Dream job/Mi trabajo de mis sueños

Today I visited Major League Baseball's offices in Santo Domingo. The official title of the operation is the office of the commissioner in Latin America. I went in thinking it was a massive compound with mega signage telling everyone where it is and how important it is. Especially with a formal title like that.

It's a tiny house converted into an office structure in a cul de sac off Avenida 27th de febrero (a main highway in Santo Domingo). There are pictures of baseball stadiums, legendary players, and team logos on the walls. It's small and meager and I love it for that very reason.

I met the community affairs director, who's another Hispanic-American from California. She explained to me what the office does. Everything you can think of for MLB to do in Latin America, they do it. It's not just Dominican Republic. It's Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Curaçao, anywhere where they play baseball in the region. We talked a lot about the educational opportunities for prospects in the Dominican Republic and she introduced me to the rest of the staff. I met quite a few other American ex-pats there, including a guy from Cupertino (aka the Silicon Valley, where I live in the States).

Obviously I can't go into detail about my visit as MLB plays their cards very close to the chest. Especially here. My contact at the offices here got into some trouble when a writer from ESPN Deportes blabbed a bunch of sensitive information and this confirmed what I suspected going in. I have to play by different rules here as a journalist. I know to stay in the game, you have to play the game, and you have to know the rules wherever you go.

What I can tell you is that I'm helping put together a newsletter for the offices. I jumped on it the moment my contact mentioned the project. I'd do anything to be involved in working here. I'm a good writer and I have the background for producing news content, so why not?

A few years ago someone on a Giants blog I frequent jokingly suggested I become the Giants general manager. I laughed and said something like "yeah, that'll be the day." But then I thought, why not me? That started a long journey of contemplating my future in sports. Is writing enough? Where is journalism going as an industry and trade? How can I stay with baseball for the rest of my life and make enough to support myself and my family?

I did the research. I interviewed a few general managers and other sports executives in minor league baseball. I learned that in the minors especially, being an executive is almost all about business. Apologies to the business people out there, but that bores me to tears. I want to be involved in the day to day operations of baseball. So maybe being a GM isn't for me.

However, working for the MLB offices here could be for me. Everything I saw and learned about today excites me. Literally anything I can think of concerning baseball development in the DR happens in that office on a daily basis.

This is my dream job.

I struggled to find the idea of what I really wanted to do. For a while it was limited to becoming someone's protegee. First, I was supposed to be the next Jon Miller, Hall of Fame television and radio broadcaster, before my broadcasting dreams died. Then it was the next Rob Neyer, a high profile baseball columnist, writer, and author (who tabbed me to work on the now dead Baseballin' on a Budget, and who called me a "fine writer." I'm still proud of that). Then my destiny was to be the next Keith Law, who started out in the Toronto Blue Jays front office and jumped to writing about prospects and scouting for Baseball America and ESPN.com.

These guys are great at what they do, but I need to find what I want to do. I'm not here to be the next version of anyone else. I'm here to be Chris Martinez, and I think I found the title I want to attach to my name. At least, I found the place where they can award me that title.

It doesn't bother me that the dream is still ambiguous. I've learned as I grow in my journalism career and as I get older that success isn't necessarily doing the same thing forever. If you asked me, even in 2008 where I'd be in 2011 in my career, I couldn't tell you. Now I'm doing things that are completely different from what I did three years ago. And I don't know what I can or will be in 2016. I just know that I want to be here, working in the office of the commissioner of Major League Baseball in Latin American affairs.

The dream also confirms what I have to do next: graduate, get my MA in sports management, and become fluent in Spanish. Those plans are already on track. My visit confirmed that I've done everything right on my path to get here.

First things first. I have to rock the shit out of the newsletter.