Minniti

In this case, not as a player, not as a coach, but as a member of the management team for a Major League Baseball team.

I'd say this Yorker has been doing well enough in his chosen career, but is now doing a whole heck of a lot better -- a better title and more money.

And at such a tender age.

But that will come as no surprise to anyone who knows 1998 York Catholic High School graduate Bryan Minniti. He has a reputation for being a hard worker.

Minniti, 29, continues to live his dream in Major League Baseball, having been named by the Washington Nationals on Monday as the assistant general manager in charge of baseball operations, working under GM Mike Rizzo.

It was a whirlwind two weeks, Minniti said when he returned my call.

"The Nats received permission from the Pirates to talk to me about the job, and I interviewed with the general manager on Friday, Nov. 6, and the president of the club on Saturday, Nov. 7. I took the job on Sunday (Nov. 8), and I went to the GM meetings on Monday representing the Nats instead of the Pirates," he said.

That's how quickly things sometimes happen in the major leagues. And in case you're open to becoming a Nationals fan -- you might be looking for a National League alternative to the Baltimore Orioles -- the team has also announced that former Orioles and New York Mets manager
Davey Johnson was hired as a senior adviser.

Obviously the Nats are getting serious about baseball. It had the worst record in MLB last season -- 59 wins and 103 losses -- but has the talent to be a much better team if it can improve its pitching staff.

Minniti has worked for the last eight years for the Pittsburgh Pirates, starting as an operations intern in 2001, while he was still a student at the University of Pittsburgh, and for the last two years as the director of baseball operations.

In that role, Minniti concentrated his efforts on rules, transactions, budgeting and contract negotiations, but also was responsible for batting-helmet compliance, free-agent signings and information technology.

It was a well-rounded work experience, Minniti said, and "I'll probably be doing a lot of the same things for the Nats -- contracts, rules, running the drug program, trades and free agents."

"It'll mean a lot of late nights," Minniti said, "but it's also going to be a lot of fun."

Not bad for a guy who had aspirations of becoming a doctor while in college -- "I quickly figured out I wasn't smart enough," he said last year -- but changed his mind when he had a chance to rub elbows with big league baseball players as a four-month college intern.

Minniti never played baseball in college -- "I knew I wasn't good enough," he said -- and has very little scouting experience at the minor league or major league levels. But he was a double major in mathematics and statistics in college, and there's plenty of room for those skills in any baseball front office.

That doesn't mean Minniti had no baseball experience, however. While living in York County, he played high school baseball for York Catholic in the late-'90s, and for Shiloh in the Central Baseball League in 1998 and 1999. He also played American Legion Baseball for Shiloh.

"Baseball's always been my passion," Minniti said, "... I was always a baseball fan."

And there are a whole bunch of local folks -- his parents still live in the Shiloh area, for example -- who are thrilled he's now just a couple hours away in Washington, D.C.

"I'll be closer to York," Minniti said, "and it's a challenge working with a whole new group of people. I'm looking forward to it."

Of course he is. Who wouldn't be?

Sports columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch colum nist, run Thursdays. E- mail: lhicks@yorkdis patch.com.