MiLB’s FIELD Program placed six participants inside the baseball industry in its first year and expects that number to increase as the program wrapped up its second iteration earlier this month. The Fostering Inclusion through Education and Leadership Development (FIELD) Program is headed by MiLB Manager of Diversity & Inclusion Vince Pierson and is part of the organization’s efforts to engage women and minority students who want to work in baseball while also pushing for more diversity in the sport. The 25 participants in Year 1 of the program generated a total of 24 job offers. One landed with an MLB club; two landed with MiLB clubs; and the MiLB office hired three. Other participants landed jobs in sports as well, at the NCAA, PGA Tour and CIAA. All FIELD participants in Year 1 were college students, meaning some had to go back to school. Pierson said, “We have an opportunity to take the diversity issue that we’ve identified, and really take control of how we approach and correct that.”
MORE PARTICIPATION AT WINTER MEETINGS: One of the goals of FIELD is to get more women and minority participation at Baseball’s Winter Meetings, where a lot of hiring in the industry is done. Those meetings will take place in Orlando this December after being held outside DC last year. “We want to develop it into something where everybody’s placed,” Pierson said. “We remove the chance of placement. Having them attend Winter Meetings is great, but if we could say, ‘They’re attending Winter Meetings after having been placed in the industry for a summer,’ I think that’s the goal.” Those hoping to join the FIELD Program are selected through an application process, which includes a resume and two writing samples. Among the training participants take part in during the week-long seminar include a team project, sales workshop, mock interviews and working a Rays game. Networking opportunities are held throughout the week, as are speakers, which included Justine Siegal this year, who was the first female employed as a coach by an MLB club. This year, FIELD had 27 participants, including several recent graduates and military veterans. MiLB expects that number to increase to 30-35 participants next year. MiLB held the program at its HQ in St. Petersburg this year and is contemplating hosting Year 3 of the program at its HQ again or moving it to Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach. The FIELD Program is just one of MiLB’s diversity initiatives, which also include the Workforce Diversity Report, Women in Baseball Leadership Event, Moving Diversity Forward, Baseball Winter Meetings Internship Program, MiLB Diversity Think Tank and College Speaker Series Program.
