GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Some professional baseball players looking for an edge in their bids to make the major leagues could start drinking more milk.

The United Dairy Industry of Michigan (UDIM) has partnered with a minor league affiliate of the Detroit Tigers on a new training center featuring things like a weight room and batting cages.

The facility, named after the UDIM, was part of a more than $30 million renovation to Lake Michigan Credit Union ballpark, home of the West Michigan Whitecaps. just outside Grand Rapids.

Melissa Gerharter, CEO of UDIM, said the naming rights to an area of the stadium where athletes work out plays into the purpose of her organization, which is to promote and educate about the nutritional benefits of dairy products.

“It really fits into our mission,” she said.

UDIM, with over 800 dairy farmer members, also has nutritional placards on the inside walls of the 4,500 square foot performance center with messages about the positive benefits of consuming milk and other dairy products.

One of the messages is how eating yogurt and cheese can boost muscle growth and recovery from work outs.

Such exposure to dairy products will go beyond the athletes using the facility because the plan is to make it available to the public in a limited capacity during the off season.

Dan Morrison, vice president of sales and marketing for the Class A minor league team, said the intent is to allow other people to use it like athletes and trainers in the region, along with guests at corporate events and trade shows held in the conference spaces of the ballpark.

The UDIM Performance Center also includes a HitTrax, technology allowing batters in the cages to see where the ball was struck and how far it traveled on a virtual reality screen of a baseball stadium.

“They can certainly also use it if they just want to go in there and have a little fun and hit some balls,” he said.

Morrison said UDIM and its message about nutrition will gain additional exposure from its name on the facility being included in pictures on social media posts and other advertising about the team and ballpark.

Gerharter said UDIM obtained the naming rights for a three-year period with an option to extend.

The opportunity resulted from an ongoing working relationship between the organizations for about the past decade under an existing agreement. The partnership has allowed UDIM to do things like post signs related to health benefits of dairy products inside the stadium and physically engage with fans about dairy products while they’re going to and from their seats.

UDIM has similar partnerships with the Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons and the Grand Rapids Rise, a professional indoor women’s volleyball team.

Gerharter said those ventures have involved dairy product and team exposure in training rooms and refueling stations at high schools in those cities and UDIM signs in the stadiums of those respective professional teams.

“This has served as really a pillar of how we engage and want to continue to engage within communities,” she said.

So far, Gerharter said she believes reaching out to more of a grass roots level is paying dividends to members, whose check-offs fees based on dairy production are used to fund her organization.

“We try to look and think a little bit more out of the box of how can we make a larger impact,” she said.