Minoring in E-learning
Some Mets prospects Take a swing at a degree
Ten percent. "What we're really trying to do is prepare professional baseball players for careers that are open to them after they're finished playing," Astro says. "Minor leaguers may play professional baseball for one year or 10 years, but less than 10 percent make it to the big leagues, and even if they do it's uncertain how long they'll last there."
That reality motivates aspiring catcher Sean McCraw, 20, who put in one year at San Jacinto Junior College in Texas before being drafted by the Mets in 2005. "No matter where baseball takes me, whether I make millions or never get to the Majors, I want to have an education to fall back on," he says. Nineteen-year-old Josh Thole, also a catcher and McCraw's teammate on the rookie league Kingsport Mets, agrees: "Your career is so short, and you never know what can happen. One injury could end it." Thole had just graduated from high school in Breese, Ill., when the Mets drafted him in 2005, and he is taking his very first college courses through the program.
Most of the E-learning takes place during the off-season, but during the regular season, player-students take part in community programs such as speaking to students at local schools and clubs.
As a result of Kingsport Mets players speaking to the local Junior Achievement group, says Kingsport General Manager Roman Stout, "the kids in the community are now identifying and getting to know our team, and that helps popularize the game on the local level." Major or minor, that sounds like a big league, winning strategy, all around.
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