Experience Spotlight - Melissa Kelly, Major League Baseball

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 Melissa Kelly '15.  Melissa is a senior in Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School. She has been a dedicated member of the club since her first year at Cornell, serving as Social Impact chairperson in 2013.

Melissa worked this summer at Major League Baseball's Office of the Commissioner, serving as an Economics Intern in the Labor Relations Department. She originally interned in the same position during an ILR Credit Internship in Fall 2013.  Melissa was kind enough to answer some questions about her experiences.

What were some of your day-to-day responsibilities of the position?

Over the duration of my internship I was asked to complete a myriad of tasks in all different formats and for a number of different people. Although I was technically on the economics side of the Labor Relations department, I was also asked to do work for the legal side. The legal side included research projects to find information regarding past Collective Bargaining Agreements and the legal statutes that were used in them. The economics side of Labor Relations is where I spent most of my time, and where I really learned a lot about the field. 

As a fall intern, I was fortunate enough to experience the Salary Arbitration process and how players are statistically valued. Through the utilization of MLB’s databases and Excel formulas, we are able to come up with a value that a player is worth based on their Platform Season performance as well as their career.

During the summer, the tasks were a little bit different. Two of the main projects I worked on were to create an Offensive Splits tool and to research information on the Tommy John epidemic. The offensive splits tool was something I created in excel that would generate all of the platform season and career splits statistics for any position players in the last 15 years. This tool will help the Labor Relations Department during the offseason to be able to look at up to three comparable players splits side by side.  

Any baseball fan knows the biggest current issue with Major League pitchers is the amount of UCL tears that are occurring. As the player loses between 12 and 18 months rehabbing this injury, it is great concern to the teams and the league. I assisted my bosses in researching information about Tommy John surgery including the theories on what makes a player more vulnerable to the tear, the best ways to rehabilitate an injured elbow, the top doctors in the field and what they have to say about the problem, and how past players have rebounded from this injury. I hope that my contributions to this effort and help the league develop programs to reduce the amount of UCL tears for the future.

How were you able to get the internship?

Originally, in Fall 2013, I received the internship through the ILR Credit Internship Program. I was fortunate enough to be asked back for the summer.

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

The baseball industry is very tough to get involved in. The ILR’s credit internship program is a great way to get your foot in the door for an amazing opportunity at the Commissioner’s office. Any students that are interested in this internship are more than welcome to contact me with any questions about the application process or the internship itself! 

What was your favorite aspect of the experience?

What was fulfilling about this experience was the degree of freedom that my supervisors gave me not only in the tasks they assigned me, but also in how the assignments were completed. I was fortunate enough to be given the responsibility to meet high profile clients, which helped me mature as a worker and learn how to handle myself in those types of situations. The experience that I have gained from this internship is invaluable, and the skills I can take away will help me in my future. I am so grateful that I was fortunate enough to be able to be a part of the Credit Internship program and is the best decision I have made at Cornell.

When I returned for the summer, I had a great time taking place in MLB’s Summer Internship Program. They do a great job hosting events for the interns to go to every few weeks and hear from leaders in the industry. The room that I spent my summer in was filled with Labor Relations Interns (both legal and economic) as well as interns from the HR department. My experience working with the other interns and collaborating on certain projects made the work even more enjoyable.

Thank you to Melissa and Major League Baseball 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!

Experience Spotlight - Sarah Gilman, Major League Baseball

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 Sarah Gilman '16.  Sarah is a junior in Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School. She has been a dedicated member of the club since her freshman year at Cornell, serving as Director of Alumni Relations this past spring.

Sarah worked this summer at Major League Baseball's Office of the Commissioner. She served as a Human Resources Intern and was kind enough to answer some questions about her experience.

What were some of your day-to-day responsibilities of the position?

Get in and check email-respond to emails if necessary. 

Go into the anti-harassment training software and check to see if anyone has completed the training and if so print their certificates and file away, I had a master spreadsheet that contained all of the employees so I kept a tally on all of them-All employees including full time, part time, interns and contractors all need to take the anti-harassment training. 

Projects- examples include tallying survey answers in an excel spreadsheet, quantifying how much money MLB has given out to those who have continued their education or just finishing their education, completing a list of those who had gone to law school and where with what year. 

Filing. 

Shredding. 

Check in with boss at least three times a day to see if anything specific needs to get done. 

Preparation for the human resources conference with all the clubs which included getting over 50 binders ready with the specific content order.

How were you able to get the internship?

I got the internship through a connection. Networking is extremely important in this industry. It’s not about just sending that first email but maintaining the friendship with the person and asking questions so that person knows you are thinking about them and how there experience can help you.

How has this experience shaped your career plans?

This experience has only reaffirmed my love for human resources and that I definitely want to be in the sports industry whether it is for a club, a league, or something related to sports.

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

If I could say one thing to anyone who is interested in getting into the industry it is that you need to work for it. For some it might come easy with connections, but for others you are really going to need to work hard and network your butt off because this industry is tough to crack into, but once you will see the fruit of your hard work.

What was your favorite aspect of the experience?

My favorite part of the experience was the professional growth I had this summer in both learning about human resources in real time versus in a classroom and networking. If you attended the “An Inside Look at Sports and Law” event this summer, that took a lot of networking and finding people who would mesh well together. I am so glad the event went well and hopefully those who went got a lot out of it (including a few contacts).

Thank you to Sarah and Major League Baseball 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!

Experience Spotlight - Andrew Distler, CBS Sports

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 Andrew Distler '15.  Andrew is a senior in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences where he majors in Sociology and minors in Policy Analysis and Management, Demography, and Music. Andrew has been an active member of the club since his freshman year, attending several conferences and many other events. He also has played a critical role in the success of the Big Red Sports Network as well.  He can be reached at abd76@cornell.edu.

Andrew worked this summer with CBS Sports Network, serving as an Intern in the Programming Division. He was kind enough to answer some questions about his experience.

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

My day-to-day responsibilities included maintaining, and helping create, the 2014-15 college basketball and football schedules, fact checking documents and presentations, and compiling research for CBS Sports Network’s programming, which included providing team previews for several college basketball, football and hockey teams and conferences.

How were you able to get the Internship?

I had originally applied for this internship after my sophomore year. After finding out I needed more experience in order to be considered for a position, I was fortunate enough to assist in the launching of Cornell’s Big Red Sports Network last year, in which I gained lots of experience in sports marketing, research, and journalism. At my interview, my boss seemed impressed how much of the sports world I was able to comprehend, and working with BRSN is a major part of that.

How has this experience shaped your career plans?

This internship definitely made me realize that going into sports television is something I would enjoy. Before this summer, I had only really focused on careers in either league or team offices, but I discovered how much fun working for a sports network can be!

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

If I had any advice to give students interested in a similar path, it is to get involved with sports in any way possible (i.e., write for your school’s newspaper, join a sports business club, work for one of your school’s teams). Every week, the interns met with an executive from a different department, and each one said that in this industry, experience counts more than anything, so look to get involved any way you can (which is why having BRSN was so helpful for me!). Another important note: Most people in this industry, regardless of position, WANT to help you. I cannot say enough about how my bosses eagerly gave me career advice every chance they got, and how willing they were to put me in touch with other people they knew in sports. Never be afraid to reach out to anyone you know in this, or any other, industry, for advice (also helps with networking, which was also mentioned quite a bit!).

What was your favorite aspect of the experience?

My favorite part was definitely our college basketball “draft”, in which we “drafted” college basketball games from certain conferences, with other networks such as ESPN on the phone, waiting to make their picks. It felt like being the War Room for an NFL team, and they really took my suggestions of which games to air to heart. What’s cool is I can see my imprint on this season’s college basketball schedule now! I also loved being in CBS’s main office (Black Rock), as I was able to see first hand how a lot of the network is run.

Thank you to Andrew and CBS Sports 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!

Experience Spotlight - Sammy Gitlin, Major League Baseball

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 Samantha Gitlin '16.  Sammy is a junior in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, where she majors in Nutrition and plans to complete the Dietetics Program.

Sammy worked this summer at Major League Baseball's Office of the Commissioner. She interned in the Labor Relations Department under the Senior Director of Drug Policy, and was kind enough to answer some questions about her experience.

What were some of your day-to-day responsibilities of the position?

I had a few large projects over this summer. First, I worked on creating a comprehensive list of foods to be provided to teams when they’re on the road. Second, a large issue in baseball is players taking normal supplements (like protein, vitamins, sleep aids etc.) and then taking drug tests that come back positive. A company has been developed that does extensive drug testing on these sorts of supplements to find out whether or not they are safe for players to take. I helped to research these supplements and I created a list of categories to sort these supplements. I also helped out with a few of the labor economics projects, such as researching sports gambling (particularly in New Jersey) and looking at the newly installed replay system.

How were you able to get the internship?

Family friend connection.

How has this experience shaped your career plans?

I’m planning on pursuing sports nutrition so this was exactly what I needed to get my foot in the door. I’ve learned so much about the industry and I was able to make connections that I wouldn’t have been able to make anywhere else. I’ve learned about how each team’s dietitian prepares meals/meal plans and caters to the team’s intense nutritional needs.

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

Definitely use any connections that you have to find a cool internship! Think outside the box about places to intern at, you never know who will be hiring.

What was your favorite aspect of the experience?

Getting an inside look into a part of baseball that most people don’t think about. How the players fuel their bodies definitely correlates with their performance, and the dietitians are responsible for that.

Thank you to Sammy and Major League Baseball 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!

Experience Spotlight - Ashley Estrada, Anschutz Entertainment Group

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 Ashley Estrada '16.  Ashley is a senior in Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School, majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations. She is double-minoring in Business and Law & Society.

This summer, Ashley interned for AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group), a sports and music entertainment company. The AEG Sports division owns several sports teams including her hometown teams; the Los Angeles Kings and the Los Angeles Galaxy, and owns shares of the Los Angeles Lakers. Ashley worked at the STAPLES Center, the home of the Lakers, Clippers, Sparks, and Kings. She served as a Marketing Intern and was kind enough to answer some questions about her experiences.
What are some Day-to-Day responsibilities of the position?

I performed various marketing activities througout the internship. My main responsibility was assisting with the development of the annual 3-day Nike Basketball 3on3 Tournament.

How were you able to get the Internship?

I got the internship through the help of a family friend who knows someone in the company.

How has this experience shaped your career plans?

My experience at the STAPLES Center validated my desire to work in a sports and/or entertainment company and reminded me to keep branching out and meeting people who could potentially help me land a position in these difficult-to-enter industries.

What was your favorite aspect of the experience?

Some of my favorite memories of the internship are attending the LA Kings' fan fest and pep rally after winning their second Stanley Cup championship, working the Nike Basketball 3on3 Tournament, and attending the LA Clippers fan fest held to celebrate the team's new owner, Steve Ballmer. If anyone has questions or wants to know more about my experience and/or the company, feel free to send me a message at ae282@cornell.edu.

Thank you to Ashley and AEG 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!

Experience Spotlight - Jesse Sherman, The Legacy Agency

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 Jesse Sherman '15.  Jesse is a senior in Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School. He has been a dedicated member of the club since his freshman year at Cornell, serving on the E-Board since Spring 2013.  Jesse has also cofounded Cornell at Bat, and eventually, the Big Red Sports Network.  He can be reached at jws328@cornell.edu.

Jesse worked with The Legacy Agency as an intern for Summer, 2014.  Jesse served as a Baseball Representation Intern at TLA, and was kind enough to answer some questions about his experience.


What were some of your day-to-day responsibilities of the position?

The Legacy Agency as a whole is a dynamic representation and marketing agency that looks after the interests of the broadcasters, coaches, and professional athletes that it represents. Legacy handles anything from on the field contracts to off the field marketing opportunities, and also serves as a sports consulting firm for external organizations. 

I was the baseball representation intern for a list of clientele that includes MLB stars such as Johan Santana, Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, Martin Prado, Starling Marte, and Bobby Abreu, as well as over 100 minor league players. 

My responsibilities included researching clients' statistics on a daily basis, keeping track of their career progression (that is, seeing if they are currently with an organization, which level they are playing at, whether they were released and have free agent standing, so on and so forth). I was also asked to perform analyses on big league teams and their rosters to see if any Legacy clients that were free agents at the time could potentially fill a void on a big league roster. 

I was also responsible for logging and checking client endorsement contracts to ensure that the athletes had been appropriately compensated by the sponsors in accordance with the terms of their signed contracts. 

Additionally, a major project I worked on was creating a career projection analysis on a current client who will be eligible for salary arbitration following the 2015 season. My bosses asked me to do a preliminary determination of what he will be worth during his arbitration years, based on my evaluation of his current performance and potential performance in the future. Salary figures are then determined using comparable players and the statistics they compiled while being on a major league roster for a similar amount of days/years as the player in question.

How were you able to get the internship?

I got the job through a combination of family connections and experience with baseball statistical research with my peers at Cornell.

How has this experience shaped your career plans?

The internship was amazingly insightful as to what it takes to be a successful and respected sports agent, as well as everything that goes on from an athlete marketing perspective. I also learned to understand the interests of the player and team sides, which I believe will serve me well if I decide to either pursue agency-side or team-side work.

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

I would say that if you want to get your foot in the door, show potential employers that you can bring something out of the ordinary to the table. For instance, I believe my work with the Cornell SABR analytics team gave me an edge in showing that I could evaluate baseball player performance at perhaps an even deeper level than is done by some agents or teams. It also helps to read up on the CBA. Finally, being up to date on up and coming players, international free agency and the draft, in addition to knowing the players in the big leagues and the terms of some long term contracts is incredibly helpful in thriving as a baseball representation intern. Now go out, make the connections, and do the best work you can possibly do.

What was your favorite aspect of the experience?

My favorite aspect of the experience was being able to learn more about baseball, a sport that I thought I couldn't learn much more about. The agency side of the sport is so important, and working with some of the best and brightest minds in the industry today gave me a much better understanding of what agents do each and every day as well as what it takes to be ahead of the curve from a player development and client management perspective. I also loved not knowing what to expect from one day to the next. I could be doing a project one moment and then get up to talk to my boss and a major leaguer will be sitting in his office.

Thank you to Jesse and The Legacy Agency 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!

Experience Spotlight - Rick Saxe, National Hockey League

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 Rick Saxe '16.  Rick is a junior in Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School. He has been a dedicated member of the club since his first year at Cornell, attending numerous conferences and events, as well as contributing to the blog.

This summer, Rick worked for the National Hockey League, serving as a Studio Intern for the NHL Network.  He was kind enough to answer some questions about his experience.
What were some of your day-to-day responsibilities of the position?

I rotated through all facets of production of live programming on NHL Network--in the studio and in the control room--including roles in stage management, audio management, video management, and graphics coordination.

I came up with an idea for a TV Show for the Network, and it was picked by a group executive producers. I was given a team to work on producing the show, and we are essentially done with its production. As long as the final touches are approved, we hope for it to air in the Spring of 2015 before the next NHL Entry Draft.

How were you able to get the internship?

I got word of this internship through a friend, emailed HR, and went through the application process.

How has this experience shaped your career plans?

While I don't expect to go into television production for a career, I learned a lot (especially from my TV show project) about how to both lead a team and to develop an idea. It was tough for me to alter my original idea because I was really attached to what I was pitching to producers. Opening up to new ideas in order to improve the program was difficult at first, but now that I see how much better it made the show, I learned that listening to teammates is invaluable. No matter what field I land in, I want to be a leader in it, as well as revolutionize it through new ideas, so this experienced definitely helped me take a step closer to reaching that goal.

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

For someone looking for a similar position, I can't really offer anything past the "make as many connections as you can" advice that everyone pitches to you. I only knew about this opportunity through a friend with similar career goals as I have, so just keep one ear open at all times and know that connections that can change your life can come from anywhere and anyone.

Thank you to Rick and the National Hockey League 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!