Love me some baseball

It's a busy Sunday full of cleaning. We're talking not only sweeping and mopping, but on hands and knees scrubbing baseboards, cleaning out heating/cooling vents, etc.

My hands, back and neck are super sore so I'm taking my well-deserved break. I could be sitting here writing about my trips to the East Coast, Portland, or even Las Vegas for God's sake, but those are for another time I suppose.

Right now, I'm going to share with you all how excited I am about a summer opportunity I've applied for. For the first time ever, USA Baseball is opening up all of its Press Officer positions to collegiate baseball sports information directors, or SIDs (i.e., 1/3 of my current job position at Pacific).

That means, the traveling US National Baseball teams (levels: college, 18U, 16U and 14U) will all be in need of someone to travel with them over the summer and perform more or less the same duties I do every single day (scroll down past all this if you don't care about the job description):

• Log box scores and statistics for each game and work closely with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) and USA Baseball to post all information to USABaseball.com.

• Create and email post-game recaps for USABaseball.com, www.usocpressbox.org and to designated USA Baseball email distribution lists and social media outlets.

• File any photographs, video, blogs, video journals, etc. with USA Baseball and MLBAM.

• Compile pre- and post-game stats for team manager and coaches as needed.

• Provide necessary roster and statistics information in pressboxes at each game.

• Generate new story ideas and/or write feature stories for local, national and international press, players' hometown media outlets, and for USABaseball.com, www.teamusa.org and other USA Baseball publications.

• Facilitate all media requests -- print, web, radio, broadcast, press conferences.

• Review and compile daily clips featuring your respective team.

• Communicate with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) on behalf of USA Baseball to meet all in-hand deadlines for Athlete/Team of the Month votes, stat/roster information, www.usocpressbox.org postings, and other USOC needs.

• Assist in USA Baseball media and marketing efforts including local day-of-game responsibilities at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C., and help build relationships with local media contacts in the Raleigh-Durham ("Triangle") area.

• Provide assistance when needed to your respective team's general manager in regards to miscellaneous team operational needs.

• Help facilitate on- and off-field, and baseball card-related photo shoots and autograph signings.

• Write an end-of-season wrap-up article and compile a book/annual featuring clips, final stats, pictures, etc. both for post to USABaseball.com and for USA Baseball's records.

• Update your respective team's history at the end of the season -- roster, stats, schedule/results and record book.

• Report back to and coordinate daily with Director, Media & Public Relations from the road as needed

• Position requires a positive, friendly and helpful attitude and exceptional writing and communication skills. Candidate must be self-motivated and able to generate creative, new and fresh story ideas. Individual MUST be available during the entirety of the required dates of the position for which you apply. Must also be prepared to work nights, weekends and holidays.

• Candidate must provide own laptop loaded with StatCrew's The Automated Scorebook Software and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel). Ownership of PDF creation and photo editing software preferred. If candidate does not own TAS or other preferred software, USA Baseball will work with candidate to explore alternatives. USA Baseball will also not provide candidate with a dedicated, portable printer. Printing options will be made available at each stadium to you through the home team or through your respective team's general manager.

Ok, I know that's a lot of crap as assigned. But like I said, it's essentially the same exact thing I'll be doing from February to May, once baseball season is in. I can't believe that it starts one month after we the students get back from Christmas break.

However, the aspect about this summer position that most appeals to me is the international travel entailed. The collegiate national team will travel within the Midwest, North Carolina and to Taiwan and Japan from July to early August. The 18U team travels through the North (think Minnesota, etc.) and "internationally" to Thunder Bay, Canada. On the upside, the Minnesota Twins will be playing at their new stadium this summer, so perhaps the national teams will play at the Metrodome this summer???

As for the 16U team, they trapeze through North Carolina and then "North and South America (outside the US)," which I'm guessing means Latin American locales. Finally, the 14U squad will spend its summer in North Carolina and Nicaragua; however, I did not apply for that position because it runs until September, so that would cut into my current job's time frame.

So, this sounds like a really sweet deal, something that I could have a lot of fun with. But the problem is that there are over 300 Division I universities. Then consider how many Division II and III schools there are, and I'm willing to bet that at least 70 percent of those programs have baseball. So I'm potentially competing against all other baseball (current and former) SIDs for one of three-to-four positions.

Which is why the day I received the e-mail notification about the position, I refined my resume, drafted a cover letter and sent off five different baseball writing samples to accompany my application. I'd guess it opened up on Monday, and the deadline is March 1, 2010.

Am I in over my head, here?? Well, at least if I don't get the job, I'm showing a great deal of motivation by applying within the first week, out of 12 possible weeks to apply.

Wish me luck!