Sioux City Explorers' Kent Hasler juggles online MBA classes while playing baseball

While the Sioux City Explorers pitcher is laser-focused on baseball, he is also juggling a busy class-load as an online student in Louisiana Tech University's Master of Business Administration graduate program.

"I'd like to think I'm good at time management," the 28-year-old Hasler said with a smile. "But it's taken me three years to finish a degree that should've taken a year-and-a-half to complete."

Still, the scholastic abilities of the Chandler, Arizona, native has attracted the attention of X's field manager Steve "Mongo" Montgomery.

"Sometimes, I'll sneak up and see what Kent is working on and realize he's a smart kid," Montgomery explained. "Kent does take an intellectual approach to his pitching game, working things out in his head."

Apparently, that has been a successful strategy for Hasler, who was one of three X's selected to play on the West Division All-Star team in the 2003 American Association of Professional Baseball's All-Star game in Milwaukee later this summer.

Indeed, it has been a busy time for Hasler, who came to Sioux City after making a run playing Triple A ball with the Milwaukee Brewers organization last season.

He started his professional career in the Frontier League, before making his way to the Winnipeg Goldeyes while landing with the Brewers.

Hasler said he's enjoying his time with the X's and already built camaraderie with his teammates.

"We really are a band of brothers," he said, inside of the X's locker room a few hours before gametime. "I know as soon as we arrive at the ballpark, all of the pressures of our outside lives disappear. Now, it's time to have fun and play a game."

After all, this has been Hasler's life for as long as he can remember.

"There hasn't been time when I wasn't playing baseball, from Little League to school to college to now," he said. "Whenever a school counselor would ask me what I wanted to do in life, I'd say I wanted to play ball. What's Plan B? Well, there never was a Plan B."

Which makes sense since Hasler's graduate degree -- which he'll complete by the end of summer -- will allow him to continue in baseball.

"An MBA can go a long way in the front offices of many ballclubs," he explained. "I'll play as long as I can, but I want to be in baseball for the long haul."

Even if the post-playing baseball career isn't in Hasler's future, he already knows how to market himself.

"A ballplayer is a team player, which is what every business needs more of," Hasler reasoned. "A ballplayer also becomes the face of a team. We are the ones who do the interviews and handle the public relations for the team, whether it is with the media or with the fans."

"A ballplayer has those PR skills, which is valuable, both on and off of the field," he added.

Clearly, Hasler is adept at the art of the business pitch as he is on the pitching mound.

This makes combining a professional baseball career with the life of a graduate student a game changer.

"To be fair, you'll see a lot of young players working on their undergraduate degrees," Hasler allowed. "It's less common to see someone commit to a graduate degree while playing ball."

Hasler said it was a no-brainer for him, since an advanced degree will allow him to stay in the game that he loves.

"I get to play baseball for a living," he said with a big grin. "Who wouldn't want to keep doing that for as long as you can?"