Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Introducing the DREAM JOB Series!


When I was a senior at Binghamton University, I thought of an idea. After writing for the sports section of the school newspaper, The Pipe Dream, for three years, I was ready for something different. As a sports fan, “different” didn’t mean now contributing to the Op/Ed section or writing food reviews, but finding a creative twist to the sports articles I wanted to write.

So I asked myself what kind of stories would be interesting to students. As someone who was one year away from the workforce and unsure of what direction I was headed in, I thought the only way to know what I wanted to do for a living was to get first-hand experience. And thus, began the idea of Pipe DREAM JOB: a weekly series of interviews from those in the sports field who had the job of their dreams.


This blog features the following interviews:
  • Karl Ravech, ESPN Baseball Tonight Anchor
  • Jon Heyman, CNNSI.com Baseball Columnist
  • Cory Schwartz, MLB.com Radio Host and Director of Statistics
  • Brett Ehrlich, SportsNet NY National Sales Manager of NY Mets
  • Ron Klempner, NBA Players Association Attorney
  • Joe Fitzgerald, MLB Special Events Manager
  • Len Berman, NBC Sports Anchor
  • Gary Cohen, SNY Broadcaster for NY Mets
  • Jay Lovinger, ESPN.com Editor
  • Jay Horwitz, Mets Public Relations Director
  • Jenna Wolfe, Today Show Anchor

And lastly, the culmination of the series in my own, personal story:

  • Thoughts on a "Dream Job"

Enjoy, write comments, and learn something the same way I did!

Your sports fan,

Brooke

Karl Ravech, ESPN Baseball Tonight Anchor


Imagine what it would be like to be an ESPN sportscaster, or maybe a sports radio host or a baseball scout. Does that peak your interest? How about working in a sports public relations office, being a beat reporter for the Yankees or helping plan an All-Star Game? Here at Pipe DREAM JOB, you can get a taste of it all. Every column will profile a different career in the sports field, giving you Binghamton University students a small Costco-like sample of people in the business that are working at the job of their dreams.

When you think about people working in sports, you often hear stories of childhood sports heroes or a person’s passion for a certain team that has persuaded someone to follow that path. For Karl Ravech, that wasn’t the case.

“I was definitely not one of those kids that pretended that I was doing the play-by-play of an event,” said Ravech, now an ESPN sportscaster and host of “Baseball Tonight.” “I never really watched ESPN growing up.”

Entering what will be his 15th year as an ESPN anchor, the 42-year-old Binghamton alumnus had an interesting career path, and he has his wife to thank. After working in WBNG in Binghamton for three years, Ravech became an anchor in Harrisburg, Pa., and decided to apply for the ESPN job in Bristol, Conn.

“We can’t just stay here doing weekend sports,” Ravech said, who had recently been married.

But while waiting to hear back from ESPN, his wife, who had an interview in the Bristol area for a job of her own, convinced Ravech to tag along on the ride and meet with the ESPN brass.

“My first reaction was, you don’t do that,” he said. “She convinced me I had nothing to lose, and it paid off.”

Ravech was hired and teamed with former “Daily Show” host Craig Kilborn to work the SportsCenter desk in 1993.

Ravech chose to enter the sports field after meeting with a guidance counselor, who suggested he combine his love for writing and playing sports. A communications major at Ithaca College, Ravech decided to take classes at Binghamton University when he was working at WBNG.

Since 1996, Ravech, alongside numerous former Major League Baseball players and columnists, has hosted the popular ESPN show “Baseball Tonight” and has loved the day-to-day job.

“We have a meeting with whoever is on the show, get together with the producers, production assistants, come up with a theme and the races going on,” said Ravech, who starts his workday at 4:30 p.m. to prepare for the 10 p.m. and 12 a.m. shows. “Last night, we proposed to these guys, give us your best clutch hitter and best clutch pitcher.”

But not everything goes according to plan in this line of work.

“When [a recent] Indians and White Sox game was pouring, it led to a discussion when games need to be called [by the umpires],” Ravech said. “There’s a great aspect in this job that you never know what’s going to happen.”

But Ravech embraces the thrill of his daily duties, even if it means getting home at 2 a.m. most days.

“I would think that most people would want to be at an environment where they are challenged,” he said.

Through the years, Ravech has grown to be a fan of all sports, citing Tiger Woods’ win at the 2000 British Open and the Red Sox 2004 World Series Championship as some of the best sports moments he has attended. But it’s not just sports that he has come to love.

“I had a 5-year-old boy on a tour ask me, ‘How much money do you make?’ I said ‘I make enough money.’ His mother said, ‘But ask him if he enjoys what he’s doing.’ That’s the part that’s great — to love what you’re doing.”

Published Sept. 18, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Jon Heyman, CNNSI.com Baseball Columnist


There have been plenty of memorable moments over the past few years that Yankees fans can recollect with pride. The World Series wins and the key home runs are all special, but one of the great moments anyone can recall is waking up one Saturday morning in February and grabbing the Newsday on the front lawn, flipping to the back and reading the headline “Bronx-Bound?” with Texas Ranger Alex Rodriguez pictured. You want to know the guy who was the first to break the news before anyone else? Read below.

There are few trades in baseball that are head turners, but Alex Rodriguez coming to the Big Apple was certainly one of the most shocking and monumental deals in the sport, and it was then-Newsday sports columnist Jon Heyman who had the inside scoop.

“That was such a big story in New York and it was great to get that one first,” said Heyman, who worked at Newsday for 16 years.

But nowadays, breaking a story like the A-Rod trade would be played out differently in a news media outlet.

“That was only three years ago and we still held it for the paper,” said Heyman. “Three years later, you would never take that chance [of another paper breaking the story] and wait.”

With the coming of age of the Internet and the decline of print media, more news and coverage are now available online. Heyman, who spent most of his career writing for newspapers, is now a part of that outlet: the Internet. Heyman works as a national baseball columnist for CNNSI.com and contributes to Sports Illustrated magazine.

Making the transition from Newsday to CNNSI.com expanded Heyman’s audience, and e-mails from baseball enthusiasts all over the world, including Iraq, are not uncommon. But the switch to Sports Illustrated wasn’t something Heyman expected.

“At some point, I thought I’d be [at Newsday] forever,” said Heyman. “But management changed and they became very corporate. The emphasis was how they were going to make money rather than put out a good product.”

Growing up in Lawrence, N.Y., Heyman was very close to coming to Binghamton, but his father agreed to pay the tuition at Northwestern University “because their journalism program was well-known,” he said

After graduating from Northwestern, Heyman, like most journalists, started in a small market. He began his career covering mostly high school sports in Molino, Ill., but the cold weather climate led him to Santa Monica, Calif.

“I covered the Raiders, so at least I had a chance to cover a professional team,” said Heyman, who eventually covered the Anaheim Angels for three years before returning to New York as the Yankees beat writer for Newsday.

“I remember as a beat reporter, a lot of times you have uncomfortable situations where a guy doesn’t even want to talk to you,” Heyman said. “In my position now, when I go to the Mets, for example, I get to talk to the guys I enjoy talking to.”

Handling stories on a national scale, Heyman doesn’t have to worry about game results or team rosters. His columns contain insider knowledge like potential trades, hires, and insider information about management and players.

“I’m a natural gossip,” said Heyman, who competes with only a handful of insiders who try to get to a story before others. “You try to develop sources and contacts in the game and people who have this insider information, earn their trust, and try to get information out of them and be first.”

But now that he strictly focuses on baseball, Heyman sometimes misses the vast array of topics he could cover as a Newsday columnist.

“I would have liked to say something about Bill Belichick and Michael Vick,” said Heyman. “But I have no regrets.”

In addition to his work for Sports Illustrated in print and on the Web, Heyman often appears on radio spots for his good friend, Michael Kay, and on television spots for SportsNet New York’s “Daily News Live,” reaching across the different media outlets.

“The whole media is evolving because of the Internet,” said Heyman. “I knew that’s the wave of now and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Published Sept. 25, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Cory Schwartz, MLB.com Radio Host and Director of Statistics


When I interned at MLB.com, I worked in the marketing department. As a marketing major, I worked with Web analysis programs and tracked the e-mail campaigns that MLB.com sent out. But occasionally during the summer there would be afternoon games. Across the hall sat Director of Statistics Cory Schwartz. I couldn’t help but turn my head occasionally and opted to go for a few more coffee breaks, which, of course, led to a few more bathroom breaks, only to be able to get up and check out the live games. A baseball fan like myself couldn’t help but think how great this guy had it to be on that side of the office.

If you want to check the latest score of a baseball game and aren’t near a TV, there’s a good chance you’ll check out MLB.com, and chances are Cory Schwartz is helping you get what you need.

“Our department literally watches baseball games. That’s what we get paid to do,” Schwartz said. “I would put our data accuracy No. 1.”

But don’t get the wrong idea. Schwartz isn’t sitting in a recliner with pizza and a six-pack. Schwartz needs to be on his toes and track every pitch location or umpire scoring or any other significant, or insignificant, play of a game.

“Watching baseball is the job, but that really is just a small part of the job,” Schwartz said. “We have to capture the information, work with software, the people who do the keystrokes and maintain player information, and the most critical piece is reviewing every pitch and event to make sure we got everything right.”

Schwartz, a sports management major and communications minor at Guilford College in North Carolina, was always a baseball fan.

“I played fantasy leagues all the time in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s,” said Schwartz, who also played as a kid. “We would keep the stats from the USA Today.”

Not only does Schwartz get to watch baseball for a living, but he also gets to talk about it. In 2001 a co-worker, Andy Roth, approached Schwartz about guest appearing on radio shows.

“He thought I was really knowledgeable about baseball, and frankly, he needed to fill time,” said Schwartz, current co-host of “Fantasy 411,” which first started out once a week and now airs daily from noon to 1 p.m. on MLB.com.

While working in this field may sound glamorous, it does have its drawbacks. Every statistic from every game must be inputted into the system, and that includes West coast games that could go past 1 a.m., or any other game at any time.

“I’ve been called at the middle of the night, woken up at 3:30 a.m. to rebuild the database of games,” Schwartz said. “I’ve been interrupted for how many dinners, I couldn’t tell you.”

With the popularity of MLB.com, particularly the MLBTV feature that allows viewing of games online, Schwartz found a prominent career at MLB.com. But before the onset of the Internet, he was very close to calling Mr. George Steinbrenner his boss. After interning in the media relations department for the Yankees, he was one of three eligible candidates for an opening as the PR Director. Schwartz was close to landing the position and was even told by someone at the Yankees that he was the favorite until “The Boss” had a change of heart.

“Steinbrenner decided he wanted to hire someone else for that job,” Schwartz said.

When that position fell through, Schwartz worked at the NBA and was one of three people responsible for “launching this thing called a Web site” for the NBA in 1995. Eventually he moved on to Bigballot.com where he worked on the All-Star Ballots for each league.

“One thing about the sports or entertainment industry is that it’s very heavily networked,” said Schwartz, who credits help along the way.

When MLB.com was growing, Schwartz’s persistence may have helped him land the job in the statistics department.

“I wasn’t going to lose the job by being aggressive and I wanted to convince them they would be crazy if they didn’t hire me,” Schwartz said. “They told me later that I was hired so that I would stop calling them.”

At the end of the day, or in Schwartz’s case, late night to early morning, Schwartz knows he’s got a job that millions of people wish they had.

“I always remind myself that this is pretty cool,” he said.

Published Oct. 2, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Brett Ehrlich, SportsNet NY National Sales Manager


When I used to tell people that I was interning for Major League Baseball, a sports PR company or a sports team, it was often followed by a head jolt and a, “Really?!” I couldn’t tell if they were just shocked that a girl was interested in a job in sports or if it was just simply that interesting to work in sports. But apparently, I’m not alone.

Brett Ehrlich, national sales manager at SportsNet New York and Binghamton University graduate, gets the same reaction.

“It absolutely is the cocktail party job,” Ehrlich said. “When you walk in somewhere you might have an investment banker to the right and a doctor to the left, and everyone wants to talk to the guy who works in sports.”

Ehrlich, BU class of 1995 graduate, worked his way from the Binghamton Mets to a company working for the New York Mets. But Ehrlich, a lifelong Mets fan, wasn’t always destined for a career in sports. If it wasn’t for a change of heart in the final week of his senior year at Binghamton, Ehrlich’s career would have been completely different.

Ehrlich always had a vision of getting involved in sports from the time he sold pretzels and hot dogs at Binghamton Mets games. He knew breaking into the sports industry wasn’t going to be easy, so he had to be creative in getting his foot in the door.

“I knew I had to get something sports-related on my resume,” Ehrlich said of the B-Mets job. That position helped him earn his way into the sports division at Turner Broadcasting after starting out in the advertising department.

Ehrlich, a native of Rockland County, moved over to the NBA in what was supposed to be his “dream job.” But it wasn’t what he anticipated. When a former colleague signed on to work as the vice president of marketing for the new Mets network, Ehrlich received a call to hop on the SNY bandwagon.

“Stay connected to your contacts,” Ehrlich said. “You never know where they’re going to end up and it leads to opportunities down the line.”

Now at SNY, Ehrlich’s day-to-day task is to sell advertisers on his product: the New York Mets and its network.

“We are responsible for all of the advertising and sponsorship on the network,” Ehrlich said. “I manage all of the business that we generate outside the New York market.”

By being on a national and not regional scale, Ehrlich has grown used to the travel involved. Securing advertisers like Aflac, Coors and Nissan requires him to roam the country to convince a company to advertise and sponsor on SNY.

“We’re a regional sports network, so the rest of the country doesn’t know who we are,” said Ehrlich, who must show detailed presentations about the network since companies can’t flip on the channel to see it.

But when the New York Mets is your product, the wins and losses not only play a factor in Ehrlich’s selling point to advertisers, but also the company culture in the office. With the recent demise of the Mets this September, the Mets’ failures directly impact Ehrlich’s job.

“That’s the good and bad of working in sports — you get so tied into the performance on the field,” said Ehrlich, who had an easy time selling the first-place Mets for the majority of the season. “Unfortunately, for the next six months, all anyone will want to discuss is the collapse of the Mets.”

But while Ehrlich’s job would have been a lot easier had the Mets made the playoffs and potentially won the World Series, working so closely to the Mets does have its benefits throughout the year.

“You get to live out the fantasies of working with a sports team,” Ehrlich said. “You’re not on a field, but you’re heavily invested in a team.”

Ehrlich’s career path from the pretzel man at the B-Mets stadium to his modern-looking New York City office in Rockefeller Plaza wasn’t an easy climb. He is always willing to speak to students about his experiences and understands that he was once in a BU student’s shoes.

“I wasn’t smart enough at that time to use my connections and be bold enough to reach out to people who had jobs that I wanted at the time,” he said.

But while Ehrlich is happy to help out students, he wants to remind them that getting a job in sports requires more than just a love of the game.

“If we just wanted the biggest sports fan, we’d go to Shea and grab the guy with the Beltran jersey and put him behind the desk,” he said.

For a Mets fan who worked his way to the top, the soon-to-be married Ehrlich is certainly enjoying waking up in the morning for work.

“I have pictures of being four years old in a Mets T-shirt when everyone around me was a Yankees fan, so I’m living the dream job right now.”

Published Oct. 9, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper

Ron Klempner, NBA Players Association Attorney

I don’t know what job I’ll have in a year or five years, or even 10. But there’s a good chance I’ll be working in sports. And for all I know, there could be a student at BU who will one day be calling me for an interview about my “Dream Job.” That may never happen to me, but it did happen to Ron Klempner.

In 1981, a Pipe Dream column was written about a BU alum who worked his way into a prominent sports journalist career at the Washington Post. The alum was current Monday Night Football broadcaster and TV show host, Tony Kornheiser. The author of the article was Ron Klempner.

Now, 26 years after profiling a figure in the sports field, Klempner is one of them. For the last 14 years, he has served as the Associate General Counsel for the NBA Players Association, which means he represents the labor union for the players and works on the agreements between the union and the National Basketball Association.

“We work with the league on a lot of things, but [Commissioner] David Stern likes to beat up on us a little bit,” Klempner said jokingly.

Klempner, a 1984 BU graduate, always enjoyed writing since his days at Pipe Dream Sports and seriously considered going into a sport journalist field.

“What I realized was that the work was too hard,” said Klempner, who worked for the Press & Sun-Bulletin for a semester. “It was too difficult of a life to write creatively everyday.”

With his love of arguing and taking a stand, a career in law seemed ideal. Klempner, a graduate of Hofstra Law School in 1987, landed at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, one of the top law firms in New York.

“One of the reasons I wanted to work there was because I thought it would be a nice novelty if they could throw me a sports case,” Klempner said.

For any kid who was the last one picked for a kickball game, this next paragraph is for you. When one of the largest NFL cases came through the doors, the law firm needed another mid-level associate to take on the famous Freeman McNeil case that created free agency in the NFL. Klempner was one of two remaining lawyers who weren’t working on the case. He wasn’t chosen, which meant only one thing: he was the lone lawyer to work on a different client, the NBA Players Association.

“I don’t think the decision had anything to do with merit,” said Klempner, who today, is thankful he wasn’t selected. “I’ve always joked around about how you just never know the turns that life takes. Had it gone the other way, my whole life would have changed.”

After working diligently on several cases for the NBPA, including a nasty case in 1991 where there was an accusation that the NBA undervalued their revenue, he impressed the Players Association with his work.

“I developed a relationship with an executive director of the General Counsel,” Klempner said. “When it came time in 1993 to bring someone in house, they knew me and basically gave me the job.”

Now at the NBPA, Klempner has been a part of every major player controversy. Whether it’s been Latrell Sprewell’s choking incident, the Ron Artest brawl in Detroit, the lockout in 1998, or any dress code or player discipline, Klempner is right there in the mix, looking out for the 450 NBA players.

As a member of the NBPA, Klempner often speaks with players, but it usually doesn’t involve any small talk.

“It’s when the players have the problems,” said Klempner, who last year, got a call from Spurs forward, Robert Horry, asking what he should do about the playoff incident with Suns guard, Steve Nash. “I’ve represented dozens of players in individual appeal and grievances, fines, suspensions or contract problems.”

Klempner’s work isn’t all about disciplinary issues, though. Besides running seminars for the rookies educating them on the union, and working closely with agents about salary cap rule information and the collective bargaining agreement, Klempner, like a handful of players, enjoys the benefits that comes out of the Players Association.

Klempner accompanied Kings forward Ron Artest on an African goodwill mission in this year as a way to repair the troubled union member’s image. In 2005, he was also a part of Operation Rebound and Feed the Children Inc. with players like Allan Houston, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and others to help rebuild the southern areas that suffered from Hurricane Katrina.

“This is some of the most satisfying work I’ve done,” Klempner said of the experience.

Klempner takes a lot of pride in representing the union, not just for its charitable causes, but because of the value the union has. Fans may question the amount of money the 12th man makes on a team’s bench, but Klempner argues he deserves every penny.

“They’re the 450 best in the world; they certainly generate the revenue,” said Klempner, who has a say in player contracts. “We’re always looking to balance between the highest paid and lowest paid players when we negotiate the agreement and make sure it’s fair.”

Klempner had no idea what direction his life was heading in when he was at Binghamton, but has been grateful for every opportunity or missed opportunity along the way.

“I had no idea at the time that this is the way that I would end up living my life, nor would I have planned for it,” Klempner said. “I think people put too much pressure on their lives to take a path they think they want to take. It’s worked out for me OK.”


Published Oct. 16, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Joe Fitzgerald, MLB Special Events Manager


Imagine making the Major League Baseball All-Star Game every year. Picture what it would be like to be a part of 50 clinching celebratory moments. Envision hoisting a World Series championship trophy for your team. Now imagine doing it without even putting on a uniform.

For Joe Fitzgerald, it’s what he gets paid to do.

“I have to go to those games, it’s part of my job,” said Fitzgerald, a special events manager at the Major League Baseball Commissioner’s Office.

Working in event planning, Fitzgerald has been a recognizable face for many of the MLB players; they often know that when they see him, it usually means they’re a part of a major league-wide event.

“[They think] ‘we’re glad he’s here because it means they’re on the verge of clinching a division or title,’” said Fitzgerald, who has been a part of plenty of key clinching moments, including that of his beloved Red Sox. He was in charge of holding the 2004 World Series trophy before it was given to Boston on the field in St. Louis.

“Being a Red Sox fan and having that trophy in my hand before they won was pretty nerve-wracking,” said Fitzgerald, who got his first break in 1990 when he interned with the Red Sox in the Public Relations department. “You can’t really show your emotions, you have to do your job.”

That job entails planning All-Star Games, World Series ceremonies and coordinating the General Manager and Winter Meetings during the offseason. But before Fitzgerald found his way to the special events department (nicknamed “SPEV”), he made his impact felt when he worked in the licensing department and had helped establish uniform guidelines

“We were talking to the players before the guidelines were written and established to get their understanding and cooperation,” said Fitzgerald, who was a sport management major at UMass. But not every player was on board with Fitzgerald’s implementations. The first player who was addressed was Ken Griffey Jr.

In 1997, Griffey had a deal with Nike, and Fitzgerald noticed after a SportsCenter highlight that the Nike logo appeared roughly 17 times all over Griffey’s body (including the shoes, wristbands, armbands and turtleneck).

“I said you need to start writing uniform guidelines and you need to speak directly to the players to explain why it’s an issue,” said Fitzgerald.

The issue was that companies like Nike were reaping the benefits of free advertising and the exposure they were getting from athletes like Griffey who were showcasing their products. So Fitzgerald, after notifying Griffey of the potential concern, approached him when the Mariners came into New York. He said that MLB didn’t have a problem with him wearing the product; it was the logo placement.

“I was shocked he remembered my name,” he said of Griffey, who had a friendly discussion about the issue. “I told him to tell Nike to make him a new one without the logo on the neck, and then it’s not a problem.” He explained that it was a special fabric that Nike was designing (now called Nike Drifit) It was a good discussion and exchange of information. It was not a hard line approach with Griffey but a simple discussion on why the logo is a problem and he shared his view on what he was wearing. That discussion led to further talks and what it took in order to earn the respect of an All-Star players like Ken Griffey, Jr.

“When you’re dealing with athletes, treat them like you treat normal people and you don’t have any issues,” said Fitzgerald. They have a job to do and so do I.”

Now working in special events, Fitzgerald takes pride in working on two major MLB events: the All-Star Game and the World Series.

Everything from transportation, hotel accommodations, setting up the field for pre-game ceremonies, coordinating uniforms and hiring outside vendors are things that need planning. Even selecting the musical talent for the National Anthem comes out of the department.

“We get to help shape the [All-Star] event on the field and knowing that 40,000 to 50,000 people in the park and millions worldwide get to see what we do is pretty satisfying at the end,” said Fitzgerald, who works on the actual game, as well as the Legends & Celebrity Softball Game, the Futures Game and the Home Run Derby.

“The job is to make sure everything goes smooth for TV, in park entertainment and coordinating flyover with the flag and television to make sure elements happen on time,” he said.

There are plenty of perks to the job besides attending MLB events for a living. When Fitzgerald needed help fixing his golf swing, he received tips from Hall of Famer Wade Boggs.

But working for MLB events requires a lot of travel, and according to Fitzgerald, who has three young children at home, it’s “not as much as it’s cracked up to be.”

Now that the 2008 All-Star Game will be in New York, it means a lot less time spent away from his family. But while the travel is lessened, few people may realize the difficulties of holding the large-scale event in Yankee Stadium.

“[Yankee Stadium] is an older stadium, so you have a lot of unconventional space,” said Fitzgerald, who goes roughly two to three times a month to check out the stadium operations and feasibility of the plans. “You have a new stadium across the street that you might have been able to use for more parking.”

Even during the offseason, Fitzgerald is working diligently on the General Manager Meetings, where GMs decide on potential rule changes and what to work on for the upcoming season, and the Winter Meetings, where trade talk and free agent signings begin.

But for a fan of the game like Fitzgerald, he doesn’t just get the pleasure of watching the sport, but knows that he plays a part in the planning of a MLB event from start to finish.

“It’s satisfying to see the ideas you work on all year come to fruition,” said Fitzgerald.

Imagine that.


Published Oct. 27, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Len Berman, NBC Sports Anchor


On a Thursday afternoon after I finished my classes for the day, I was anxiously awaiting my next Pipe DREAM JOB interview scheduled for 4 p.m. I stretched my hands, had my blank Word document up and ready, and dialed one of the most respected sports news anchors in the country, Len Berman. I didn’t get my interview that day, but rather a voice mail response from Berman. I knew there had to be a good reason. There certainly was.

At about 4:15 p.m., NBC anchor Len Berman was on the air in New York, reporting on a breaking news story about Joe Torre leaving the Yankees.

“We said as soon as we know something, we’re going to go on the air live,” said Berman, who as you can tell, graciously rescheduled the interview. After hearing about the Yankees announcing that there would be a conference call at 3:30 p.m., Berman’s typical day at the office took an interesting turn, as he found his way to his anchor chair before his scheduled 6 and 11 p.m. telecast.

“We like to say we are the first ones on the air,” Berman said of the late afternoon NBC report. “I was able to detail the contract offer which the Yankees itemized on the conference call.”

It is days like that Thursday that makes Berman’s job far from routine. The long-time NBC sports anchor, who started his career as a newscaster in Dayton, Ohio, never finds a dull moment working in sports in the largest market in the world.

“Day to day, there’s no beginning and end. If you’re involved in covering sports, you’re on constantly,” said Berman, who sacrifices listening to music stations for sports talk radio. Even though Berman works Monday through Friday, he must pay close attention to what is going on in the sports world on weekends, too.

Berman found a passion for working in broadcasting in college after he approached his Syracuse University station about working on the air. After tours in Dayton, Boston and a three-year stint at CBS in New York, Berman has found a home at NBC in New York, where he’s been covering sports for 22 years. Now as an established anchor at NBC, Berman has the luxury of picking and choosing where he would like to travel to report on stories.

“I pick my spots, I go to [Mets and Yankees] spring training, the Olympics or the Super Bowl,” said Berman of some of the major events he covers.

But not only has Berman been giving viewers a brief synopsis of what’s happening locally in sports, he’s doing it better than any of his counterparts. He has received multiple Emmy awards for his quality work in news anchoring.

“Emmy’s are really recognitions from peers, the people who are so-called hardened professionals, so it’s gratifying,” said Berman, who won his first Emmy when he worked at WBZ-TV in Boston. Berman received the award from one of his idols, the late broadcaster Curt Gowdy.

Berman has won six total local Emmy Awards, and has been voted New York Sportscaster of the Year five times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. While most viewers recognize his accomplishments, it is his weekly feature, “Spanning the World,” that has garnered popularity through the years.

“We said, ‘Let’s do a goof,’ we really didn’t take it seriously,” said Berman of the initial idea he had with a producer. “We called it ‘Spanning the World,’ because NBC wanted to cover world sports.”

The first highlight of “Spanning the World” showed a first-place horse biting the neck of a second place horse at a Midwestern county fair. One adult book and two children’s books later, “Spanning the World” has become a launching pad for a new business venture for Berman.

“I enjoy writing books, I wouldn’t mind doing a kid series,” Berman said.

In addition to going on book tours, Berman spends time outside the NBC studio emceeing charity dinners, including the yearly Thurman Munson event.

As Berman works on reaching a larger audience, that audience isn’t necessarily the ideal target market for someone working in sports. While he is providing sports news, his coverage is not as in-depth as it would be on a local station like MSG Network, the YES Network or SNY.

“A lot of people watching my sportscast on a news program may not necessarily be sports fans,” said Berman, who realizes addressing that audience could be more rewarding. “I take great satisfaction when someone comes up to me and says ‘I’m not a sports fan, but I enjoy what you say.’”

But Berman is making every effort to still attract sports enthusiasts and, like many others, has entered the online world by creating “Berman’s Blog” on the NBC-NY Web site.

“Because of the Internet and people getting the news on their cell phones, it’s a challenge to get people to watch a newscast,” he said.

Day in and day out, Berman, who chooses and edits his own sports highlights that he wants to cover, has the freedom to decide how he wants to inform sports and non-sports fans alike. For the New York native, Berman not only has a well-respected job, but a job that he loves to do.

“I can choose exactly what I want to talk about that night,” said Berman. “I have four minutes in the biggest city in the world.”

Published Oct. 30, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Gary Cohen, SNY Broadcaster for NY Mets


The beauty of sports is its unpredictability. If you’re a die-hard fan, you know the feeling. Gut-wrenching losses or improbable wins, a 162-game baseball season has its proverbial ups and downs. But for Mets fans, there’s one thing they can expect when they watch their team play, and that’s the man who is always there with every pitch.

A pleasant good evening, everybody, and welcome to this week’s Pipe Dream Job column.

You may have heard that line before, as it comes from one of the best play-by-play announcers in all of baseball, current SNY and long-time Mets radio broadcaster, Gary Cohen.

Entering his 19th year broadcasting the Mets, Cohen is truly living his “dream job.” Growing up a Mets fan in Queens, Cohen envisioned a career in broadcasting, but only because his first choice didn’t come to fruition.

“My aspiration as a kid was to be the shortstop for the Mets or power forward for the Knicks,” joked Cohen, who lacked the natural ability to pursue either sport. “It was a matter of the merger of sports and radio, both of which always fascinated me, and it came to be my niche.”

Cohen, a political science major at Columbia University, spent more time at the radio station than he did at the library. But for the sports enthusiast, it was that dedication to an extracurricular activity that ultimately prepared him for his future job.

“As far as doing play-by-play is concerned, there’s only one real way [to learn], and that’s by actually doing it so you can critique your own tapes,” said Cohen, who broadcast college games and did a sports magazine show. “The preparation for doing that job is not learned in the classroom, it’s learned from growing up reading about sports and watching games.”

Cohen got his first big break doing radio play-by-play for Virginia’s Division I basketball team after working for a radio station in New Hampshire and a larger station in South Carolina. The following year in 1986, Cohen nabbed a broadcasting job with the Durham minor league baseball team. If not for that job, Cohen may have found himself calling three-point shots off the front rim rather than 300-foot shots off the foul pole.

“I felt I was better at basketball and it was more of an action sport,” said Cohen, who was a little apprehensive about doing baseball. “It’s such a game of conversation and storytelling because there’s so little action during a course of a game.”

But for Cohen, who chose the radio job for the Mets rather than offers from two other teams in 1988, it is that exact challenge of calling baseball games that makes viewers feel more connected.

“I think the fact that you’re on the air every day, seven days a week, three to four hours a day, allows you to develop a stronger connection with fans than you do with any other sport,” he said.

A sport like baseball, which can have at least a minute of down time in between pitches, requires a lot of pertinent topics to keep a listener, or viewer, captivated. Cohen must have a keen sense of what is going on with the Mets team and organization, what is happening around baseball, and really, what is going on in the world. He believes every pitch, including the home run calls or ball fours, and every game including the one-run and blowouts, is telling of what makes a great broadcaster.

“It’s as much how an announcer calls the least important pitch of the game as he does the most important pitch,” said Cohen, who is mostly known for his “It’s Outta Here!” home run call. “That’s more important than the big call, the signature call, the thing that gets replayed on the highlight show.”

But in the past two years, Cohen has had his share of highlight coverage, thanks to a new job opportunity. Cohen, who had done radio broadcasting all of his life, was presented an interesting offer to leave his beloved radio booth and switch to television. When the SNY Network began in 2006, executives approached Cohen with the thought of teaming alongside former baseball players Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez for television broadcasts.

“It was the right time, right people, right place,” said Cohen, who had ample opportunities to jump to television in the past but chose not to. “[It was] a chance to start with a new network and still be a part of the Mets.”

Cohen did see a shift in the way he covered games. Undoubtedly, every pitch call and exact location does not need to be as descriptive on television, but now teamed with former Mets Darling and Hernandez, he is not necessarily the go-to guy for insight and analysis. Day in and day out, Cohen doesn’t write an outline of topics to talk about. He sees the direction each conversation takes during each game with Darling and Hernandez.

“What I do every day is make sure I’m fully prepared for whatever might come up,” Cohen said. “Each day is different, and every day you never know what is going to show up in the course of a broadcast.”

Now that it’s the offseason, Cohen is making the adjustment from broadcasting almost every day for seven straight months to almost no work at all.

“Take the kids to school, go out and run four to five miles and figure out what to do for the rest of the day,” said Cohen of his typical day at home. But February is a new start for Cohen and the Mets who, like many fans, were shocked at the way the team finished the 2007 season.

“It’s a mystery as to what went wrong and how they could possibly not be in the postseason,” Cohen said. “They really need to examine what they’re doing in terms of developing young pitching.”

Regardless of who the Mets sign this offseason, the excitement of starting a new year and every game during a lengthy season is what makes Cohen enjoy going to the ballpark every day.

“To me that moment of anticipation right before the first pitch every night is a rush,” said Cohen. “It’s when that moment stops being a rush is when I’ll probably quit.”

Mets fans hope that isn’t anytime soon.

Published Nov. 6, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Jay Lovinger, ESPN.com Editor


DISCLAIMER: Please note that what you are about to read should in no way encourage Binghamton University students to drop out of school, like the subject of this article, but rather should come as a reminder to all that hard work does pay off. Now proceed to the article below.

Jay Lovinger wasn’t exactly the model student when he went to then SUNY-Binghamton in the 1960s.

“I was a total screw-up,” admitted Lovinger, who did not graduate. While he had a steep climb, that didn’t stop him from working his way up to his current position as editor at large at ESPN.com.

But make no mistake, Lovinger, whose career spans over 40 years, faced a long journey to get to his current spot.

After working at the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin, Lovinger, an English major at BU, wrote for various trade publications, including Discount Store News and Electronic Engineering Times, both of which were “as boring as it sounds.”

“Since I hadn’t graduated, working for the Binghamton Sun-Bulletin wasn’t a ticket to stardom; those were the only jobs I could get,” he said.

But thankfully for Lovinger, he used a Binghamton connection to help him secure his next position. That connection went by the name of Tony Kornheiser, BU alum and current Monday Night Football broadcaster.

In 1979, Newsweek started a magazine called Inside Sports, a monthly sports publication. Kornheiser, a contributor in the pilot issue, introduced Lovinger to the editor for a potential job opportunity. But on the interview, the editor told Lovinger he was only going to hire contributing writers who worked with him before.

“He then said, ‘What did you think of the pilot issue,’ and I was so annoyed at this, I just ripped everything in it,” said Lovinger, whose response intrigued the editor. He gave Lovinger a challenge to create 25 story ideas on how he would have done the issue. Next thing Lovinger knew, he was associate editor for Inside Sports.

Inside Sports eventually folded, but Lovinger moved on to work as an editor of Life and People magazine before using yet another connection.

John Walsh, the senior vice president at ESPN and former colleague at Inside Sports, contacted Lovinger about a job opportunity. Since 2000, Lovinger has been working at ESPN.com and was hired to help create Page 2, a part of the Web site where non-sports writers contribute comedic or feature stories that may not be related to the top major sports.

“It’s been very successful. It’s one of the main things that defines ESPN.com as different from other online sports sites and it gets a lot of readers,” he said.

After starting his career as a writer, Lovinger never thought he would work as an editor. In fact, he never really knew what an editor even did.

“I was much better suited to be an editor,” said Lovinger, who is not a fan of the isolated life a writer leads. “I really like the process of working with a writer to create something.”

Although no longer a writer, one of the more interesting stories Lovinger covered was posing as a high-stakes poker player for a Page 2 story.

“People in the world of high stakes poker were interesting characters,” said Lovinger, who played poker in his 20s. “Poker was starting to become a huge phenomenon and it was an interesting adventure for sure.”

While Lovinger enjoyed partaking in various sports features, it’s the touching stories outside the sports world that make his job worthwhile. He recently took part in a feature on a man named Jason Ray, the North Carolina mascot, who died tragically in a car accident. Against his own wishes, Ray was an organ donor, and the Page 2 story featured the interaction of Ray’s parents and each of the organ recipients in a poignant piece on how Ray was living on after his death.

“If you get a chance to do something that will change people’s lives for the better, that’s the best thing that can happen for you in journalism,” Lovinger said.

Currently, Lovinger is working on a new ESPN.com feature called E-Ticket, a long-form writing featuring video and animated effects in each online column. At age 64, he is thankful to be thriving in a field that doesn’t normally take on people his age.

“I’d say I was pretty lucky to have this job at my age,” Lovinger said. “I’m easily the oldest person by 20 years.”

While Lovinger did not finish his education, he still reflects fondly on his time spent at Binghamton and encourages students to relax when trying to determine what road their career path takes them on.

“I know it’s impractical, but my advice would be to try to enjoy your life while it’s happening instead of thinking where it will get you down the road,” Lovinger said.

Lovinger’s road started rocky at BU, but he’s been on a nice ride ever since.

Published Nov. 13, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Jay Horwitz, Mets Public Relations Director


I was on the phone with my next Pipe DREAM JOB’er for roughly 20 minutes, and in that span, I was put on hold for a minute here and there, and heard the phone ringing in the back several times. It was a day that appeared routine for this man, and I was just honored to be given 20 minutes of time in his busy schedule. But if you were the guy who represented the Mets players and organization, your schedule would be pretty busy too.


Such is the life of Jay Horwitz, the Mets Media Director. Horwitz works in public relations, which means that he is in the middle of everything—literally. Horwitz works as the liaison between the Mets players and the media.

“When the Marv Alberts’ want to do interviews they come through our office,” said Horwitz, who has at least double the amount of reporters than most teams, as he works in the largest media in the world.

Horwitz, who grew up in Clifton, New Jersey, always had an interest in sports and during his college days at NYU, interned in the Sports Information department. But Horwitz’s intended career path wasn’t leading to a sports job.

“When I went to college, I wanted to be a press secretary,” said Horwitz, who was a political science major. “I just got diverted.”

Horwitz was accepted for a doctorate program at NYU, but chose to continue to work at the sports department as a Sports Information Director. He then moved on in the same position at Fairly Dickenson before landing a job with the Mets.

Now currently in his 28th year as the Media Director for the New York Mets, Horwitz has a multitude of media-related tasks throughout a season, ranging from press notes, which are given to the media before a game to inform them of any key storylines or statistics to look out for, as well as game programs and the yearly press guide. But this is just what he works on during a typical 9-5 workday. At night, Horwitz is assisting the media during each and every game, be it home or away, day or night. While Horwitz loves every minute of the job, he admits there are sacrifices to be made.

“There are no Sundays at the beach, no Friday night movies,” said Horwitz, who not only has to manage long work days, but the grueling task of trying to please everyone he works with.

“The press thinks you’re too protective of the players and the players don’t think your protective enough. And the owners don’t think your protective of their interests,” said Horwitz.

But while Horwitz must worry about all three parties, at times, he is reminded that his own interests need to be protected, too. The Mets, like any other organization, has faced its public relations nightmares during Horwitz’s span at the franchise. Some may believe its Horwitz’s job to paint a positive picture and always defend his players, but that’s not necessarily the case.

In 1993 during one of the worse seasons in Mets and Major League history, outfielder Vince Coleman swung a golf club at pitcher Dwight Gooden in the clubhouse before a start. The press was told that Gooden had a sore shoulder and couldn’t pitch. Low and behold, the truth was discovered by the media.

“We looked like morons in the paper the next day,” said Horwitz, who confessed he and his department suffered a hit to their credibility.

In recent years, whether it was Armando Benitez-Rey Sanchez clubhouse haircut incident, the Grant Roberts drug debacle, or Lastings Milledge’s controversial rap album, Horwitz is right there in the mix. But he has learned from the Gooden-Coleman PR episode.

“In New York, you can’t lie, people will find out,” said Horwitz, who may choose to downplay certain situations when speaking to the media. “You try and say what it is and it’s not that big of a deal.”

What is a big deal to Horwitz and the Mets are the back pages and news headlines. In recent years, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has made it publicly known that he encourages any and all player moves that will steal headlines from the cross-town rival Mets. Horowitz feels the same way about the Yankees.

“In this market here, the back page affects ticket sales and how the public perceives you,” he said. “I’m aware of it for anyone who says they’re not aware of it is crazy.”

But the back pages have not been all that kind to the Mets following their collapse this season. Horwitz, who begins his day reading every local paper, has to read about it all. It is his line of work that deals with those journalists who bashed the Mets.

“You knew the press was going to be negative,” he said. “It makes [work] doubly hard when the team loses.”

Although the season is over, the winter months are still busy for Horwitz and the Mets organization. He and the Public Relations department work diligently on the 600-page press guide for the upcoming season, the caravans during the year, which features Mets players, coaches and wives participating in community events, and any local charity work that players get involved with. And of course, Horwitz is constantly taking phone calls from players and the media.

Even with his busy schedule, Horwitz still finds time to root for the Mets.

“After 20 years. I live and die with our team,” he said.

What about his plans for the next 20 years?

Well, that question will have to wait for his next free 20 minutes.

Published Nov. 27, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Jenna Wolfe, Today Show Anchor


If you were to walk into a post-game locker room, attend a player press conference or even flip on ESPN, there’s a good chance that you’ll see mostly men covering each scene. Truth is, there just aren’t that many women working in the sports field, which is why it took this long to profile one in the Pipe DREAM JOB column. So when a woman like Jenna Wolfe makes her presence felt in the locker room or on the air as a reporter, well, it’s one small step for Jenna, one giant leap for prospects like myself.

“I loved being the minority,” said Wolfe, a former reporter for WABC-New York and the Madison Square Garden network, who embraced the chance to be one of the few female reporters in the industry. But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t faced adversity in a field so heavily dominated by men.

“If anything, some of the writers were a little put off by a whole wave of women raining on their parade,” said Wolfe, who claims the athletes were indifferent to women reporting in the clubhouse or locker room.

But that didn’t stop Wolfe, a 1996 Binghamton University graduate, from progressing in the field as a sports news reporter and anchor on ABC. From the time she attended school at Binghamton, Wolfe wasn’t the typical college student.

“I guess I would have to say I sacrificed a little of a social life in college,” said Wolfe, who spent the majority of her mornings, nights and weekends interning at WICZ-TV. “Personally, for me it was never work.” Her resume includes internships at NBC’s “The Today Show” and “Dateline,” as well as “20/20 Primetime.”

“If anyone asks me for any advice, it is [interning], networking, making contacts, showing your face. That’s what paved my way,” said Wolfe, whose path didn’t start that far away from Binghamton’s campus.

When Wolfe graduated from Binghamton, she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to do, but working in sports was not in her foreseeable future. She was prepared to begin searching for a reporting job when her WICZ news director contacted her five days before graduation.

“He said, ‘I don’t have a news reporter job opening for you, I have a sports reporter job,’” she said.

Wolfe was told that as soon as a news position opened, it would be hers, but the position was a break she never would have expected. Wolfe found her niche as a sports reporter and she committed herself fully to the job after subscribing to Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest. She eventually moved on to work as a sports anchor at WUHF-TV in Rochester and WPHL-TV in Philadelphia before landing in New York City on the MSG Network.

“I never knew it was for me,” she said of working in sports. “Right away, I knew this is what I wanted to do.”

As a reporter covering major teams in New York, Wolfe found herself bumping elbows with close to 75 media reporters at a time, a far cry from the small handful she dealt with at smaller markets like Binghamton. But covering a large market like New York meant dealing with potential superstars, some of whom have large egos and volatile mouths. When the Yankees signed Gary Sheffield in 2003 for example, that was cause for a celebration for Wolfe and other reporters.

“You think less in terms of game results and more in terms of issues and personalities,” she said of reporting. “We want issues and we want crazy people, and we want the Gary Sheffields.”

While Wolfe didn’t plan on working in sports, she admits that was her only real way to establish herself in a competitive field.

“In this business it’s so hard to get in,” said Wolfe. “It’s very subjective, a news director will pop your tape in and he’ll know within three seconds if you’ve made the cut. He may be looking for a blonde.”

But for one news director earlier this year, Wolfe had the exact look that he was seeking. This time the job wasn’t in sports, but to work on a national scale as a news correspondent on “The Today Show.”

“I covered every event and interviewed every athlete I wanted to interview,” Wolfe said. “I never thought I would have left sports until ‘The Today Show’ came calling.”

Within the last three weeks, Wolfe has not just reported for the NBC morning show, but has hosted the weekend editions. She was recently flown to Butterball University to do a feature story on how to make a turkey, and to Orlando, where she reported on what is called “Dinner in the Sky,” in which people are literally hoisted in air to eat. Next week Wolfe will cover a story on what it takes to fly a blimp.

“Best job in the world, literally,” said Wolfe, who couldn’t help but express her enthusiasm for her work.

But while she is relatively young in the field, Wolfe did have a somewhat long road to finally get to the position she holds today.

“I would make people know that the first couple of years are never that glamorous,” said Wolfe, who made $14,000 a year at her first job in Binghamton. “We all suffered and struggled a little bit; the whole process of going from the 140 [people in the field] and weeding out the people who don’t have the drive to stay in the business.”

Since her debut on NBC in August, Wolfe is already making her presence felt at “The Today Show.” Could she be the next replacement for Meredith Vieira?

“It would be great to fill in for Meredith,” admitted Wolfe. But if that never happens, she is completely satisfied with where her career path has led her.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to say that where you are right now is where you want to be tomorrow,” she said.

Right now, Wolfe is enjoying today in every way.

Published Dec. 4, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper.

Thoughts on a "Dream Job"

Hello, my name is Brooke Schneider, and I am a sports fan.

Admitting that wasn’t easy. After all, if you’re a female, it isn’t the most common or socially acceptable pastime. Let’s be real here — how many girls would pass up shopping at the mall to stay home to watch a Subway Series game? To guys who love sports, I’m the coolest girl. To guys who don’t, just a girl. And to girls, well, I’m practically one of the guys. But that never bothered me.

Sports have always been a passion since I watched Karl Ravech, the first member of the Pipe DREAM JOB series, on SportsCenter when I was in second grade. Growing up, I chose to make sure that my passion would become my career, so I began to contact people in the business and reached out to then-Newsday columnist Jon Heyman, the second feature of this weekly column, about careers in sports journalism. I contributed sports articles for my school paper and even wrote my college essay on how I attended the first game at Shea Stadium after Sept. 11. Once Binghamton University accepted me and my essay on the importance of sports in our lives, I contacted then-MSG Network anchor Jenna Wolfe, BU alumna and the final professional of Pipe DREAM JOB, about college life at BU and the opportunities it provided for careers in the sports industry.

I guess you could say I started young, but to me, the only way I can know about a career is if I hear about it directly from a person in the field, which is what inspired me to start this column. Whether you are a sports enthusiast like myself or not, my hope is that you got a feel for the unique and high-profile professions that were featured throughout this semester’s Pipe DREAM JOB series.

I don’t know about you, but I found it pretty interesting to hear that SNY broadcaster Gary Cohen doesn’t use any outline of topic discussions on air, or how NBC anchor, Len Berman’s “Spanning the World” started as a joke. When NBA Players Association Attorney and BU alum, Ron Klempner, explained how he was the only attorney free to handle the NBA case at his law firm, or when ESPN.com editor and former Binghamton student, Jay Lovinger, used BU alum Tony Kornheiser to help him land a job, well, it just provided a small sample of what the real world is like. My hope is that those of you who read any of the articles took pleasure out of the semester series and found at least something appealing in each person’s career path.

I must say, I’ve been very fortunate to get a head start on my own career in the sports field. In the past four years, I have done anything and everything to put myself in a position to get the job of my dreams when I graduate. Right after high school, I had my first internship at the Long Island Press where, somehow, I was able to interview the New York Mets team and go in the dugout and clubhouse, and sit in the press box during the game. To this day I can’t believe I had that opportunity. A few internships later, one at a sports public relations firm and two up here in Binghamton at the Senators and Mets in the marketing departments, I worked my way into MLB.com and eventually the Baseball Commissioner’s Office. As an intern in the Special Events department, I helped plan the All-Star game and got to help coordinate the company outing at Shea Stadium.

I’m not writing this article to pat myself on the back or ask for praise from you, the readers. I’m writing this to show you all that you can easily go out and find a creative way to get the experience needed to get your own “dream job.” I hope these columns not only provided insight and knowledge about the sports industry, but also about what it’s like to work in any industry.

I don’t think I’ve done anything more than anyone else is capable of doing. All you need is the drive to succeed and the willingness to go out and reach the people who have the jobs of your dreams. As a student, we are at a great advantage to speak to these people in the business, ask a few questions about their field and show an eagerness about their career. SNY National Sales Manager, BU alum Brett Ehrlich, the third member of the series, said, “I wasn’t smart enough at that time [in college] to use my connections and be bold enough to reach out to people and be in jobs that I wanted at the time.” If there’s any advice I can give you, it’s listen to his advice. Sure, it may be ambitious or nerve-wracking to pick up the phone and dial someone in your future field, but you’ve got nothing to lose.

I don’t know where I’ll be working next year after I graduate from Binghamton, but I know I’ve got a lot of options — options that you all can have if you target the field you want to work in. I was fortunate enough to know what field I wanted to go into and constantly have pursued it.

But deep down, I’m just a student like all of you reading this.

I’m just a sports fan who’s trying to find my own “Dream Job.”

Published Dec. 4, 2007 in Binghamton University's "Pipe Dream" Newspaper