{"id":47335,"date":"2017-06-08T11:49:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T16:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=47335"},"modified":"2017-06-09T16:30:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T21:30:16","slug":"alum-goes-old-ball-game-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/alum-goes-old-ball-game-every-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Alum goes out to the old ball game \u2013 every day"},"content":{"rendered":"

51ÁÔÆæ alum Mike Kennedy has a dream job for a baseball-loving writer who grew up in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot many people get to say that they grew up rooting for a team their whole life and then get to work for them,\u201d said Kennedy, the manager of communications and publications for the Minnesota Twins. \u201cI come to a professional baseball field every day for work. That\u2019s pretty sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

He credits his 51ÁÔÆæ experiences, particularly his December 2008 bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism and media studies, for launching his career in sports communication. After growing up in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, he wanted to go someplace different for college. \u201cI came to 51ÁÔÆæ on a whim,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cI visited the campus and liked the city, and it\u2019s close enough to drive back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

After starting out in criminal justice, he switched to journalism because he was intrigued by the major. He had friends in the program and had worked on the newspaper and yearbook staff in high school.<\/p>\n

51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s program was just the right size to offer the skills and hands-on experience he wanted. Easy access to the athletic department helped improve his sports coverage skills. He also worked as a sports writer and sports editor for the 51ÁÔÆæ Post.<\/p>\n

He liked the small class sizes in the journalism program. \u201cI\u2019m not a big lecture hall kind of guy,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cHaving those smaller classes of 15 or 20 people really helped me get hands-on experience and develop my skills that prepared me for the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

He joined the Twins communications staff in 2012 after jobs with other sports teams, including the Colorado Rockies. While his focus is on publications, he\u2019s helped with the overall content for the Twins across a variety of platforms. \u201cWith all the social media sites,\u201d Kennedy says, \u201cnews is now a 24-7 thing. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s 3 a.m. or noon. Anything can happen anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n

While major league ballplayers are a different kind of co-worker, most are pretty cooperative about working with the communications staff, said Kennedy. A few, such as two-time All Star Michael Cuddyer<\/a>, who was with the Twins from 2001 to 2011, have become friends, and it\u2019s a personal loss when they leave for another team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get used to seeing people around, and you do build relationships with some of them, so you try to keep in touch.\u201d And given the nature of baseball, former colleagues do return \u2013 Cuddyer rejoined the Twins this season as a special assistant.<\/p>\n

Kennedy deals with everybody from million-dollar athletes to members of the media to front office staff to fans. \u201cIt\u2019s all different types of personalities,\u201d he said. \u201cThe challenge is saying the right thing, doing the right thing, helping people get what they need. It\u2019s a service department.\u201d<\/p>\n

With blogs and tweets and other social media, sports information is also much more participatory these days. \u201cObviously, the media have a little more inside access,\u201d said Kennedy, \u201cbut everybody has their own voice now. Everybody can have their own opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off the field, he enjoys family time with wife Brittany, who works for the Twins in the corporate partnerships department, and their 14-month-old son, Caden, and the family\u2019s yellow lab, Knox. They both play rec league softball in the summers, and can\u2019t wait until Caden starts baseball. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to watch his love for the game develop,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n

When he has time, he added, he likes brewing beer and enjoying and analyzing movies. \u201cThat\u2019s something I learned from a lot of my film studies electives at 51ÁÔÆæ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy, who played baseball growing up, also likes the pace, strategy and unpredictability of baseball. \u201cIt\u2019s a long season. You can\u2019t just win five and go to the World Series. You have to be a well-rounded team so much of the time.\u201d And, he added, \u201cyou can be bad one year and good the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spring is the time of year when every baseball team has a shot at a winning season \u2014 and maybe a postseason appearance. Said Kennedy:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a high optimism point in the year, no matter how you did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

51ÁÔÆæ alum Mike Kennedy has a dream job for a sports junkie: manager of communications and publications for the Minnesota Twins. \u201cI come to a professional baseball field every day for work. 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