Jobs in MLB, the pros and cons (a bit off topic I guess)

[mbillie1]

Obviously I'm not talking about GM of the Yankees or starting shortstop for the Marlins or something. But in most sports there are a bunch of people working relatively mundane jobs. I've become somewhat disenchanted with the more traditional career paths lately and I've started applying to a plethora of MLB jobs (from maintenance to marketing, sales to HR, etc etc etc) ... I am wondering what you guys think about the pros and cons of jobs affiliated with professional sports teams in some auxiliary capacity. MLB is what came to mind first and mostly because I enjoy it so much, but other sports thoughts are welcome. As a bigtime sportsfan I think the +EV gained from the fun/coolness aspect of working for an MLB team in some minor, even insignificant way would go a pretty long way in making a job desirable. Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm 24 and not particularly driven towards any specific career, eg I don't want to be a doctor or an engineer or anything. I think I'd rather make $10k/year less and work in an office typing memos for an MLB team than be in charge of an office staff or (((insert lame, standard job here))), is it just me? And does anyone have any random advice for how to go after something like this? Everyone always says to find a job you love doing... I love baseball although obviously I can't play, but I think doing some mundane work for a baseball team would be more fun and rewarding than having a "better" job in a more traditional field.

Sorry if this is off-topic, I wasn't sure if this belonged here or in OOT.

[FlyWf]

Paul DePodesta had to fight to get an internship with the Indians when the Indians were bad and he went to Harvard. MLB is massively biased towards former players.

[lippy]

I'd love to get a job with a MLB club after I graduate, I just doubt I'd be able to. I have a few contacts within the Twins' sales office... but who wants to sell tickets to Little League teams for a living?

I just doubt it'd be possible to get any meaningful experience without a) having played professional ball or b) knowing the right people.

[kyleb]

Getting a job you would want in an MLB club is going to be next to impossible without some serious credentials. One of the best ways to go about it is to make a name for yourself by starting a blog full of excellent content and analysis and use SEO to get the word out while you participate on other forums, blogs, and advertise naturally.

Once you get a name for yourself for being good at analysis or whatever you want to do for an MLB team, you might have a shot. But it still requires knowing the right people and having the right credentials.

I'd love to work in the front office of a baseball club, but I realize that it's going to require some experience playing ball (trying to make the roster of an independent league in my lifetime), higher education qualifications (I plan on finishing at least an MBA, possibly joint MBA/JD), and a body of work over several years that proves I know what I'm talking about (I'll probably write a blog about sabermetric stuff and how it integrates into the traditional game). Networking is a key skill, as well, one that I am lucky enough to be pretty good with.

You also have to accept that you'll be working 60+ hour weeks with a low payscale.

[mbillie1]

I definitely realize that any legitimate, respectable job in MLB would be damn near impossible to just walk in and get. However there are tons of positions (check out mlb.com's careers page) that are fairly mundane. I mean I'd probably be willing to do some of the boring, low-wage stuff if it meant I could be around baseball all season. It's one of the very few things that I genuinely get excited about. Literally any full-time position I could live off of I would strongly consider taking, not just front office / middle-management type stuff. I'd probably work in a ticket office lol. I can't imagine anything more fun than being around baseball all the time. However I am probably being naive in assuming that I can just fall ass-backwards into any sort of decent job. I'm certainly going to try though, lol.

[HajiShirazu]

Why are some of these jobs heavily biased toward former players? I can understand manager and scouting, but a lot of this front office stuff would seem to favor someone with an education/background that the vast majority of former players don't have. Furthermore if what I hear on radio and television is anything close to accurate, most of these former players have a very poor understanding of the game from a statistical/econometric standpoint.

[kyleb]

Haji,

A significant amount of scouts and agents are former players.

You're also right wrt the poor understanding of the statistical/econometric standpoint, but nepotism trumps all.

[Tablerat]

All I know is that picking up any team's media guide (at the least) can help you wade through the various branches of the business. I definitely acknowledge the nepotism/former player aspect, but if you really want a career in MLB, you can get it. (And, eventually, more than just a mundane job.)

The media guide will get you acquainted with the backgrounds of the major front office personnel. You are very young, so conceivably, if you get your feet wet in the business and like it, you can make the steps (like kyleb) to have a long and successful career with a team. Also you can see some front office info on the respective team websites.

Are you still in school? (for internships)
Did you play college ball, for example?
Are you willing to return to school to get an advanced degree?
Do your current qualifications or experience transfer to the jobs you want in baseball?
Have you received any feedback on your job applications yet?

Good luck with this, and I'm only responding because I just happened to have a media guide to browse before I responded - I don't work in the business and can't proffer much further info.

[MicroBob]

Kyleb - nice post and I wish you luck on your quest.
But you should rack up that hours-per-week figure to somewhere around 80 during the regular season. I guess maybe it all averages out to 60 though. But the hours that baseball office-types put in is just insane.


There are about a zillion people going after the lowest of the low-paying office jobs all through the major-leagues and minors.

If you are willing to work insanely long days for virtually no pay AND you are lucky enough to get such a position then go for it.

I know many people who work in MLB and minor-league baseball.
They are all in a state of constant exhaustion I think.

Many of the people with jobs in the major-leagues came up via internships and low-wage jobs in the minors.
This wouldn't be the only route of course. But it's the one I'm the most familiar with having worked in a handful of minor-league baseball offices myself.


I've been to the Baseball Winter Meetings probably 10 times or so when I was scoping out for different jobs in the minors.
If you want to get hired somewhere as an intern than that is where you go.

These are the same Baseball Meetings where Peter Gammons, etc are reporting on big trades on ESPN.
You go to the hotel bar to try to network with whoever in the minors might be around and you look around and go, "hey, there's Jim Leyland. Hey, there's Bill Bavasi" etc etc.

To try to get set up for interviews at the Baseball Winter Meetings you go to minorleaguebaseball.com and register for the PBEO job-fair which is Professional Baseball Employment Opportunities.
You can do this at the last minute though and it's no big deal. They'll charge you something like $150 to allow you access to the job-search room and interview room where you can drop your resume off to any and every GM who is hiring for a position you're looking for.

It takes a pretty special and dedicated individual to last in minor-league baseball imo.

No idea where the Baseball Meetings are this year. Maybe back in Nashville again. It would say on the website.

It's always the 2nd weekend in December and it is jammed with zillions of baseball people and is pretty much a freaking zoo.

If you really know people or are super-duper good at networking then MAYBE you can somehow start at major-league baseball. But I just don't think it's terribly realistic.

IMO, one of the best routes for getting to the major-leagues would be to get a job at a team's spring-training/Florida State League facility because you'll have a greater chance of meeting more of the big-league front-office types there and perhaps have an opportunity to chat with or even impress them.

They're incredibly busy all through March of course. But they also need people to do things for them and you might be one of those people.

[MicroBob]

Friend of mine used to work for the Cubs at Wrigley (Ring-ring: "Hey Susan. It's Bob!! Get me seats behind the plate for tomorrow's game? Gee, thanks!").
Her office was right there and she lived just a couple blocks away (didn't have one of the pricey places that overlooked the field though).

She now works for the Giants which was kind of a life-long dream for her too because she grew up in the bay area.

At Wrigley she would do sales/marketing but would also be responsible for hosting some of the featured guests they would have.
So if Greg Brady/Barry Williams or Florence Henderson was there on 70's night she would be the host.
And every year all her friends would get XMas cards of a picture of her with some celebrity saying "Merry XMas. Love Susan and Elton!" (as in Elton John of course...or Bill Cosby...or whoever).

Pretty cool obviously.

She started as a volunteer intern with a AAA team and then did marketing/sales stuff with a single-A team for a few years getting paid very little.
She did everything there from selling billboards and program-ads to compiling stats for the progam to cleaning the damn urinals.

She was able to make it to the major-leagues which is awesome of course. But it's a long road to get there of course.

She told me that her major-league job with the Cubs really wasn't that different from working in the minor-leagues in Rockford except she didn't have to clean the urinals. And instead of selling outfield billboards for $2k each she would be selling signage on the concourse or ad-space in the program for maybe 10x that or more.


I also think it would be good practice/experience to try to network with whatever minor-league team GM or asst GM is in your area.
Most would be willing to talk to you about it if you approached them right and just asked for a little bit of their time.
You REALLY want to work in baseball but you don't really know much about it and just want to learn. You heard that going to the baseball winter meetings was important but you don't know much more than that.