Stat-friendly and stat-unfriendly baseball writers

[LongTimeListener]

Yeah, but more people are employed by major league teams than play major league baseball; and relative to the job competition the chances are much greater of working for an MLB team as a non-player.

 

[buckweaver]

Yeah, but more people are employed by major league teams than play major league baseball; and relative to the job competition the chances are much greater of working for an MLB team as a non-player.

Relative to the extraordinary skills required, too (which was where I was going with my original post, of course, and what teachers/parents have been telling young, athletic dreamers since the beginning of time. Not that I ever stubbornly ignored any of that advice ...)

 

[buckweaver]

More people play Major League Baseball than run Major League Baseball teams.

I thought about this, too, Vers, and then I thought:

* Front offices have support staff beyond just the head honcho.

* Even if you don't make it to Theo Epstein's chair, having an MBA from MIT or Stanford or a law degree from Harvard or Columbia - or both, like new White Sox GM Rick Hahn (Harvard JD, Northwestern MBA) - isn't a bad consolation prize.

And to back this up, baseball ops — which is a glamorous job in the way that sports writing is often so glamorous to our friends and family, never mind how many thankless hours we put in or weird schedules we have to work — is just one department within a major league organization.

If you want to "work in baseball/sports," as so many do ... you can acquire skills that make you a qualified candidate for jobs in any number of different departments. The Dodgers' general counsel works in baseball, too, even though his/her job duties don't often relate to what's happening on the field. But I guarantee you the baseball-related perks are pretty sweet. So you can still get that fix, if you want to.

 

[Versatile]

I will continue to play Devil's advocate. How many people currently are playing Major League Baseball or have played professional baseball at some level and currently are working those types of full-time jobs in baseball?

It would seem to me that the best way in the door remains being good at the sport.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I will continue to play Devil's advocate. How many people currently are playing Major League Baseball or have played professional baseball at some level and currently are working those types of full-time jobs in baseball?

It would seem to me that the best way in the door remains being good at the sport.

I don't know why it needs to be an either-or. It's just a different way in. To go to my initial example, my son's chance of ever being good enough to play major league baseball is negative 11 billion percent. My son's chance of acquiring the math skills necessary to work in a front office? Pretty good chance, as good a chance as anything else he might consider now at age 13. That would be assuming he wants to do it, which maybe (probably) he won't. However, working toward that goal would leave him with a solid educational foundation for any direction he'd want to go.

It isn't unlike telling someone they can be an astronaut or a Supreme Court justice in that regard. Very few people get to that spot, but having them aim in that direction leaves them in pretty good shape if they don't make it all the way.

 

[buckweaver]

I will continue to play Devil's advocate. How many people currently are playing Major League Baseball or have played professional baseball at some level and currently are working those types of full-time jobs in baseball?

It would seem to me that the best way in the door remains being good at the sport.

In baseball ops/scouting/player development positions? Quite a few. That's where specialized baseball experience and expertise helps.

But in the accounting department? In media relations? In medical/training? In human resources? In IT? In legal affairs?

Almost none.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/team/front_office.jsp?c_id=chc

 

[Versatile]

See, you're moving the goalposts. I think it's more likely that a male infant born in the USA will reach the major leagues as a player than not play professionally and reach the major leagues in the kind of role someone who aspires to be the next Sandy Alderson would want. That means baseball decisions. That's the dream, helping to form a roster. And the best path to that goal is to be good at baseball.

 

[CD Boogie]

Exactly. It ain't that hard.

And if you use the stuff in a story about a front office using it heavily, explain what it means and explain why. Don't assume your average reader is going to understand BAPIP

You're very sensible for a man with BK as his avatar. Respect.

 

[buckweaver]

See, you're moving the goalposts.

I am not. My first response to this line of discussion was the following:

We should encourage more students to learn more about the ins and outs of an organization, including the non-baseball side of things. Economics, law, business, communication ... these are all important and marketable skills that apply just as well to working in baseball/sports as any other industry.

What I hear most from college students and our interns is: "I want to work in baseball/sports one day." For most of them, yes, that means baseball ops.

My response to them is: "Want to know how to make a career out of working in baseball? Develop your skills at something else and then look for jobs in the baseball industry."

I'm not going to discourage anyone from striving for a job in baseball ops, just as I'm never going to discourage a writer from striving for a job at ESPN or Sports Illustrated. But you better be really ****ing good at player development and analysis or find a way to make a name for yourself and get hired (like Kevin Goldstein and Mike Fast just did with the Astros.)

But there are thousands of other good jobs working in baseball. And if you want to "work in baseball" badly enough ... there are realistic ways you can do it. Just know that it probably won't be in baseball ops. But you can still be around the game, you can still be around lots of baseball people and baseball events, you can still make a nice living at it.

That said ... if you will settle for nothing less than being the next Sandy Alderson ...

Thanks in large part to the influence of sabermetrics, there are now lots of different paths to moving up in the front office besides being a good ballplayer — after all, Theo Epstein got a degree in American Studies and his first job was in the Padres' PR department. But that job also requires a lot more areas of expertise than just the ability to construct a talented roster and make smart baseball-related decisions.

You better understand contract law/negotiations, you better understand payroll and finances, strategic planning on an organizational level, media relations, business communication, and so on. So even if that is your dream, you will still have to develop those non-baseball-related skills (unless you're Dan Duquette, of course.)

And it's a hell of a lot easier to get your foot in the door with a team in any of those other departments than it is through baseball ops, where every Bleacher Report "senior writer" is clamoring for a job, too. And hey, once you're in, you start meeting people around the office, you talk baseball, you pick the brains of the people in baseball ops, you come up with a good idea, and who knows where that might lead ...

I think all of that is much more realistic than dreaming about Sandy Koufax.

EDIT: (to clarify my segue)

 

[93Devil]

Exactly. It ain't that hard.

And if you use the stuff in a story about a front office using it heavily, explain what it means and explain why. Don't assume your average reader is going to understand BAPIP

You're very sensible for a man with BK as his avatar. Respect.

Una Corona por favor.

 

[Drip]

More like Anal Declaration, amiright?

What do you mean by anal? What's up with that?