What You Need to Know About Careers in Minor League Baseball – Work in Sports Podcast e075 - a podcast by Brian Clapp - Work in Sports

Bob Moullette Assistant General Manager of the New Orleans Baby Cakes joins the show to talk about life in minor league baseball, changing careers at 28 years old and his favorite minor league promotions.

Hi everybody I’m Brian Clapp Director of Content for WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast…



Baseball is getting a bit of a bad rep in our current just add water societal demands. We want results now! We want our action fast and furious – with a ground and pound mentality, a cheetahs speed and a roller coasters intensity.



That is not baseball.



Baseball takes time. Everything about the sport is methodical and strategic.



While a basketball game will be done in about 2 hours and 20 minutes a baseball game… well if the Yankees and Red Sox are playing, it could take up half a work day or longer.



In the early 2000s I worked in Seattle for Fox Sports Northwest, we had the Mariners broadcast deal and the team was winning an insane amount of games. Ratings were off the hook, everyone, sports fans and commoners alike watched every moment breathlessly, and loved the players – Jay Buhner, Ichiro, Bret Boone, Kaz Sazaki – these were local, national and international superheroes.



But something has changed over the last 18 years, maybe it’s just our temperament, maybe the social second screen live sports phenomenon just meshes better with other experiences or maybe it something entirely different. I don’t have that answer.



What I can tell you is, when you drive by a baseball field, whether it’s an American legion game, or a minor league park you feel something pure. A special energy. A connection to history, of young men and women putting on stirrup socks for the first time. Of the smell of leather and breaking in a glove, of grass and green and spring and the sound of bat meets ball.



All the while, as major league baseball teams struggle with a perception of being old, slow and boring – minor league baseball has thrived.



Class AA teams that 30 years ago were worth $500,000 are now worth $16 million to $25 million in some markets.



Some Class AAA teams are valued at more than $30 million.



According to Forbes, minor league baseball’s 20 most valuable teams are worth an average of $37.5 million, up 35% from 2013. The Class AAA Sacramento River Cats are the most valuable ($49 million). The El Paso Chihuahuas, who also play in the Pacific Coast League, are valued at $38.7 million. The Charlotte Knights of the Class AAA International League, who, like El Paso, moved to a new ballpark in 2014, have an estimated value of $47.5 million.



This is what growth look like.



Why?



Because minor league games are affordable, family friendly, wildly entertaining and community oriented. And they’ve really figured out this branding thing – teams are changing their names to more unique and marketable concepts and selling out merchandise and apparel like hotcakes.



Minor league baseball is where inventions are happening. They’re speeding the pace of play, coming up with new ways to entertain, focusing on the fans and changing the perception of what a day at the game costs. It’s not longer half a mortgage payment to take a family of five to the old ballpark.



You know what else is great about the minors – career opportunities. Which is why I brought Bob Moullette, Assistant General Manager of the New Orleans Baby Cakes on the show to discuss what life is like in minor league baseball –

Questions for New Orleans Baby Cakes Assistant...

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