Weekly Discussion Board Posts

I am doing my internship with Perfect Game Super25/The Series. The office is located in Voorhees, NJ and that is where we spend our time during the week. On the weekends, we travel to various baseball fields in the Mid-Atlantic region. Perfect Game is the number one high school baseball scouting organization. Their goal is to develop amateur baseball players and they do this by having large tournaments/showcases where top players in the country, at every age group, can play against/alongside other players at their skill level as well as have a chance to get looked at by college and professional scouts. As far as population goes, there are 14 other interns that I work with and about 20 other employees that work in the same office as me. This includes my boss and owner, Bob Barth, who is currently a scout for the San Francisco Giants. This was my first full week as an intern and I think it went pretty well.

During my first week as an intern, I was surprised by many things. I did not realize how much it took to put together one weekend long baseball tournament. The various job positions include tournament director, field directors, scouts, gate keepers, field crew, and much more. This weekend’s tournament started on Friday and will end tomorrow and everything we worked on this week in the office helped to make this tournament successful. I was also surprised by how much authority and freedom I was given. All of the employees that work there treat me and the other interns just like we are one of them. I am able to make phone calls and emails to customers whenever needed and I can make suggestions to the other scouts about different players. Finally, I am surprised by how famous and large of an organization Perfect Game is. I had heard of the organization prior to my internship since I have played baseball my entire life but I was unaware of how big it really is. Teams from New York, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey will drive hours just to get a chance to show off their abilities at our tournaments. When I showed up to the field for the first time Saturday morning I couldn't believe how many teams and fans were there.

During my next 2 weeks, I anticipate less training/shadowing and more hands on experiences by ourselves. After one week of being an intern there I feel as if I have learned a lot and will continue to learn more and more as the internship goes on. I also anticipate starting to write scouting blogs. We have been trained in almost every field except that and were told that we will be starting on that next week. I am looking forward to applying my writing skills to the sports field when writing these blogs. Also, the next two weeks will consist more of being out at the fields and less of being in the office since we are done training for the most part. We will be in the office on Thursdays and Fridays and out helping the tournaments from Friday to either Sunday or Monday. Finally, I am ready for things to be less hectic and run more smoothly since all of us interns got a feel this week for what to expect in the future.

I have received the following types of orientation so far: The first day of work, I was given a tour of the office and was introduced to all of the employees as well as my fellow interns. I was taught how to do many things such as log into the company website and update various info, properly call and email customers, and how to work as a gate keeper controlling money. I was also taught how to confront upset customers since they seem to be a common occurrence in this field. Finally, I was taught how to properly perform as a field director, scout, and field crew member. This weekend I was given the chance to apply these skills I learned as a scout and field director. Eventually by the end of the internship, I will have the opportunity to experience being a part of the field crew and gate keeper as well.
Week 2: 2 Weeks Completed

After two weeks of interning with Perfect Game, the biggest issue that I have had to deal with was this past Saturday. Two other interns and I were scouting an 11u baseball tournament in Vineland, NJ from 6:30am to 8:30 pm. This day consisted of six games and during the third game is when I experienced a problem. In the middle of the game, a play at the plate occurred where the runner slid into the catcher with his leg high up. His leg hit the catcher in his chest and neck area and the umpire immediately ejected this player from the game. There was an argument between the coach of the player and the umpires but was soon resolved. The game started back up and was played to the end without any more controversy. However, in Perfect Game national rules it states that a player who is ejected from a game must not play in the remainder of the game as well as the next game. So at the end of the game we decided to let the coach know that his player would be unable to play in their next game. The coach lost his mind and started yelling in our faces. To make this situation even worse, the player's grandparents came over and began yelling at us as well. We kept calm and told them that there was nothing that we could do and that the umpire had made his call so it was final. They didn't care what we had to say and continued to freak out so we had to call our boss. We were then told to discuss the play with the umpire and if he did not believe that it was a malicious play then the kid would be able to play in his next game. The umpire approved of this, the coaches and parents were happy, and the problem was finally resolved. Along with this issue, any problem that could arise during a baseball game did on Saturday. This included players eligibility if they had a different uniform than their teammates, pitchers going over the amount of innings allowed to pitch, certain players not being included on the official, and much more. All of these problems were eventually resolved easily.

Over my first two weeks I have experienced two different aspects of what makes a baseball tournament happen. I have experienced the behind the scenes stuff at the office during the week and during the weekends I have been able to experience the on-field stuff. I now know what a real work day feels like (9-5) as well as working over 12 hours some days on the weekends during tournaments. I am now much more comfortable with what I am doing and have gotten a lot closer with my bosses and fellow interns. In the office I have gotten the opportunity to call/email coaches, fill in different teams’ information onto our website, and fill out rosters. At the fields on game day, I have been able to scout players, gate keep and sell ad books, and setup the fields to be ready for play. Up to this point, I have loved this internship and am soaking up this opportunity to learn from everyone around me. I can't wait to see what is in store for the next few weeks!
Week 3: Settling In

After completing three weeks of my internship with Perfect Game I am beginning to settle in and becoming much more comfortable with my fellow employees as well as the organization as a whole. My company has many policies but there is one policy I find to be very valuable. This policy is that you must be five minutes early to be considered on time. I find this valuable because it helps to keep people punctual. As soon as we get in the office five minutes early we must be ready to work. This policy helps us to get more work done during the day too since it gives time for us to find out what we are doing for the day. As soon as we find out we can begin working right when the clock hits 9:00am. If more organizations had this policy I believe their company would run much more efficiently.

Over these past three weeks I have had a lot of experience with my customers. From these experiences I have learned that my interpersonal skills are much better than I expected. I am usually pretty shy, quiet, and not good with confrontation so I was afraid to have to deal with angry customers during this internship. However, when confronted with these interpersonal situations I have done very well. While selling tickets for the tournaments at the gates I have been very loud and straight forward about why they need to buy the tickets and how much they will cost. I haven't let anyone taken advantage of me as a result of being stern while still showing kindness. Even when dealing with angry customers I never broke down and always stayed professional. I think I've done a great job with my customers and have even gotten a few compliments after the weekend tournaments finished.

In relation to this setting I think it is a very good work environment. On Thursdays and Fridays I work in the office in Voorhees, NJ and during the weekends I work at various baseball fields in the Mid-Atlantic region. This makes the setting perfect for me because almost everywhere I have to work is a short drive. The office isn't very big which is nice because I get to have a strong relationship with almost all of the employees. In relation to communication with other staff, I feel very comfortable with all of them. They are all very nice and easy to talk to. None of them treat me like an intern but rather a fellow employee. I have fallen right into place with this organization and can't wait to continue working here for the remainder of the summer.

Up this point, I have mostly been making rosters during the week and scouting on the weekends but I have also done a few other things as well. During the week this would include calling coaches and loading equipment. During the weekend this would include field maintenance and gate keeping. When scouting I usually watch about 6 games a day and sit up in a press box taking notes on the star players. If I think a player is elite I will approach their coach after the game, find out the players contact info, and submit them for the all-tourney team as well as a chance to represent their state in a tournament in Florida at the end of the summer. The hours are long and the pay isn't great but there is no way I would rather spend my summer than watching baseball all day. My proudest and favorite part of this job is being able to make these young athletes dreams come true by giving them a chance to show off their skills at a higher level. Overall, I would say this internship has been going very well.
Week 4: A Picture Says 1000 Words

Almost a month has now gone by in my internship and things are going very well. This week was a very busy one for us since it was a three day tournament instead of the usual two days. This tournament was for 14u and consisted of 48 teams in total. When I arrived at the office on Thursday I immediately began to call coaches and started typing up the rosters. With this many teams it took us almost the entire to complete the roster books. After finishing the rosters I was in charge of printing them out and making hundreds of copies. Coming into the office on Friday I knew this was going to be a long day since we had to do office work in the morning and head to the fields at night for the games. The tournament started Friday night and ended Sunday morning. On Friday in the office, we finished up sorting the roster books and soon began to deal with the equipment needed at night. We drove to the storage, got our field assignments, and started to pack our cars with the needed equipment. This included things such as tables, chairs, tents, signs/banners, rakes, chalk, etc. I drove to my specific field and setup everything. There were two games on Friday night. The first game I was in charge of gate keeping and making sure people coming to watch the games paid us and the second game I resumed my original job as a scout. For the next two days I worked form 6:30 am to 10:00 pm watching 12 baseball games in total. During the games I scouted players and in between games I helped groom the field. It was a very stressful week but in the end it was a successful tournament.

As far as my special project goes, we have not made a final decision on what it will be but have had a few ideas. I would be in charge of completing a roster book by myself for an entire tournament for one age group and would also be in charge of completing the all-tournament team list by myself after having scouted all the players during the specific weekend. The all-tournament team is a list of players from teams who have played in the tournament that played excellent in all of their games and put up incredible statistics such as hits, runs, runs batted in, strikeouts, etc. This would be a huge task for me to complete but I believe it would be a great test of what I have learned throughout this internship. We will come up with the final decision for my special project sometime during this week and I will let you know what we come up with.

All of the PRT classes I have taken thus far at NC State University have been a lot of help during my time as an intern. However, the most useful class would probably have to be Writing and Speaking in Sports. My professor was Dr. Lindsay and he was able to teach me many things I could use during this internship. I learned how to successfully write sports recaps and the correct terms and formats to use. I also learned how to speak and present myself professionally in the sports world. During his class we had to go watch a sporting event and type up a press release and we also had to create a presentation regarding a sports topic and speak to the class about it for 15 minutes. Both of these tasks specifically helped me a lot when it came time to use these things in a real life setting.