Engineering Degree Online | A major in the Mets

Posted by bposton on November 5th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

Here’s a great post-world series story for you.

Back in 1995, the New York Mets drafted pitching prospect Dan Murray. At the time he had yet to finish his college degree at San Diego State University.

But he decided to live the baseball dream, as minor leaguers call it. He pitched his way up from rookie league to AAA and, for parts of the 1999 and 2000 seasons, even earned a spot on the Major League rosters of the Mets and the Kansas City Royals.

And he never earned his degree.

Now Dan’s a pitching coach for the Mets’ rookie league team in Kingsport, Tenn. and he’s
getting his degree through a program jointly organized two years ago by the New York Mets and Drexel University.

Most minor league players have a very hard time finding off-the-field time for a traditional in-classroom degree
That’s because of the long baseball season which lasts from spring training through summer and into early fall - not the best time for most traditional academic calendars. Fall classes are already underway by the time the season ends
and the players have to start spring training at the same time that the spring semester gets going.

And then there’s the short off-season, and minor-league players (who may earn as little as $1,100 for each month they play) normally have to have a second job to support their families. 

That makes an online degree program, like the one at Drexel, a perfect fit.

More than 20 players have taken courses so far. A little over half of those will get degrees from Drexel while others will apply the credits they earn to the schools where they’ve already done coursework.

The program at Drexel is very customized for the players. For example, there’s a classe in baseball and literature (the reading list features Bernard Malamud’s The Natural and W. P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe), and one on sports and social issues (online discussions will focus on Jackie Robinson’s legacy, the Berlin and Munich Olympics, and the role of the contemporary sports hero, among other topics).

Boston Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione is even scheduled to teach a course in sports broadcasting.

Other classes in areas such as sports and media, sports technology, the economics of sports, and minorities and sports. are planned as well.

And this program is not just open to baseball players. Other Drexel E-learning students can take these as well.

Ben

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