaborative manner. We were off and running, and it was really a tremendous three years.”

Martinez’s positive impressions of Griggs started well before that introductory learning period, however. Martinez was part of the search committee for the role, and despite the initial interview being held over Zoom, Griggs blew him away with her passion for the position.

At that time, she had been with Atlanta United for four years. She brought the MLS All-Star Game to Atlanta in the franchise’s infancy and oversaw a surge in attendance that broke American soccer records.

The work didn’t go unnoticed by the Mariners. And, in that preliminary interview, Martinez was a believer.

“She’s so poised, so articulate, showed so much genuine enthusiasm for her work at the Atlanta United, and was able to communicate her vision of what a sports organization can and should be so vividly that she really had me leaning in right from that moment,” Martinez said. “Then, when I got to meet her in person and see her early on, I was struck by her compassion for people and her ability to come into a new city, a new organization, didn’t have any real ties here in Seattle and just take time to listen.”

Griggs is taking that time to listen in Baltimore, and one thing she’s hearing is, er, a lack of noise. For the Orioles, she will have a central role in orchestrating how and when the Orioles make use of $600 million in state bonds for stadium upgrades. One of the most noticeable areas for improvement is the sound system.

Griggs said the sound system and video board are high on the list, but integrating a mixture of luxury seating areas and general fan viewing areas will be in play in the future.

“You will see things in ’25,” Griggs said of renovations. “I think you’re likely to see much more substantive change in 2026. Just looking out behind you right now, I think we have some opportunities with video boards. And rumor has it that there’s some audio things that we might be looking to improve as well.”

But the stadium upgrades aren’t the only thing on her mind. Griggs oversaw the MLB All-Star Game and NHL Winter Classic at T-Mobile Park in Seattle within six months of each other. The experience — having two marquee events in quick succession — displayed Griggs’ work ethic.

“I think a lot of people would have been intimidated by the idea of having two major events like that back to back,” Martinez said, “but it didn’t faze Catie. And her confidence and her enthusiasm for the opportunity spilled over through the entire organization.”

She took the opportunity to delegate responsibilities, elevating other staff members into important roles.

As Griggs began to prepare for hosting the 2023 MLB All-Star Game, she asked all the department heads from the Mariners to nominate people within their divisions for a key role in planning the event. It didn’t matter if they weren’t upper management.

“Her leadership style, it not only excites the folks in the organization, it empowers them,” Martinez said. “She asked all the department heads to identify the emerging leaders within the organization, and let’s empower them to be the people on the front lines with Major League Baseball. Let’s give them a growth opportunity on this jewel event and empower them to be our leaders on this project. And the response by people that were given this opportunity was tremendous, and you saw the confidence as the process went on just grow in each one of them.”

Griggs hopes to bring a similar excitement to Baltimore, within the organization and in the city. She echoed what many within the organization have expressed — a desire to host an All-Star Game for the first time since 1993 — and she believes it can drive public and private partnerships in a bid to help Baltimore.

She saw it lift Seattle, after all, as well as Atlanta earlier in her career when she drew soccer fans from around the country to watch Juventus play the MLS All-Star team.

“I don’t think it comes as any surprise to anyone that, particularly coming out of COVID, Seattle and its downtown area didn’t have the best reputation,” Griggs said. “This was an amazing opportunity for the organization to work alongside private and public sector to focus on that downtown area and ensure that it was a space that fans wanted it to be, and I think we were very successful at that. I would feel privileged to have the opportunity to work alongside this organization, Major League Baseball and all of our partners in and around Baltimore to showcase the city.”

More than anything — beyond the upcoming stadium upgrades and the continued success on the baseball side — Griggs is about community. Of all the changes she brought to Seattle, she might be most proud of the introduction of a value menu that offers certain concession items at lesser price points.

In her view, there’s something for everybody at the ballpark. It’s her job to help them find it.

“We have an amazing ballpark,” Griggs said. “There are a lot of seats in it. I’d like to see them all filled every single night. And, to do that, it means we have to create an environment where everyone feels welcome, everyone feels appreciated, and they feel like they’re seen and they want to be here and be part of this. My teams have done it before. I very much believe we can do it again.”

Correction: The headline of this story has been updated to correct Catie Grigg's title.