something ranty about things

Right now, at this moment, if I had money and time and life on my side, I would gladly drop everything and give my all to a baseball job.

In the real world, though, if I were to get the highest paid internship I have heard of in baseball, I would be taking an immediate 25% pay cut, and that's low-balling my annual income as of right now (which is already on the low end of the scale for my particular specialty in my particular location). That pay cut doesn't include the question of health insurance, or any increase in rent, or moving expenses, or all the little things that come with dropping everything to do what we're lied to about from middle school on and pursue a dream.

I'm not even in any need. I'm very firmly middle-class, from a middle-class family, in a middle-class job. I live in a not huge but not tiny apartment, by myself, in a fairly low cost-of-living area of the country. My student loan debt is weighty, but not crushing. I don't even have credit card debt! I make some extra money on the side, I try my best to save and spend wisely, and I budget for the occasional extravagance - like playoff hockey tickets or a nice dinner out, but not both at the same time. If I can't make baseball work from a practical standpoint, then who on earth can?

These limitations mean that "the best and the brightest" becomes "the best of the interested richest.” Yeah, there's going to be exceptions. There's going to be those precious few who hit on the right thing at the right time, make insane amounts of sacrifice, and then are rewarded with token status  - "if they did it, then clearly you, you younger generation, are just lazy!" or, the ever-dreadful "but look at this one hire we made!"

It's been shown time and time again in multiple fields of business that diversity - inclusive of race and gender and opinion - makes for better ideas. Why has baseball, a business so intent on chasing any bit of advantage in a largely even field, not paid more attention to this? There are signs of this happening, yes. The Dodgers, for one, the Brewers, for another, the Mariners...but it's still the exception, not the norm.

There are bright minds out there. They may not be making noise, but they're in college, and they're in the workplace, and they're thinking and commenting and coming up with ideas that, for the large part, won't be seen by a major league team due to the barrier for entry. Not only do these "diverse" minds have to first overcome the societal skepticism that comes with whatever tag they're blessed with, but then they have to figure out whether or not they can actually, practically, if they have the good fortune to get noticed, make that next step.

Major League Baseball's diversity problem isn't this easy to fix, I know. The financial barriers aren't the only thing making it difficult for people to decide that something they love is more valuable than something that allows them to live - but they're no small part.

To bring this back to me - however selfish that is, I only really have my example to work from - a lot of things might have been different if I'd known that baseball was something I could do, for real, when I graduated college. It took me two years to find a full-time job in my current field, two years I lived with my parents doing my own succession of low- or no-pay internships, two years that are the reason I can't drop everything and do that now. I drained my savings account paying my student loans so I wouldn't have to pay more later - and how lucky was I to have savings! Now, when I know enough and am encouraged enough and lucky enough to have a chorus of people telling me that I - a woman, a music major, a non-math person - I could (?) be good enough to work in baseball, I just can't make it happen.

If you want to really see change, it has to happen at the beginning. Baseball can't wait for people to come to it. We've got to stop holding it up as a golden god of employment, something worth sacrificing health and wealth and sanity to. We've instead got to hold it accountable, something that's been happening more and more often in these recent years.

It may be too late for me and baseball, but I sure as hell want to make sure it doesn't get to be too late for whoever is next.