Baseball Front Office Careers: Expectations and Realities

Abstract

Two hundred sixty-one participants in a baseball career seminar and 90 minor league front office personnel were surveyed to examine (a) what characteristics are viewed as important for a front office career in baseball and (b) how job seekers' expectations correspond to what people working in baseball say is reality. Experience and contacts were seen by both groups as important for entering the field, and both groups viewed speaking, time management, and organizational skills as necessary abilities. Enjoyable work was ranked highest as part of a baseball career by both job seekers and baseball personnel, while free time was ranked lowest as an outcome from such a career. Spearman Rho analysis reflected that expectations of job seekers correspond to baseball personnel rankings in terms of relative importance of various skills and job characteristics. However, Z-test comparisons showed job seekers score several skills higher in absolute importance than front office personnel do, including knowledge of baseball and general sports, and several job characteristics as more likely to exist, including job stability and good salary.