David Kerr
General Manager
The guy who usually says, “I’ll figure it out.”
General Manager
Design, marketing, storytelling, operations, community work, weird ideas, broken things, last-minute fixes, and now the responsibility of helping lead where the whole thing goes next.
From building it to leading it
David Kerr was named General Manager of the Mississippi Mud Monsters in September 2026 after serving as Assistant General Manager from the club’s launch.
During the Mud Monsters’ first two seasons, David had his hands in just about every part of the organization - ticket sales, corporate partnerships, marketing, promotions, events, game presentation, ballpark operations, community work, and plenty of things that never fit neatly into a job description.
The new title changes the responsibility, but not necessarily the approach. David believes the best organizations are built by people willing to care about the details, take care of each other, listen to the people they serve, and step in when something needs to get done.
The Story Behind the Mud Monsters
David joined Badge Banter to talk through the Mud Monsters identity, the story behind the brand, and how a new team in Pearl found its voice.
More than nine innings
For David, baseball has never just been about the game on the field. It is about everything that happens around it - the kid getting a foul ball, the family making a summer memory, coworkers spending a night together, somebody celebrating a birthday, and the season ticket holder who has sat with the same people for years.
Those are the moments people carry home with them. David believes the job of a baseball organization is to create more of them.
That idea has shaped nearly every stop in his career. From promotions and ticket sales to design, operations, partnerships and community work, he sees professional baseball as one of the rare places where competition, nostalgia, creativity and human connection all get to live in the same ballpark.
From one chapter to the next
Before the Mud Monsters, David spent six seasons with the Mississippi Braves, ultimately serving as Director of Ticket Sales and experiencing the final years of affiliated baseball at Trustmark Park.
When that chapter closed, he stayed in Pearl to help build what came next.
That experience gave him an unusual perspective on the ballpark - what it had meant to people, what was changing, and what a new organization would need to become in order to build its own relationship with Mississippi.
The Mud Monsters gave him the opportunity to help turn an ending into a beginning. Now, as General Manager, he gets to help determine where that beginning goes next.
Helping give the monster meaning
David has had a hand in many of the visual and storytelling details that shape the Mud Monsters brand, from uniforms and merchandise to promotional concepts, ballpark messaging, digital content and the voice fans see online.
The name, the colors, the uniforms, the promotions and the weird little moments all came from a team effort. David’s role has often been helping connect those pieces into a story that feels unmistakably Mississippi, unmistakably Pearl and unmistakably Mud Monsters.
Built from the Swamp
The Mud Monsters’ 2025 uniforms were designed in-house by David Kerr and built around a story-driven system of teal, white and black jerseys, matching pants, multiple cap combinations and details meant to make the team feel fully formed from day one.
Taking the Mud Monsters story beyond Pearl
In the fall of 2025, David had the opportunity to present the Mud Monsters story at the Frontier League meetings in Ottawa, sharing how the team’s identity, voice and fan experience came together during its first season.
For a team built quickly, loudly, weirdly and from the ground up, it was a chance to step back and explain what all those little details were really trying to do: make people feel connected to something new.
Sharing the Monster-Sized Story
David presented the Mud Monsters brand journey to fellow Frontier League clubs, highlighting the storytelling, design and community work behind the team’s launch.
Making Trustmark Park matter year-round
David believes Trustmark Park should matter even when there is not a baseball game on the schedule.
That has included helping grow The Southern Lights, the holiday experience that transforms the ballpark each winter. For David, Southern Lights is also proof of a bigger idea: a baseball stadium can be more than the place where games happen. It can be a gathering place, an event space and somewhere people build memories throughout the year.
As General Manager, expanding that year-round role is one of the opportunities he is most excited about.
The name on the front matters
There is one word in Mississippi Mud Monsters that David takes particularly seriously: Mississippi.
He wants fans beyond Pearl and the Jackson metro to feel ownership of the team, from kids wearing Mud Monsters hats across the state to businesses and communities seeing the organization as something that represents them, too.
For David, that relationship is not automatic just because Mississippi is printed across the front of the name. It has to be earned by showing up, listening and building relationships with people even when the team is not asking them to buy a ticket or become a sponsor.
Fun and high standards
Before baseball, David worked in telecom and retail management, learning how to lead people, hire and train teams, solve problems in real time and keep things moving when the plan inevitably falls apart. It turns out those are pretty useful skills in professional baseball.
Over time, he has become a mix of marketer, operator, salesperson, designer, storyteller and problem-solver. As General Manager, those pieces now come together in a larger responsibility: creating an organization where people can enjoy working in baseball while still expecting a lot from themselves and each other.
David believes fun and high standards are not opposites. Fans have to be taken care of. Partners have to be taken care of. Employees need the tools to succeed. Details matter. And when the gates open, the organization has to be ready.
Showing up where the ballpark lives
David has become deeply rooted in Pearl and Central Mississippi, serving on the boards of the Pearl Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Pearl and the Kiwanis Club of Pearl.
He is also a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and is a Certified Hospitality Expert through the Mississippi Hospitality & Restaurant Association.
For him, the Mud Monsters are not separate from the community around them. They are part of it.
That means the work does not stop at the gates of Trustmark Park. It means showing up, listening, building real relationships and finding ways for the organization to contribute even when baseball is not part of the conversation.
Monster Notes
A few quick facts from the muddy file.
- Role: General Manager
- Originally from: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
- Baseball path: Arkansas Travelers, Gary SouthShore RailCats, Mississippi Braves, Mississippi Mud Monsters
- Career: More than a decade in professional baseball across affiliated and independent baseball
- Specialties: Leadership, storytelling, marketing, ticketing, partnerships, operations and fixing the thing that broke
- Community: Pearl Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Pearl and Kiwanis Club of Pearl
- Favorite ballpark fuel: Pepsi Zero Sugar
David helped build the Mud Monsters from the beginning. Now he gets to help lead what comes next - more memories, more reasons to come to Trustmark Park, more connections across Mississippi, and probably at least a few ideas that make everyone wonder what in the world he is doing.