Lewis (Image: File)

There are many young businessmen and women who dream of a high-powered job in professional sports.  They hang out at stadiums and arenas fantasizing about taking their place in the front office of their favorite team and developing marketing plans or finalizing draft decisions.

Though Wendy Lewis never had her own big league dreams, she has managed to build one of the most successful and long-standing careers in Major League Baseball.

Lewis was employed by the Chicago Tribune when its owner, the Tribune Company, approached her about establishing a formal human resources department at the Chicago Cubs, its newly acquired sports property. With a background in HR and sales, execs saw Lewis as the ideal candidate—especially considering that the Cubs needed to be sold on the fact that they needed a human resources department at all.

“It wasn’t a conscious decision to work for Major League Baseball,” Lewis said.  “It turned out to be a solution for corporate.  But it actually is more exciting, more challenging and more fulfilling than it was when I first got in.”

Read more at The Atlanta Post …

Godfrey

“The goal is bring more of the game to Central and South America,” says Godfrey. “By using that strategy, we hope to bring the game to more people in those regions of the world.”

Godfrey, who began his career as a corporate lawyer for Dewey & LeBoeuf law firm in New York City, admits his only challenge has been learning the technology which he is marketing. But grasping the basic concepts of how the technology of his brands works has been a useful starting point as he cultivates new career skills, which will open a variety of prospects to him in future professional endeavors. He owes the opportunity to work in this new space to his network.

“Having relationships with very senior people over the past 15 years was crucial in my transition both to Lehman and to MLB,” says Godfrey. A friend he met during law school at Georgetown University told him about the MLB position over a series of face-to-face meetings months before he was hired. “It’s crucial to really understand and recognize that the people that you have met in your professional life are the people who are inside organizations and are aware of trends and opportunities, and can then share that information with you so that you can pursue those opportunities.”

Godfrey believes that simply posting resumes online is not enough to find employment in this current economic environment. “[Online job searching] is a very tough road,” says Godfrey. “A number of the opportunities that I took a look at before landing at MLB never even made it to the Internet.”

But maintaining your network is much more than gathering acquaintances. Godfrey says what people in your network think of you is just as important as growing the network itself. Your associates have to see you as a talented professional with something to offer an organization, someone who is known in the marketplace as reliable and trustworthy, with good ideas.

He says professionals begin to develop that type of reputation in how you treat all coworkers, how you demonstrate your talents, and how you communicate your successes. “Every conversation is an opportunity to sell yourself,” Godfrey says. “Once you come through the door it is important that you’re selling yourself to everyone – from the CEO on down to the receptionist– it all counts. Make a memorable impression.”

He has realized that developing a broad range of relationships in business does require some dexterity. “Negotiation skills are essential,” says Godfrey. In a business where he has to constantly build partnerships for the company, Godfrey has learned to make sure all involved parties are happy. “Forming strong partnerships where all the partners benefit is really the task that [creates] lasting relationships,” Godfrey says.

He has also learned the value in broadening your professional experiences. He believes staying in the same position or company for too long can limit your experience, skill and network development. “A variety of experiences is something that every young professional has to take a look at. I’m not sure if I did that as well as I could have.”

African American passion for baseball has waned: In the mid-1970s about 27% of all MLB players were black; in1991, 18% were black; and in 2006, 8.4% were black.

A little more than six decades ago, baseball was ahead of the civil rights curve. Second baseman Jackie Robinson integrated the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, seven years before public school integration was mandated by the Supreme Court decision inBrown v. Board of Education in 1954. This year MLB’s second annual Civil Rights Game pits the Mets against the White Sox on March 29 in Memphis.

Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB executive vice president of operations, says that from Little League to high school to college, black participation in baseball is dramatically lower than what it used to be. “I think there is a direct correlation to the number of African Americans you see on the field, on the diamond to the numbers you see in the stands, you see watching television, and you see buying merchandise,” says Solomon. It also chokes the pipeline of up-and-coming young players. “When an African American kid looks up and sees a superstar player on the field or on the diamond or on the court, and that person looks like him or her, they tend to be attracted to that athlete much more readily than to one who does not look like them. They also believe they have an opportunity to emulate that athlete, and they work hard to do that.”

Solomon says the marketing of athletic shoe companies has elevated hoop stars such as Michael Jordan to iconic stature and young players may find the game of basketball more accessible and better suited to urban environments. Solomon adds that the abundance of college football scholarships in comparison to baseball scholarships sways talented high school athletes to pursue that sport.

To start filling the player pipeline, MLB has built the Urban Youth Academy in the heart of Compton, California. The venue of this past weekend’s Urban Invitational games, the Academy operates virtually every day, year-round, providing free baseball instruction to aspiring players and free vocational instruction to future umpires, coaches, groundskeepers, play-by-play announcers, journalists, scouts, and coaches. MLB is already looking to replicate the Academy model in Philadelphia, Miami, and Washington, D.C.