MiLB baseball broadcaster Jesse Goldberg-Strassler paints a less-than-glamorous picture of front-office life in minor-league baseball, particularly for lower-rung staffers and interns. Indeed, we are talking long hours and little pay, but calling this a “rotten system” reeks of twenty-something entitlement. Read more here. Thanks to Graham for flagging the story on Facebook.
Real World: Front-Office Life in the Minors
Filed under Personnel & Operations
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Is this Rondell White former Expo and Yankee? lol
“Rotten system” may be a slight exaggeration, but the writer isn’t far off base on this one, guys.
This industry loses so, so many good people because the demands put on them are unreasonable, and the potential rewards aren’t worth it. I don’t blame anyone for getting out of the business in their 20’s. I did, after 6 seasons — and I loved so many things about working in baseball — but I don’t miss it.
There are some really talented people here and there who are able to make a lifelong career in the minors, but too often, the ones who stay past their 20s aren’t the best and brightest, but the ones who are okay with the work-life tradeoff, and who are capable of continually drinking from the fire hose of work thrown their way. There’s a difference, and the industry is worse off for it.
Should you have to pay your dues and work your way up, just like any other business? Yeah. But automatically calling someone who points out problems with the system an “entitled 20-something” isn’t very fair.
So these people didn’t know the deal when they signed on? Any internship program in any industry is basically slave labor, at least they’re getting some sort of pay. Check out a law firm intern and interview him or her. Or an intern at a hospital. It’s the way the business world works, not just baseball – you pretty much have to pay your dues in any industry. You make the choice to do it or write articles whining about it.
I, in turn, noticed the story after a fellow ballpark traveler, Tim Burns, posted it on Facebook and thought it was worth paying forward, so to speak.