Meet Our Board Member

Dave Heller

Dave Heller is the CEO of Main Street Baseball and majority owner and Managing Partner of three minor league baseball teams: the Quad Cities River Bandits (Advanced-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals), Wilmington Blue Rocks (Advanced-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals), and Billings Mustangs (Pioneer League).

In 2016, Main Street Baseball earned Ballpark Digest’s coveted “Minor League Baseball Organization of the Year” award – one of the industry’s highest honors. The River Bandits were named Ballpark Digest’s “Team of the Year” (2021) and one of Baseball America’s “Most Accomplished Franchises of the 2010s.” In 2022, the Royals presented Dave with the Matt Minker Award as the outstanding advocate in their minor league system. The River Bandits also give back; the team has earned the Ballpark Digest Charity Award four times; no other club has won more than once.

On the field, in 2021 the River Bandits became the first team in Midwest League history to win four championships in ten seasons. The team’s home, Modern Woodmen Park, has earned as many accolades as any ballpark in the country. It was twice named “best minor league ballpark” by USA Today and 10Best.com and the Midwest League’s best ballpark by Baseball America. It earned a 5-star rating from Ballpark Digest and was named one of the top 10 ballparks by Parade Magazine and “the #2 Coolest Minor League Ballpark in America” by Complex Magazine.

Dave graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with honors from Brown University, then earned a Master's Degree in Politics from Oxford University (Nuffield College) where he was awarded an Overseas Research Scholarship. He went on to Yale University, where he designed and taught an undergraduate seminar on Political Protest Movements in 20th Century America. Dave and his wife June live in Davenport, Iowa, with their two sons, Dylan and Cade.