Columbia’s baseball team has been made of the stuff recently that would have made alumnus Lou Gehrig proud, with a pair of Ivy League Championships in Morningside Heights in recent years. But today, Columbia and baseball were all the rage in the digital space, as the school’s graduate Sports Management Program announced that former general manager of the Boston Red Sox Ben Cherington is signing on to be an Executive-in-Residence. Cherington will be instructing a class on the topic of leadership in sports this spring, in the Master of Science in Sports Management degree program.
“The addition of Ben to our Columbia program, reflects our commitment to building a curriculum that combines the real world experiences of sports industry leaders, with the academic rigor of an Ivy League University. Ben and I will continue to explore additional ways in which he can add value to our students and our program” said Vince Gennaro, the Director of the Columbia University Sports Management said in a release.
The move has Cherington joining a faculty that includes Gennaro, the president of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR), former CBS Sports President Neal Pilson, Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, NBA analyst Len Elmore and a host of other influential names in sports business, all for a program which is now billed as top three in the world.
“I’m honored to join the team at Columbia. Vince and his team have built a program that brings students and industry leaders together in the most current and impactful ways” said Cherington, whose grandfather was a professor and Pulitzer Prize winner at Dartmouth. “Two of my favorite parts of working in baseball have been to collaborate with outstanding people looking to make a difference, and, to help others grow. I hope sharing my experience can help play a small role in Columbia’s mission to prepare its students for a meaningful and impactful career in the sports industry.”
No word on whether the Lions baseball team might be getting some added evaluation this spring, or if Cherington could wander across upper Manhattan and visit with those other baseball playing execs in The Bronx, although right now it seems like he will be sticking to campus. Nice add for the Lions program.