When you think of a summer job, you might think of an ice cream parlour, a lifeguard, or maybe construction, Andrew Morrow’s summer job is a bit different.
During the school year Andrew goes to Michigan State University and this summer he’s working with the Traverse City Pit Spitters, playing baseball as an infielder and outfielder. He said it’s a job he’s always dreamed of doing.
“I have baby pictures of me with a baseball bat and a glove in my hand, part of me grew up playing it, and I just fell in love with it!” said Morrow.
While at MSU Andrew plays baseball, and by playing with the Pit Spitters he said he’s getting even more time to train and improve at the game.
Morrow said, “yeah, you definitely have to learn as much as you can, one of my coaches I used to have would always say if you aren’t learning one thing a day you’re not doing it right. There’s always something, whether it be mechanical or mental, there’s always something to learn.”
While he is working hard playing and training every day, his job is still different than most sports jobs because he is still a student.
Andrew said, “we don’t get paid anything here, we’re collegiate athletes, so we’re not allowed to be paid for anything, we get meals given to us here, but that’s really all that they’re allowed to do, if we were to get paid we’d lose our ability to play back at college, it kinda loses the eligibility, amateurity.”
Andrew said playing baseball isn’t always a home run, it can be tough, but he’s glad he has great teammates to work with.
He said, “my least favorite part would be just the hours, for example we’re on the road came back Friday morning at 5:30am, and had a game that night, so that can be kinda tough. My favorite part would be just spending time with all of my teammates, there’s such great comradery.”
Next year is Andrew’s senior year at Michigan State: his last year of collegiate play, so for him, playing with the Pit Spitters is another way to get ahead in his career and stand out as a player.
“The MLB draft is coming up in 2-3 weeks, so there’s always the chance for any of us to get picked up and go to the draft. A lot of that just depends on how well you do, and there’s so many great athletes, great players, that you have to kinda stand out to make that next level,” Morrow said.
Andrew said he hopes to play baseball professionally after he finishes school, but he said he’d also like to coach. He said “besides playing, there’s opportunities everywhere, there’s opportunities to coach. I’d love to do both, I’d love to play until I don’t have the chance to play anymore, and then try and go coach somewhere or figure out where life takes me at that point.”
For a lot of students, summer can be a time to get experience in jobs they want to do, and this summer Andrew Morrow is hitting it out of the park.