Croup

PITTSBURGH — Josh Croup has gotten ahead of the game — by going to the game.

The 2014 Butler graduate and sophomore broadcast journalism major at Point Park University has attended baseball’s winter meetings in San Diego and Nashville the past two Decembers as a job-seeker.

He landed a summer internship with the West Virginia Power — the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class A affiliate in Charleston — last year and hopes to intern in the Pirates’ media relations department this season.

“I’ve gone (to the winter meetings) with other Point Park students through the Pittsburgh Center of Sports Media and Marketing,” Crouch said. “Tom McMillan is one of the founders of that organization and is a Point Park alumnus. He helped get our school involved in this.”

McMillan is vice president of communications for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

While in San Diego at the 2014 winter meetings, Croup landed interviews with three minor league teams — the West Virginia Power, High Desert Mavericks and Hudson Valley Renegades. The Altoona Curve did a phone interview with him later.

The Akron Rubber Ducks, Greensboro Grasshoppers and Hudson Valley interviewed him last month in Nashville.

“Everything is hectic and crazy there,” Croup said of the winter meetings. “It’s the entire baseball world coming together in one place for a few days.

“General managers and managers from every major league team, media executives, minor league personnel — they’re all there. So are 500 job-seekers from colleges all over the country.

“If you land even one interview, you’re lucky. Most job-seekers there don’t land any. Our seven Point Park students combined to get 40 interviews and we were pretty proud of that,” he added.

Working for the Power last summer, Croup prepared graphics for the video board, produced in-house commercials and put together a daily highlight package known as the “Power Minute” that played on the video board during pre-game warm-ups.

“Minor league baseball is a true team effort,” Croup said. “Everybody pitches in to do everything. I found myself on my hands and knees in the outfield, cleaning up after fireworks. I’ve cleaned out rest-rooms, picked up garbage, swept the stands ... It humbles you sometimes.

“But the team’s executive vice-president, general manager, etc., they do the same thing. We’ve all been on the field together pulling tarp, cleaning up, whatever needs done.”

Croup does play-by-play of Point Park sporting events for the school’s radio station. He is editor-in-chief of The Globe, Point Park’s newspaper, after serving as sports editor last year.

The two most recent editors of the school paper, Jon Andreassi and Kristin Snapp, are Butler graduates as well.

“My dream job is to be an anchor person on ESPN SportsCenter,” Croup admitted. “But I’ve learned the sports media business is so vast and I want to get my feet wet in as many areas as I can before I graduate.

“I’d be happy working for a team in public relations, play-by-play, office work ... I want to develop options. You have to be able to do everything or you’ll be left behind by someone else who can.”