SPORTS CAREERS: Dann's Journal - Week #2

“This is so cool that you’re working for a baseball team.”

I’ve heard that a million times during the last few weeks, which were the first two weeks on the job with the Cincinnati Reds’ communications department. And each of those million times I realized just how lucky I was, but perhaps not for the reasons they think so.

While the thoughts of rubbing elbows with Ken Griffey Jr. and possibly getting my own World Series ring if the Reds were to go all the way excites many, I appreciate the job security more than anything.

Think about it. How many baseball teams go bankrupt or out of business? It’s not like the dot-com world where a small percentage of Web sites succeed. It’s not like the business world where big business rules and layoffs become all too normal. The Reds have been around for over 100 years, and there are no signs that they will be going away anytime soon.

“So what’s the job like?”

That’s the other question I get a lot of. Well, it’s everything I thought and hoped it would be. I’ve been working on stories for the team’s monthly magazine, and this past week, I got the chance to meet Reds’ Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman. Getting the chance to talk to people like him is why I wanted to get into journalism in the first place, and it’s why I decided to concentrate on sports communications.

“You left school a semester early?”

That’s the final question I’ve been bombarded with.

Yup, I left the University of Missouri a semester early to take a job with the Reds. And I’ve yet to regret the decision.

Before I decided to leave college, I talked with the dean of our journalism school and mapped out a schedule of independent-study courses and faculty-advised projects so that I will have sufficient credits to graduate on time this May.

Even this week, I’m in Missouri taking a computer-assisted-reporting course. It lasts one week (9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily) and is worth three credit hours.

If you too are thinking of leaving college early, don’t give up on your degree all together. At first I thought it would be impossible to get the hours I needed to graduate. But with a little planning, I found that it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.

However, I was still a little hesitant. I didn’t really want to leave my friends and a hotty named Meaghan behind. But as my friends Pat and Kyle (two awesome sports writers) explained, it’s just like an athlete leaving college a semester early for the draft; that’s what they went to school for in the first place. Of course, I didn’t get a signing bonus when the Reds drafted me.