Careers in Baseball

All of the major league clubs have accountants, the only problem is they generally don't pay as much as other industries for the same experiance!

I would suggest patience. Get your four year University accounting degree, pass the cpa exam, work for a large accounting (Big 4 firm) in their audit department for a couple of years and then see if you are willing to take a pay cut, go to work for a ball club!

Most of the ball clubs use one of the "Big Four" accounting firms for audit and tax work so you can actually get relevant professional accounting experience before trying to get a job with a club. The player contract accounting is not in your audit or tax text book! Of course that experience may encourage or discourage you. If you can't get on a baseball club account try for another professional sport client as many of the MLB issues are similiar to NHL etc.

As a alternative you could become an accountant at a private high school and coach baseball in the afternoon. You'll get paid 3/4 of what you'd make in a big accounting firm but you may enjoy it more!

I would suggest that you consider working toward a management position with a professional ball club. Set your goals high. I don't know how old you are but you could choose to get an education in a business field.
In the mean time you could get a job at the local ballpark selling peanuts and Cokes. Good Luck

Thanks, you guys are all great here with very good info. I've seen degree programs such as sports management, but I couldn't really see a lot of job openings in that field. Education seems like a good way to continue with baseball and coaching. The thing with accounting, is i would not be able to coach since usually they work till around 5. Unless I coached little league , which isn't really what I'm interested in. I guess time will tell what happens.

You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.
--Joe DiMaggio, on Opening Day

If you are self-employed as a cpa, then you can set your own schedule. It would be hard in the spring, but you can go to work early and leave earlier in the afternoon, especially if you have a partnr who lies to get up later and work later.

An accountant in our town made all of the games that his step-son played. He is the owner of the business. Good lluck.

I also wonder how people work for MLB teams. How do they get their foot in the door. What is the best major?

Why don't you teach high school accounting and try to hook up with coaching opportunities within the school system in which you get a job?

Watts -

I told my son we would support almost any degree he wanted to go after except Sports Management.. that was on his wallet.. there are thousands in that field now for very few jobs and you better have connections to get those jobs..

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"Baseball, it is said, is only a game. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole."

"JustMom"

12smom

A degree in accounting along with passing the CPA exam and working for a large accounting firm (PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernest and Young or Deliotte and Touche) would probebly get you an interview with just about any MLB ballclub in their acct/finance dept.


Pick any team at mlb.com then select "rosters" "front office" and take note of the companies the controller or finance department head worked along with their senior staff. It will almost always be one of the firms I listed above. An accounting degree and good experience will provide you with many opportunities in just about any industry including sports.

This is from the White Sox site:

"Buzard graduated in 1978 from the University of Illinois with a degree in accounting and became a certified public accountant in 1981. He served as a senior accountant for Ernst & Whinney for three years prior to joining the Sox."


In order to get a job with one of the firms listed above you generally need to have decent grades in your accounting major (i.e. 3.3+) and attend a decent 4 year univerisity. You can check with a University's career center to see if the "Big Four" accounting firms recruit at the school you are interested in.

And no, you don't have to attend a D1 school.

Once Again, Thank you all for all of your great information. It is greatly appreciated. I figure I'm going to stick with accounting since it is what I'm interested in most. Who knows, I could end up wanting to teach it and then coach baseball. If not, I'll just have the career in accounting and work my tail off to get to an sports club, preferably the phillies

JustMom, regarding the sportsmanagement degree: I've heard the same. There are a lot of degrees out there that become worthless once you graduate. I don't believe sports management is a worthless degree, there just aren't many opportunities in that field. Although, it seems interesting.

If anyone in here is an accountant, I'd like to hear some info about it!

Thanks everyone.

You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.
--Joe DiMaggio, on Opening Day