Analyst in the Infield

Steven Haynes '15 profile

Baseball co-captain Steven Haynes '15 shares how his IB&M major and economics minor help—and hinder—his game

by Lauren Davidson

Imagine digging your cleats into the soft infield dirt while contemplating a cost-benefit analysis of diving to snag a line drive. Or settling into the batter’s box while calculating the pitcher’s likelihood of delivering a strike. These are the kinds of things international business & management major and economics minor Steven Haynes ’15 tries not to do.

Haynes readily admits to being prone to overanalyzing. “It does help me in school and with attention to detail,” he says. “It even helps in preparing for baseball—I’ll study the play book and know not only where I have to be on the bunt defenses but where everyone has to be. But when you’re in the game, you don’t want to be thinking too much, because sometimes it’s just reacting, just playing. I definitely get in the way of myself in that sense.”

Yet it’s that self-awareness and ability to think more broadly that made him an ideal candidate for team captain this year. From his infield post, whether at shortstop or second base, this four-year starter can visualize the squad as a whole and calibrate solutions designed for team success.

“The way I see it, it’s doing everything fundamentally sound, not getting swept by any teams in the Centennial Conference,” Haynes explains. “Our preparation has been better this year. We’re a year older and a year tougher. We returned pretty much everybody from last year minus a few who graduated, but we have guys who are going to fill their shoes.”

Even with his focus on the team, Haynes holds his own on Dickinson’s career rankings list, including two top-10 spots (10th in slugging percentage with .460 and tied for 10th in triples with 5) and 10th (tied) for single-season doubles.

He also is involved with the Student Investment Group (SIG), of which he is co-president this year. Members work in teams to invest virtual money with mock portfolios and dissect and analyze companies and trends within various financial sector. SIG members also present their findings to the group, and last year, Haynes designed a new fact-sheet tool that helped to make those presentations more stimulating and useful. Members share their personal expertise, like when Haynes offered insight into the inner workings of hedge-fund management after interning at a hedge-fund firm last summer.

“College has transformed me as a person,” he says of his liberal-arts experience. “There’s been influence from baseball, which has taught me a lot about time management and dealing with adversity. On the social side, college has helped me branch out and come into myself. Then on the academic side, Dickinson taught me thought processes and different ways to think about things.”

Or not to think, depending on the situation.

Read more from the spring 2015 issue of Dickinson Magazine.

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Published April 14, 2015