Future Leaders panel shows HBCU athletes path to sports biz

As the oft-repeated saying goes, baseball is a sport of failure. The identical will be true within the skilled world.

That’s why Brody Cook, co-chair of the MLB Black Employee Resource Group and a participant advertising coordinator, thinks former baseball gamers could also be uniquely located to navigate the ups and downs of coming into the workforce.

“That skill … of being able to work through that adversity and that failure and that rejection, to turn that around into a positive and to keep going, that persistence has been massive,” Cook stated. “Everybody has been told ‘no,’ and everybody has failed at something that they had been striving for — and has found a way, ultimately, to make it into this room.”

That was one key message of the panel on the Future Leaders Program on Monday, which featured present league workers who had performed baseball or softball in faculty. With student-athletes from HBCU packages in attendance, the panelists mentioned their transition from their enjoying profession to company life.

Rajai Davis, who performed within the Majors for 14 seasons earlier than becoming a member of the league as a senior director of on-field operations, gave opening remarks and inspired the student-athletes to look to their teammates as a jumping-off level in creating their skilled networks.

“Sometimes you never know who is who, what influence they have and how they can affect you,” Davis stated. “Value the people around you. … Treat them like gold; treat them right. Because your character, your personality — that will precede you.”

Though constructing that community is essential, the panelists additionally underscored the significance of taking the identical abilities that assist student-athletes excel on the sector and making use of them to the office.

“It’s the same as when you’re playing and you’re wanting to go the extra mile: Put in the extra hour of batting practice or an extra five sprints,” stated Diana King, a marketing campaign supervisor on MLB’s efficiency media workforce. “Do the same thing when you’re trying to get a job, because … people trying to hire you will see that you’re proactive, that you’re very motivated.”

For some Black workers, there could also be an added problem of not seeing themselves mirrored within the trade — however with that problem comes the chance to create change. Many of the panelists skilled that of their careers and had this recommendation for the student-athletes: Start with your self, and use your platform for good.

“Accomplish on the field, and accomplish off the field,” stated Del Matthews, MLB’s vice chairman of baseball improvement. “If you can do that, and lean into your culture, lean into HBCU culture, I think that has the power to impact your community in a lot of ways because you’re a shining light.”

Added MLB Network section producer Dominique Patrick: “Just know that when you’re being yourself, you’re putting on for people of color, because you are unapologetically you.”

For many student-athletes, the top purpose is to play professionally. But solely a small fraction of faculty athletes find yourself going professional, so the others should pursue different targets, leaving them to redefine what success means to them.

It’s essential, the panelists stated, to do not forget that success has many layers and doesn’t look the identical for everybody. Student-athletes might measure their success from season to season or over the course of a profession, whereas working professionals would possibly discover it in a brand new job or a increase. There is not any true one-size-fits-all.

So when the panelists had been requested about the important thing to their success, lots of them settled on the identical reply: Be open-minded, as a result of there are numerous methods to perform your overarching targets.

That’s how all of them ended up working in baseball following their enjoying careers.

“There’s another way that you can go pro,” stated Kaelan Ashford-Jones, a youth content material coordinator at MLB. “I feel as if I’m a professional employee when I walk in these spaces. I feel comfortable to be the best version of … my authentic self in all of these spaces. And to me, that’s my version of being a big leaguer. I still feel like I’ve made it.”