photo courtesy of Micky Haney
Point Park students Nick Turgeon, Josh Croup and Nate Sphon spent December 6-10 at the 2014 Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego.
For three Point Park University students, the trip to the 2014 Baseball Winter Meetings was the experience of a lifetime.
The meetings host a job fair on location with hundreds of internships, part-time and full-time positions available for both minor and major league clubs. The Pittsburgh Center for Sports Media and Marketing (The Center) sponsored the trip that sent the students to San Diego this past December.
“The Center focuses on topics and trends within the sports industry,” graduate assistant Micky Haney said. “We bring in executives and companies to speak about their brand and to network.”
Alumnus Tom Kayser first proposed the idea of sending students to the meetings at a Business of Baseball event in fall of 2013. It was not until the following year that The Center decided to do it.
The trip was first announced at an event with International Management Group (IMG) in September. Students were to submit an essay and resume. After the deadline, the applicants went into one-on-one interviews with The Center’s Directors Mike Fethcko and Tom McMillan.
“I never wrote a resume, so I Googled how to,” said Josh Croup, freshman broadcast reporting major and columnist for The Globe. “I was the first to get interviewed. They liked my resume and my interview, but said they wouldn’t pick a freshman.”
Croup expected that response from the directors, but he did not expect what happened next. He was called back for what he thought was a second interview. Instead of an interview Croup, along with sports, art and entertainment management (SAEM) major Nick Turgeon and senior SAEM and accounting double major Nate Sphon, found out he was going to San Diego.
The shock and excitement of being picked was quickly overshadowed by the amount of preparation necessary for the trip.
“We started prepping about seven weeks before the trip,” Turgeon said. “We met up about once or twice a week. There were a lot of us working together. We were competing for jobs in a way, but not really, because we all wanted to do different things.”
At these weekly meetings, the students met with Career Development to solidify resumes, create business cards and practice interview skills. The students also contacted both major and minor league teams who belonged to their fields of interest.
Fetchko and McMillan recommended each student create a personal project that set them apart from the rest of the pack. Croup created a multimedia webpage complete with a broadcasting reel, Turgeon expanded on an ejection tracker he worked on while interning with the Pittsburgh Pirates this past summer and Sphon researched defensive shifting in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Playing baseball while growing up benefited Sphon, which is the main reason this trip meant so much to him.
“I just want to get in with a team,” he said. “I don’t care. I’d sweep the floor for a team. Playing for 19-20 years has helped me tremendously, just knowing the game the whole way through.”
The three students agreed the preparation that went into the trip gave them a much needed leg up on the competition. Once in San Diego, the students were met with numerous job and internship interviews.
Turgeon interviewed with five teams including the Houston Astros and the Bradenton Marauders. Sphon interviewed with several teams and Stats, LLC, a baseball statistics company. Both Turgeon and Sphon are waiting to hear back about potential internship and job opportunities.
Though all three students had successful trips to San Diego, Croup managed to accomplish something special. He recently accepted an internship. As a freshman, he will be working with the broadcast and production team for the West Virginia Power this summer.
The main goal of the trip was for the students to network and find employment opportunities; however, these opportunities are not what the students will remember most.
One night during the trip, Turgeon was walking around the meetings when he spotted former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling sitting at the corner of the bar. He noticed people going back and forth conversing with Schilling, so he decided to take advantage of this opportunity to say hello.
Turgeon made it short and sweet. He said, “Thank you for 2004,” to which Schilling coolly replied, “No problem, buddy.”
Croup grew up playing the video game MLB The Show on PlayStation. On the game, the play-by-play commentator was Matt Vasgersian, who became the first broadcaster Croup imitated. He had the chance to meet his broadcasting role model during the trip.
At an awards luncheon, Vasgersian was the emcee. Croup was sitting with Kayser, President of the Texas League, who took Croup to meet Vasgersian. As it turns out, it was Vasgersian who was waiting to meet Croup.
Once Croup and Kayser made it to the stage Kayser said, “Matt, this is the kid I was telling you about.” Vasgersian flashed a smile and replied, “Oh is this Josh? Josh, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Matt.”
Vasgersian spoke with Croup for about 15 minutes and provided advice, stories and personal thoughts on how to break into the field.
Sphon was walking outside of the convention while in San Diego where he noticed retired baseball manager Jim Leyland sitting at a table. Sphon had met Leyland once before at his high school, which Leyland’s niece had attended.
Sphon walked up and re-introduced himself to Leyland. The two chatted for five minutes about how they had met once before, and at the end of the conversation, Leyland gave Sphon his home address and asked him to send over his resume.
For Turgeon, Croup and Sphon this trip opened doors to finding work in baseball, but it is Haney who is the most proud.
“From seeing these kids hand in their applications to interviewing, and then to balance all the work with mid-terms and finals, it’s amazing,” Haney said. “They all had such ambition. It was very rewarding to see all that from start to finish.”
The Center is already planning on making this an annual event based on the success of this trip.
As for the rest of this semester, The Center has two events scheduled. The first will be a “New Approach to Televised Sports” with HBO Sports in February. The second will be at the end of March with NEP Broadcasting, a worldwide supplier of major broadcasting.
