Employment for College Baseball Players (Summer Ball)

All I know is my own son's routine, when he played Collegiate Summer Ball. Wake up around 11 and eat. Show up at the field around 2-3PM to prepare for the evening game that begins at 7PM. Some games may require travel. Play baseball until 10PM. Eat, post game meeting, travel back to host family. Asleep by midnight and repeat.

quote:

Originally posted by 7Steps:
Hi everyone,

As a rising college freshman who's currently employed for the first time, I'm finally understanding the difficulty of balancing baseball with a full-time job. Furthermore, my experiences this summer have led me to realize the importance of networking in good internship positions over the summer in order to position oneself to be employed post-graduation.

Thus, my question is this: how do college baseball players balance the need to intern/work in prestigious and somewhat well-paying jobs and play baseball at the same time? Are there any summer baseball coaches out there that would allow a player (let's assume that he's a pitcher) to only show up on the days that he's pitching? I'd hate for it to come to that but unfortunately I don't see many other ways to get it done. Any thoughts?

I always appreciate the insight of this community and look forward to hearing from you all! Thank you in advance!

Hi again 7,
Some of it is depends what level you play and were you play. Some summer teams help find Part-Time work . At my sons school a lot of those internships are done fall of senior year. It means you have to have most of your classes out of the way so your schedule is open enough. We have at least one senior do internships in New York this fall. The coach already knows what he can do and how he fits in on the team. Since he will not be with us in the fall, the coach has more of a chance to look at the recruits and see how they fit in in the fall.

On another note, I am not sure how your school handles it but your first summer you may find yourself on a local team near home. Most placements happen in the Fall and seeing this is your first year the coach, though he recruited you may not know enough to refer you to a top notch league. Many coaches at your and my sons level save the few spots they have for Sophomores and Juniors who they have confidence in. Many coaches are leery of sending an unknown. Their reputation is on the line. But there are many local leagues that are happy to have our types of players.

7Steps,
It is harder to balance employment with summer ball than it is to balance classwork with college ball during the school year.

Many summer leagues have a lot of travel. They are playing more games per week than they did in the school year. Games get re-scheduled on short notice to make up for rainouts. most of the players have conditioning programs decreed by their college coaches. So in general, the players are busy, unavailable, and tired. Not much time or energy available to give to employers.

It's not much easier for pitchers. Only the top two or three starters know their schedule, and they know it only tentatively and only a week at at time. All the others need to be available, and everyone needs to get their daily work in. On gameday, idle pitchers are expected to shag fouls and help with field set up and clean up. More important, skipping games would cost one of the best benefits of summer ball: hanging with the guys in a fun setting.

My son has a convenient morning indoors job with an understanding employer (his oldest brother) and plays in a summer league with no overnight travel. Even with this best-of-all-possible situations, it makes for a hard schedule. My son leaves for work a little after 7 in the morning, gets home around 1:30, eats, takes a nap, eats again, and leaves for his game. On days he's not pitching, he does his throwing and stretching work before the game. After the game, he eats, goes to the gym, comes home, goes to bed, and gets up and does it again.

One guy on the team has an internship. It's working out well, but he'll miss some key games at the end of the season. A couple had jobs that exposed them to the heat of the day, which was very hard on them and affected their play.

Overall, I'd say it is hard but conceivably doable if you're in a league that doesn't require travel. Requires a lot of planning, cooperative employers, and determination.

Best wishes.

After seeing my son’s schedule this summer I don’t think it is very practical. On top of playing most programs want their kids in the weight room during the summer, this frankly is as important as playing so when you add up the additional 2 hrs or work out time per day it is pretty difficult.
At least in SoCal there are a number of non-sanctioned teams that play fewer games that you might be able to get on if. My son has a couple of friends that are playing on these teams for a bunch of different reasons. The competition is not as good and the schedules are reduced, but you might be able to fit in some part time work on one of these teams.

Newport Gulls where son played last summer had summer baseball camps that the players could work in the mornings.My own son and a few other players weren't able to work as they had classes online they worked on.An internship would of been hard as you dont know where your going for the summer until fall,then you have to try and find one where your playing at.I imagine a morning internship may of been possible but they play 6 games a week and with travel and getting your lifting in it would be tough.

This is a very interesting topic, thanks for posting it. I never really thought about how varsity athletes manage to squeeze in the internship expereinces, adn esp baseball and the summer ball players.

I wonder if colleges who have a good alumni network would provide contacts with alumni in the region where you are playing college ball. Maybe some good solid networking will uncover cooperative alums who would offer internships on a very flexible basis.

7 steps

Agree with the posters that discuss the difficulty in working and playing.

My so was fortunate

1.First year playing summer ball and playing in a league that is close to home with no overnight travel

2. was able to get an paid internship in his career choice

3. The company is very flexible with his hours if he needs to leave early for an away game or need to some to lift they allow him to leave


With out an understanding employer I would imagine it gets very challenging....

So next summer it will be interesting to see what happens

Thank you for the responses, everyone. Would anybody say that failing to work over the summer hindered employment or networking prospects post-graduation? I know that participation in varsity sports is looked upon favorably for fellowships and some grad school programs; at this point I may be thinking too much into it (granted, this is an overzealous 17 year old who hasn't even taken a college class speaking), but I just want to make sure that I don't jeopardize myself in this flailing economy.

Listen to this, my son plays in the NECBL, we live about little over an hour from the field. He has to be at the field at 3:00pm home games, home by midnightish.
Away games vary with the travel, 10 11 am for bus ride, home 2 3 am. An there alot of games, he just finished 14 games in a row.

The travel back and forth from our home alone was long, the coach got with him and they put him in a host family close to the field. Now we only see him on off days, or home games we go to.

In his situation between ball and workouts, travel there is no time left for work.

7Steps,

My son is asking the same questions. He will also be a college Freshman and wants to play Summer ball (anything but Legion). We have told him that not having a job after your freshman year will not really hurt your job prospects because in most situations, you haven't developed skills that are applicable to your future field. Most critical is the Summer after your Junior year when you need to lay the groundwork for getting a job after graduation.

With that said, I agree with Baseballmom, see if your school's alumni network can help out with a part-time job that is flexible enough to fit your Summer baseball plans. That is the same advice that I have given my son.

Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by 7Steps:
Thank you for the responses, everyone. Would anybody say that failing to work over the summer hindered employment or networking prospects post-graduation? I know that participation in varsity sports is looked upon favorably for fellowships and some grad school programs; at this point I may be thinking too much into it (granted, this is an overzealous 17 year old who hasn't even taken a college class speaking), but I just want to make sure that I don't jeopardize myself in this flailing economy.

Speaking merely anecdotaly, not having formal employment during college years did not hinder employment opportunities post grad. Working during the school year is generally not practical (nor allowed during the season per NCAA).

A fraction of the time normally spent interning by non-athletes can be spent networking with program boosters and local "friends" of the program, paving the way for life after baseball. hard work in class, a strong work ethic exhibited on and off the field and some contacts can be a valuable combination.

Son is successful in commercial lending. He got an internship near the end of his baseball career with a local community bank near the school. They offered him full time employment upon graduation and paid for grad school. His resume prior consisted of two months at Taco Bell inside a Target in 10th grade.

TrueFan28,

That certainly sounds tough. I'm not surprised that many players can't find the energy or time to work given schedules like that.

VaRHPmom,

It would be great if we could stay in touch and see how your son and I progress. Let me know how things go.

Dad04,

That makes sense - it also helps paint a fairly more optimistic picture. I'll make sure to do my best to network. I'm glad to hear that things worked out for your son.

I'm sure there are many variables such as the level of colleg play, the commitment of the player to improving his baseball skills, and what his future goals are. That said, I can only speak about my son and his friends experiences. These players are all west coast D1 players- they all played summer ball in well regarded summer leagues. There is no way they could squeeze in internships with their school schedules and their summer schedules. My son is required to have an internship to graduate and the only way he was able to do this was because he was injured/ had surgery and missed a summer of baseball. He had a full time internship that summer so he used his time wisely.

At sons college they have a job fair yearly that is only for athletes. There are many employers that value the skills learned playing college level athletics. These same employers know that many athletes are unable to fit in internships and some times even have lower GPA's. Many colleges have strong alumni networks that can help the players find jobs after graduation.

It's great that you are already thinking about how to balance athletics and academics. Good luck to you.

For my son, this issue itself became a deal breaker when it came to continuing to develop as a pitcher. Face it, the better players are on the field practically year round. For a vast number of families, the resources are just not there to subsidize summer league play and/or an internship and then turn around and fund two semesters of college, housing, food and spending money. Bottom line, the kid had to work during the summer so that he would have money to survive on throughout the following school year.

So he worked his first two summers instead of playing in a collegiate summer league. He found a local adult league to play in but it was forty miles from home and conflicted with his work schedule. His third summer he had the choice of living in another state and playing summer ball or interning with a baseball showcase business. He chose to intern and make connections for jobs upon graduation in less than a year. He already has one job offer and it seems to have removed a lot of the uncertainty of graduating with school loan debt hanging over his head.

It's a choice between going all-in on your baseball aspirations or seeing things for what they are and getting a good start on the beginning of your job search. Probably the better your baseball skills, the harder it is to make the call. It definitely is an individual decision.

Both of ours played summer ball; neither interned nor was required to intern as a part of their major (one was poly sci, the other communications). One is graduation plus 2 years, the other has been out almost 4 years. Both have excellent well-paying jobs.

Internships are great and certainly helpful, but a combination of good grades/and or a gift of gab, combined with baseball on your resume will get attention, as long as you're not trying to go to med school, law school, etc. Failing to do an internship isn't necessarily an employment death wish, IMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by 7Steps:
Hi everyone,

As a rising college freshman who's currently employed for the first time, I'm finally understanding the difficulty of balancing baseball with a full-time job. Furthermore, my experiences this summer have led me to realize the importance of networking in good internship positions over the summer in order to position oneself to be employed post-graduation.

Thus, my question is this: how do college baseball players balance the need to intern/work in prestigious and somewhat well-paying jobs and play baseball at the same time? Are there any summer baseball coaches out there that would allow a player (let's assume that he's a pitcher) to only show up on the days that he's pitching? I'd hate for it to come to that but unfortunately I don't see many other ways to get it done. Any thoughts?

I always appreciate the insight of this community and look forward to hearing from you all! Thank you in advance!

Very good question.
Most of my sons friends (in fact all of them) interned summers in the career path they wished to follow. My son worked one summer in college when playing as it was required but you are talking easy stuff, like picking up rocks from the field (pitcher ) and helping in camp. I find it very difficult to play ball in summer in any college league and work a serious job. Internships are different than just having a summer job.

My advice, from what I have learned, keep playing the game for as long as you can, the experiences that you will have will open lots of doors for you.

When the time comes you will know to step aside from the game, and follow your career path.

Enjoy the game while you can.

quote:

When the time comes you will know to step aside from the game, and follow your career path.

Enjoy the game while you can.

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:

quote:

Originally posted by 7Steps:
Hi everyone,

As a rising college freshman who's currently employed for the first time, I'm finally understanding the difficulty of balancing baseball with a full-time job. Furthermore, my experiences this summer have led me to realize the importance of networking in good internship positions over the summer in order to position oneself to be employed post-graduation.

Thus, my question is this: how do college baseball players balance the need to intern/work in prestigious and somewhat well-paying jobs and play baseball at the same time? Are there any summer baseball coaches out there that would allow a player (let's assume that he's a pitcher) to only show up on the days that he's pitching? I'd hate for it to come to that but unfortunately I don't see many other ways to get it done. Any thoughts?

I always appreciate the insight of this community and look forward to hearing from you all! Thank you in advance!

Very good question.
Most of my sons friends (in fact all of them) interned summers in the career path they wished to follow. My son worked one summer in college when playing as it was required but you are talking easy stuff, like picking up rocks from the field (pitcher ) and helping in camp. I find it very difficult to play ball in summer in any college league and work a serious job. Internships are different than just having a summer job.

My advice, from what I have learned, keep playing the game for as long as you can, the experiences that you will have will open lots of doors for you.

When the time comes you will know to step aside from the game, and follow your career path.

Enjoy the game while you can.

Great advice TPM

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm starting to err towards the mentality that we only get to play this great game that we all love for a certain amount of time, so we should all do our best to relish the opportunities that we're presented with as they're given. Like one of my older coworkers told me the other day, I have the rest of my life to work.

I agree with you and if at all possible play as much and as hard as you can. You do have the rest of your life to work and only a short time to play baseball. Enjoy your college years because they go waaaay too fast. Good luck and keep us posted on your college career.

Thank you, I definitely will!

From another era (way too long ago for me to say exactly when), I played college tennis (D3). I used my Summers to play tournaments and recharge for the next school year. The only time I would get a job was during that long six week break between the first trimester and the second trimester. Basically, we had the entire time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day off. Not much to do in Illinois during that time of year except some indoor tennis but a lot of need for seasonal labor.

I agree. Enjoy your college years and use your Summers to recharge (unless you really need the money and even then, find something you enjoy). You'll have the rest of your life to work (take it from one who has been working in a job for over half of her life).