Job Posting: MLB Diversity Fellowship Program
Position: MLB Diversity Fellowship Program
Location: Various
Description:
This latest venture in Baseball’s efforts to competitively recruit the most talented individuals and brightest young minds entering the workforce will provide the opportunity for young, diverse professionals to experience front office positions that have been traditionally influential in baseball operations decisions. Fellows will have the opportunity to work in baseball operations and see the inner workings of a front office. Areas of baseball operations include player development, scouting, research and development, and beyond.
The MLB Diversity Fellowship Program will allow MLB to stay true to the ideals of equal opportunity while solidifying Major League Baseball as an organization of choice for all recent graduates, including people of color and women.
MLB’s Diversity Fellowship Program is a rewarding opportunity to start a career in baseball and be a part of growing a world class, global sports business. The 2020 Fellowship has two tracks: the Club Fellowship and the MLB Office of the Commissioner Fellowship.
MLB Club Fellowship Program
- Selected candidates in the Club Fellowship will be placed in one of our 30 Clubs in the United States or Canada for a minimum period of 18 months.
- The Fellows will not have the option to choose a Club or location, so, applicants should have flexibility to relocate for any of the assignments.
- During his or her tenure, Club Fellows will be appointed to an entry-level role in either the front office or baseball operations department.
MLB Office of the Commissioner Fellowship Program
- The selected candidate for the MLB Office of the Commissioner Fellowship will be placed in New York City for a minimum period of 18 months.
- The Fellow will rotate through MLB’s baseball operations and labor economics departments under the supervision of respective department heads.
While all disciplines are eligible to apply, MLB strongly encourages candidates with degrees or knowledge in economics, analytics, computer science, applied mathematics, law, and business to submit applications. The Fellowship will begin post-graduation (if applicable) on a mutually agreed upon date between the Office of the Commissioner and/or Club and the chosen fellow.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Open to people of color and female candidates.
- Candidates must be recent graduates (spring 2017 graduates to upcoming spring 2020 graduates) with either a bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree or related advanced degree.
- Minimum GPA of 3.0
- A passion for and knowledge of baseball is helpful but not required.
- Former professional baseball and softball players (including national team members) who have earned a degree(s) and do not meet the graduation date requirement but have ceased playing within the last two years will also be eligible.
- Exact locations are up to the discretion of Major League Baseball and participating Clubs.
To Apply:
To apply, please complete the application, which can be found here.
More information about the Fellowship program can be found here.
The content in this posting was created and provided solely by Major League Baseball.
Meg is the editor-in-chief of FanGraphs and the co-host of Effectively Wild. Prior to joining FanGraphs, her work appeared at Baseball Prospectus, Lookout Landing, and Just A Bit Outside. You can follow her on Bluesky @megrowler.fangraphs.com.
Cue the white dudes bitching about “reverse racism/sexism” in 3….2…..1….
Cue the person ALWAYS saying “cue ‘such and such’ group complaining about ‘this or that’ in 3, 2, 1…”
Regardless of what you think about the “white dudes,” opening up this fellowship solely to women and people of color is pretty clearly illegal. See McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transp. Co., 427 U.S. 273 (1976).
So… that’s racist.
Curious if the pay is enough that one could afford 18 months of NYC rent.
From the only thing I could fine online – a job posting for this on South Carolina State University – the salary was listed as $50,000, higher than I anticipated given the depressed wages in MLB front offices. That’s very doable for a young person living alone in NYC.
That’s more than I thought it would be, too. $50k being “doable” for a young person in nyc is stretching it a bit, but could be pulled off if they lived in less desirable neighborhoods in queens and the Bronx, as compared to trying to live in desirable neighborhoods of Manhattan, in which case, $50k is decidedly not doable.
Speaking of which, wtf is that stipulation about not picking which team you work for? That seems like a rather onerous stipulation. Couldn’t they let candidates express a preference or at least indicate which teams they’re willing to work for? Would that really be that hard for mlb to administer? Might they alienate some of excellent candidates who would work in a number of cities but wouldn’t necessarily want to risk being required to move from coast to coast?
Obviously I didn’t mean in desirable locations of Manhattan. But it’s not true that you’d have to live in less desirable locations in Queens and the Bronx. With a roommate or two, you can live in plenty of decent neighborhoods of Brooklyn, a bunch of upper Manhattan, and some solid neighborhoods in Queens too. I am in my 20s and have lived much of my life in NYC. Several of my friends make around $50,000, and while they’re not saving a ton of money, they’re getting by just fine in places like Astoria, Gowanus, and Inwood.
Yeah, with roommates, you’re right. Your initial post mentioned living alone.
Oh sorry what I meant by that was simply not having a family you’re supporting or anything. I can see that that was confusingly worded.
I find it interesting that the pronouns ‘his/her’ are used when it is trying to be diverse, as well as not including anyone other than ‘people of color and female candidates’. I’m not someone who usually calls this out and actually find it a bit tiring sometimes, but it seems like in this case a ‘diversity fellowship’ should aim to be as diverse as possible and include any non-white male (if indeed that is what they are trying to do here) and use words that show they are serious about being diverse and inclusive. Maybe the first thing these fellows will do is proofread some of the MLB job postings to help make them more enticing to non-white males.
agreed. i’m not totally qualified for the position (haven’t graduated from uni yet), but i found it rather discouraging that i was not even included or thought of as a nonbinary person who would normally jump all over an opportunity like this.
LMFAO. Not even a Diversity Fellowship program is diverse enough!
You are included. If you think you’re specifically being left out, you are not.
When they say “he/she” that includes both and anything in-between. If you don’t accept that, then you will likely feel left out of almost all English literature for the rest of your life, without that being the intent of any of the writings.
A) Language evolves. Just because Shakespeare didn’t know non-binary doesn’t mean that you can’t add it to your vocabulary. B) I noticed the post didn’t mention LGBTQ+ as part of the diversity initiative. I think that’d be a great way for them to expand diversity, given ya know, LGBTQ+ people exist and are great andd exactly zero of them have been out as current major leaguers.
First of all, as mentioned above, it’s illegal to hire or reject people for a job based on race, gender, or sexuality (as well as disability, nationality, or religion). I assume you don’t want to live in a world that does, right? If you do, I’m happy to hear your reasoning why.
Secondly, there is no way for an employer to even determine your gender identity or sexual orientation without asking, which is also illegal, and putting it on your job application implies that you will use it as a job qualification you can’t even ask about. With sex and race, it is usually somewhat apparent (though obviously not always, which again makes it a logically silly request).
Thirdly, you can use whatever language you prefer, but you cannot read meaning into other people’s use of language that isn’t there. Well, I guess you can, but it is dishonest and counterproductive.
Is no one playing the truth-seeking game here at all? How would this screening process work? It’s literally not possible. It was probably written by someone who doesn’t know the ramification of what they’re asking for.
I wish we could follow this posting, but I’m guessing it will probably just disappear within a couple days and we’ll never hear about it again.
“A) Language evolves”
This presumes that the change in language is an improvement, language also devolves! I’m not targeting the question about non-binary vocabulary specifically, just pointing out that all too often I see ‘language evolves’ as a defense for imprecision of thought characterized by the misapplication of words, or in defense of meaningless newspeak.
Which brings me to the real point here: that the people who are attempting to expand our definition of sandwich to include clearly non-sandwich food items are actually participating in the corruption of America’s youth and the destruction of its moral compass.
You don’t have to use all possible desired pronouns that could be present for any possible applicant in a job posting for it to be inclusive. Surely the Diversity Fellowship will cater to any pronoun preference for anyone has who joins it. To most, this would look like someone looking for something to complain about, though I suspect you ask this in good faith.
Though, this posting is actually non-inclusive, since it specifies which races and sexes it wants to hire. This will probably get hit with a lawsuit.
LOL
A little more food for thought…
In the posting it says this
“Eligibility Criteria:
Open to people of color and female candidates.”
Then we scroll down a bit when all the *legal techno-babble* appears…
“U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Information (Completion is voluntary)
Individuals seeking employment at MLB FFP are considered without regards to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”
Am I the only one who finds this hilarious? Someone explain to me how this is possible? In fact, why was this not the main story in this Fangraphs posting?
If ANYONE thinks this isn’t a hysterical contradiction, please say so.
The only possible legal escape they have is if they claim they’re merely saying people of color and females are eligible (and not exclusively eligible), but that would be tenuous and disingenuous at best.
Including this reply to you, you have a full quarter of the comments to this job listing.
Apparently straight white male mediocrity is still good for something!
Stop commenting and ruining my ratio please.
To speculate, the argument is probably that such statements are only ever intended to protect people of color, women, etc. and that since it is literally impossible to be racist/sexist/bigoted against straight white males (a sine qua non to be considered ‘woke’ on these issues), the clause never implicated them in the first place.