Experience Spotlight - Mike Parnell, Texas Rangers

In this semester's Experience Spotlight series, the blog will be featuring Cornell ILR SBS members who have excelled in positions in the sports industry. Many talented Cornell students are making impressions all across the sports world, and this is their chance to showcase their experiences.

This week's Spotlight focuses on Mike Parnell '14.  Mike was a senior in Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School, previously serving at the school's Institute for Compensation Studies. Mike had represented the club at the SABR Analytics Conference Diamond Dollar Classic in 2013, as well as several other events and conferences.  Baseball was always important to Mike, as he completed academic research on the sport for his thesis, as well worked in a collegiate summer baseball league.

During his senior spring semester, Mike worked as a Baseball Operations intern with the Texas Rangers. Cooridinated through the ILR Credit Internship Program, he will complete the internship in November. Mike was kind enough to answer some questions about his experience.


What are some Day-to-Day responsibilities of the position?

Airport runs, doctor runs, scouting Rangers' home games, daily organizational report, college stats updates, database tracking, independent projects. Everything baseball operations.

How were you able to get the Internship?

I interviewed for the position at Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings in December of last year. I then set up the internship through the ILR School's credit internship program.

How has this experience shaped your career plans?

It has reaffirmed my desire to pursue a career in Major League Baseball, working for a MLB team.

What advice would you give another student interested in a similar experience?

You’ll work longer and harder than you ever have whether that be as a student, or in another internship or job that you’ve done. But if you truly are passionate about pursuing a career in baseball or sports more generally it won’t feel like work and you will truly enjoy every minute of it. 

Be open to taking on any opportunity or experience regardless of how overqualified you may be for it. You won’t instantly be in charge, so you have to put in your time to earn the respect of those around you. 

These types of experiences aren’t usually posted in any place that you would normally find internship postings; you have to put yourself out there by reaching out to teams. I would recommend reaching out to several people in an organization a month or two prior to the Winter Meetings asking if they could meet for a few minutes. Provide a quick background on any relevant work that you’ve done. Keep the email succinct, they get a lot of these and are very busy so the more efficiently you write the email the better chance you have of getting a response. 

You have to do some relevant work on your own. Write for a website or blog so that you have some work to show. Go watch amateur or minor league games and write up reports on the players. You don’t have to be right or have a perfect report but it shows that you are truly interested in working in baseball. You’ll probably meet some people that may help you out down the road. I had someone vouch for me at the Rangers that I met on the road last summer while scouting a minor league game.

What was your favorite aspect of the experience?

So far the best experience has been by far being in the draft room for the amateur draft. Definitely a more fluid process than I imagined and very cool to see everything that goes into it.

Thank you to Mike and the Texas Rangers for allowing us to share this awesome experience. We hope you have learned about some of the wonderful opportunities that Cornell, the ILR School, and the ILR Sports Business Society can provide in the sports world. We hope to feature many more stories from students and employers this fall!