Ohlendorf interns with US Agriculture
November 27, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP)—An e-mail requesting an internship arrived at theAgriculture Department this summer with an impressive resume: PrincetonUniversity degree in operations research and financial engineering, 3.8 collegeGPA, 1520 SATs.
Ross Ohlendorf didn’t mention his 95 mph sinking fastball, but it probablywouldn’t have hurt his chances. Department officials were impressed that thePittsburgh Pirates pitcher wanted to work for them in the offseason.
Doug McKalip, confidential assistant to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack,recalled the secretary’s reaction when told of Ohlendorf’s e-mail: “Are youserious? A major league player wants to do this?”
Good location is key to both pitching and landing a job, and Ohlendorf hadmastered that this summer, arranging to catch Vilsack’s opening pitch at aPirates game in Pittsburgh because of the pitcher’s interest in agriculture.
“I talked to him briefly afterward and told him my family raisedlonghorns,” Ohlendorf recalled in an interview at his USDA office. “A littlewhile later, it came into my head that it would be a great opportunity to internhere in the offseason.” He followed that up with an e-mail to McKalip.
Ohlendorf said he and his father are involved in their longhorn cattlebusiness outside Austin, Texas—the pitcher works on the ranch’s Web site, evenduring the baseball season—and that he’s been developing an interest in howgovernment works.
“So this was a really good opportunity to combine the two,” he said.
Now, Ohlendorf shows up every day at the office for his internship in a kindof throwback to earlier times when baseball players had to supplement theirincome working offseason jobs. Except that Ohlendorf isn’t getting paid, and heusually takes afternoons off to work out. He typically logs a little more than20 hours a week, and plans to extend his 8-week internship, which began lastmonth, by two weeks.
Ohlendorf, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 240 pounds, shares a smalloffice with another USDA employee. His work is mainly focused on animalidentification—the nationwide tracking system intended to pinpoint an animal’slocation after a disease is discovered.
“I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said. “In addition to learning a lot ofthings and meeting a lot of neat people, I’ve gotten to do some cool eventstoo.” He mentioned one at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to theWhite House, focused on youth sports, and another at a local elementary schoolwith first lady Michelle Obama, a fellow Princeton grad, aimed at promotinghealthy eating among children.
“If you know Ross,” said Ohlendorf’s baseball coach at Princeton, ScottBradley, “everything about his life is always about making himself better andmaking himself more educated. He’s not someone who wants to sit and not doanything. This is a perfect fit for him.”
Ohlendorf said he’s also picking up some insights that might help thebusiness back home.
“We haven’t sold our beef directly to consumers very often,” he said.“But longhorn beef’s very healthy, and our meat for the most part is grass-fed.I’m becoming more familiar with the demand for grass-fed and local products.There’s more of a market that we can explore. … I’m just learning aboutcertification programs that USDA runs, where you can becomeorganically-certified, or grass-fed certified.”
Many of the cattle on the ranch are sold to people who want to raiseregistered longhorns, Ohlendorf said, “because they like the way they look, andthey want to get enjoyment out of raising them, more so than for the endproduct.”
Ohlendorf, 27, had a breakout season this year, winning 11 games as astarter for the last-place Pirates and posting a 3.92 ERA. He was drafted in2004 by the Arizona Diamondbacks, who traded him to the New York Yankees as partof the deal that brought Randy Johnson back to Arizona. New York later shippedhim to Pittsburgh in another multiplayer trade.
Ohlendorf’s college thesis was on the investment return for major leagueteams on draft choices. ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian has written that Ohlendorf “may bethe smartest player in baseball and the smartest person in almost any room heenters.”
His teammate, pitcher Zach Duke, said he wasn’t surprised that Ohlendorf isspending his offseason interning with the government.
“He’s a guy who has an unquenched thirst for knowledge,” Duke said in atelephone interview. “This is something he’s very passionate about, and if hecan learn more about the industry and things that can affect his business in apositive way, he’s going to do it.”
“He’s kind of a geek, as we refer to him,” Duke added with a laugh. “I’mkind of jealous of him after talking to him because he told me he’s doing allthis stuff, getting to meet people” like Michelle Obama. Duke said he’sspending his own offseason “just kind of hanging out.”
Ohlendorf said he might consider a career in public service after playingbaseball.
“At this point, there are a lot of things that interest me, but it iscertainly one of them,” he said. But like a pitcher careful not to telegraphhis pitches, Ohlendorf declined to share any views on public policy—except tosay he’s impressed with the USDA’s efforts at promoting healthier lifestyles forkids.
Now that’s good politics.
On the Net:
Ohlendorf’s baseball statistics, biography: http://tinyurl.com/crnr39
