Becoming a GM?

[dannymac910]

Does anyone know how you would go about becoming a GM in real life? I think I heard you have to go to law school or something. Do people make careers trying to become GM's or do you just work in baseball and work your way up?

[HoustonGM]

Working in baseball and working your way up is by far the most common way..if not the only way.

[dannymac910]

What job do people start with?

[metsguy234]

Consider going to this college:

http://www.isenberg.umass.edu/sportmgt/

The Pirates GM and many other prominent baseball officials went there as well...

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Springfield in Massachusetts is a good school to go for anything sports related as well.

You don't necessarily have to go to Law School (though Theo Epstein did graduate from Yale with a degree in Law and passed the California bar examination), but it probably couldn't hurt. A lot of GM's are former minor league ball players.

I'm pretty sure most GM's start out in marketing or PR (again, where Epstein started) or scouting (as others like Kevin Towers, I think, did) and work their way up the ladder.

A good degree to go for if you want to work in professional sports in just about any capacity is a degree in Sports Management (which is what I intend to go for).

You want to make sure you go to a school with a prominent program in Sports Management with good internship connections, so that once you graduate you already have good experience with being inside an organization and seeing and knowing generally how its run and so you can get a good recommendation.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

Consider going to this college:

http://www.isenberg.umass.edu/sportmgt/

The Pirates GM and many other prominent baseball officials went there as well...

I didn't realize that was UM-A. That's one of my other top schools because of my intended field of study, Sports Management.

[rockiesfan4ever]

This is actual what I want to be

I am going to school and taking a bunch for Business and Marketing classes. Luckily my school has a whole line of "Sports and Entertainment" Marketing classes I am going to take. I am also in the FBLA (Future BUsiness Leaders of America) and hoping to get a job in the Front Office.

[OregonDuck1989]

One of the good things to be also is connected.

The girl who lives across the hall from me interned with the Brewers this summer. Next summer she might be going to the Cubs. She is getting good references and might be working within the league as soon as she graduates.

Her dad is connected, her neighbor back home is none other then John Elway and she goes to Metro State College in Denver.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

One of the good things to be also is connected.

The girl who lives across the hall from me interned with the Brewers this summer. Next summer she might be going to the Cubs. She is getting good references and might be working within the league as soon as she graduates.

Her dad is connected, her neighbor back home is none other then John Elway and she goes to Metro State College in Denver.

Yeah, that's what I was talking about with going to a prominent school with good connections. Its really hard to get a job in professional sports without a good internship and good connections.

[BINGLEBOP]

One of the good things to be also is connected.

Bingo.

Learn how to network. Then network some more.

[RedsoxRockies]

One of the good things to be also is connected.

The girl who lives across the hall from me interned with the Brewers this summer. Next summer she might be going to the Cubs. She is getting good references and might be working within the league as soon as she graduates.

Her dad is connected, her neighbor back home is none other then John Elway and she goes to Metro State College in Denver.

Does it help that I can trace my roots to the 10th century Spanish royal Family (Not sure what medieval Sanish kingdom it was, I believe Castille)?

[RedsoxRockies]

I would also love to play baseball or be a GM. And, Danny, at this point scouts make up the majority of GMs. But that figure is changing towards college grads of business schools

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

I would also love to play baseball or be a GM. And, Danny, at this point scouts make up the majority of GMs. But that figure is changing towards college grads of business schools

A lot of those scouts are also former minor league players, more than likely.

Yeah, your best bet is probably to go to a school with a good Sports Management program (Springfield College and University of Massachusetts - Ameherst are two good examples) and to get a good internship. Even then the chances of ever becoming a GM of a Major League Baseball team are very, very slim, but that's probably the best way to go.

Personally, my dream, probably since I was in around seventh grade, has been to become a GM for any Major League Baseball team, and I'm fully aware that's a very high goal in a very competitive field, but its basically what I've always wanted.

[justanewguy]

George Costanza was a nobody with no baseball experience, and look at the job HE got.

Trying to become a GM is like trying to become an astronaut, I'm sure.

But look at someone like Bill James... he got a job in the majors from being a writer. You can be an outsider, and as long as you know a whole lot about baseball, it's not impossible to make it out of the blue. Very rare though...

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

George Costanza was a nobody with no baseball experience, and look at the job HE got.

Trying to become a GM is like trying to become an astronaut, I'm sure.

But look at someone like Bill James... he got a job in the majors from being a writer. You can be an outsider, and as long as you know a whole lot about baseball, it's not impossible to make it out of the blue. Very rare though...

George Costanza, there's a good example .

As for James, he wasn't just a writer, but a mathematician, and an all-around very, very smart man, before changing the game of baseball as we know it with his research. His case is a very, very rare and unique, one that is unlikely to ever be duplicated. I wouldn't be surprised to see him inducted into the Hall of Fame as a pioneer.