Salary and Contract Administrator
Matthew Klentak, Major League Baseball
Using baseball terminology, there are times in life where you have to go with the pitch to be successful. For all of those high and outside fastballs, those low and away curves or pitches that you fight off in an 0-2 count you have to go with the pitch in order to put the ball in play. Here is a story of a guy that has been able to foul off 0-2 pitches and drive low and away curves into right field.
On the busy corner of 46th street and Park Avenue in New York City, a high-rise building adds to the skyline of the city and is also the place where Matt Klentak goes to work everyday. As we entered the building we went through an elaborate security system that took our picture. After going through the Star Wars-like turnstiles we made our way to the gold elevators at the end of the freshly waxed marble floor. Stepping into the elevator we were joined a lady that worked in the building. She asked what floor we were headed to. “Thirty-four,” I replied. The number alone seemed to impress her, or so I’d like to think. Moments later, we exited the elevator and found ourselves in the place where the magic happens; the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
Walking through the doors of that office for a baseball fan is like a child walking through the doors of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. There was memorabilia everywhere including photos, bats, balls, you name it. Tamir managed to take a seat but I was too intrigued to rest my legs. I mean, how often do you get to see that kind of stuff? In time I managed to find my seat and pretended to read a baseball magazine until Matt arrived. We walked down to the 31st floor and listened to the story of a guy who was determined to work in sports from the get go.
At Dartmouth College, Matt played baseball all four years and was the team captain his senior year. He graduated in 2002 with a degree in economics. When he graduated he was debating on what to do with his life. He had been debating this question since his junior year in college, when he spent a term abroad in France. He wrote down everything that he liked to do, one at a time, and came up with a list consisting of travel, baseball, math, working with people and business. After looking over this list endless times Matt came to the conclusion that he’d like to work in baseball. So he started his journey to get into the business by using a baseball connection to write a letter requesting an informational interview.
The interview went well, and Matt’s interest in getting into the baseball was sparked further. During the summer of his junior year he managed to land an internship in the Baseball Operations department in the Office of Major League Baseball. He got a sense for the corporate life and was able to work on some great projects. His favorite part was living and breathing baseball all day, everyday. He “drank the Kool-aid” and decided that yes, the business of baseball was the direction that he wanted to go. Now it’s easy to read this and assume that the internship went great, he was promised a job when he graduated and now here he is still working with MLB. That is not the case.
His senior year in college he was faced with college recruiters. His friends lined up to buy their new suits and work on their resumes. Matt felt the pressure to go along with his friends and look for a position in the financial services industry. He tested the waters with a few financial firms and had a standing offer with a firm he had interned for in Boston. Weighing his decision of “bonds vs. baseball,” he decided that home runs were way more appealing than current price/yield ratios. Having made this decision, he decided to continue his pursuit of working in sports.
So Matt graduated with no job lined up and wondered what he should do for a living. That summer he worked at a baseball camp and worked full-time as a teacher’s assistant in his mom’s office from 7-2. He made sure to keep his dream of working in baseball in sight. When he got home at 2:30 everyday that summer he called baseball clubs in order to make contacts. He hoped that these efforts would lead him to his goal.
Matt used the advice that was given to him, which was “to never hang up the phone or leave an interview without getting the contact information for another person” (something that the Pursue The Passion Team has found very useful). Using this method, he was able to get the contact info for Theo Epstein, who is now the General Manager of the Red Sox. They talked on the phone for about an hour about how Theo got into baseball and how Matt could get his foot in the door. When Epstein was hired as the Red Sox GM, Matt decided to send him an email congratulating him on the new position and to thank him again for their talk. A week later he received an email from Jed Hoyer, an intern who would later become the Red Sox’ assistant GM. Hoyer asked Matt if he was interested in interviewing for an internship with the organization. After a month-long interview process Matt received a a call from Hoyer informing him that he did not get the position.
Handling the news professionally, Matt simply asked him to keep his eyes and ears open for anything that he hears with the Red Sox or any other organization and left it at that. A month later Matt got a call from Hoyer saying that a similar position with the Colorado Rockies was available. Hoyer gave Matt the necessary contact information so that he could apply.
He gave the Rockies’ Thad Levine a call, had a good conversation and was put in touch with someone else there. Within two days Matt was offered a full-time, one year internship in the baseball operations department. The offer was contingent on him moving to Colorado within ten days to start the job. This was not a difficult decision. Matt dropped everything and drove to Colorado to start his first real job in baseball!
The move proved to be a great step and a confidence builder. Matt made some great friends and contacts in his time in Denver. While there he was exposed to many things including the draft, the trade deadline, arbitration, and many full-time projects. Things were going great and towards the end of his internship Matt hoped to stay with the organization. During the last week of his internship however, Matt learned that he would not be hired on due to the financial situation of the Rockies.
Dan O’Dowd, the General Manager of the Rockies brought Matt into his office one day where they discussed what Matt wanted to do in life. After talking for a while, Dan picked up the phone and called a friend of his in the Commissioner’s Office at Major League Baseball to see if they had a place for a determined, hard working kid.
Given the job experience with the Rockies, Matt was able to land a part-time job in the labor department of Major League Baseball with the expectations that the job would last a few months. Having little money in New York City, one of the most expensive cities in the world, Matt phoned a friend in Queens and asked if he could stay with him for a while. Matt made the move and ended up sleeping on his friend’s leather couch for six months during the “dog days of summer.”
After the three months were up in his new job at the Commissioner’s Office, Matt had a meeting with his boss. This time around, Matt was too valuable of an asset to let go. He was offered a full-time permanent position, which had been created for him. His hard work and dedication had landed him in an actual position in Major League Baseball!
He has now been with the department for two and half years and works as a Senior Coordinator in Salary and Contract Administration. He acts as a consultant to the 30 teams in baseball, and gives advice to teams in regards to spending their money wisely with the intention to keep a team’s bottom line down.
His advice to students that want to get into sports:
“There really is no one way to get into sports. There are so many avenues. Make contacts, don’t be shy. Follow the leads that you’re given. Who would have known that Theo would become the GM a month after I talked to him? You kind of just have to go with what you’re given. In my case, I had to move to Denver and take several internships. Other people might work at a consulting firm for a few years and then make the transition into sports. Also, learn how to write. There’s no bigger turnoff than getting a cover letter or resume with typos in it. Work on those skills. But the best way is to make phone calls and meet face to face with people. You also have to love sports.”
After the interview, we had to ask about Bud Selig and what he was like to work with. We found out that the commissioner himself works primarily in his Milwaukee office, yet we managed to get the invite into his New York “office,” which could be larger than some apartments in New York City. We got to see his desk and the world championship trophy stationed behind the “catbird seat” of the Commissioner. Matt even let us sit in it! Pretty cool stuff to cap off our visit to the MLB office and our interview with Matt!
Postscript: Matt Klentak is now the Director of Baseball Operations for the Baltimore Orioles.
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