Major League Mindset

Ever since Dali Pomfret ’25 can remember, he had his eye on one goal: to make it to the major leagues. The economics major is a pitcher for Haverford’s baseball team, but he may eventually realize his goal in a different way than he anticipated.

Thanks to a baseball operations internship with the Hyannis Harbor Hawks of the Cape Cod Baseball League in Massachusetts—which plays over the summer with some of the big names from colleges all over the country—and his work with Major League Baseball’s Development Center in China, Pomfret is one step closer to the pros when he graduates in 2025—just maybe not as a player.

Pomfret spoke to Charles Curtis '04 for Haverford magazine about his baseball dreams, his incredible experiences in China, and how he got a scouting 101 lesson in Cape Cod.

Haverford’s baseball connection was one big reason why he chose to attend the College.
When looking at colleges, I found out that Haverford has an incredible alumni network of front-office members within Major League Baseball (MLB), and working in professional baseball has been a dream of mine as long as I can remember. The ultimate goal, at first, was to play the sport, but then I watched the movie version of Moneyball before reading the famous Michael Lewis book. It inspired me. Working in a front office was a way to be involved with the game past my playing career.

His connection to China gave him the opportunity to help there.
I was born in China and shuttled between there and the United States when I was younger. I kept in touch with my old pitching coach in China and, before the summer of 2023, my dad suggested I get back in touch with him when I didn’t get any MLB internships I had applied to. My former coach put me in touch with Ray Chang, MLB’s director of operations in China, who also runs the national team. I was an assistant coach for a program that brings in kids from all over the country into a kind of high school in the suburbs of Shanghai. It’s a half-day of baseball practice and half-day of classes. It was rewarding to see how I could impact the lives of these kids and was my real introduction to working in baseball. It sparked a passion in me for the potential of growing the game in that country and what China could be in the baseball world. There’s a pretty small baseball community there, but it’s growing.

The Haverford and MLB connection continued to pay off.
One of my baseball teammates and I decided to attend MLB’s Winter Meetings event in Nashville last year. We met up with several alumni who work for MLB teams. They told me, “If you can’t get a job in MLB, go work on Cape Cod.” It turns out working there is a huge resume booster. I think I’ll look back at those three days at the meetings as some of the most formative in my professional career.

Cape Cod gave him a preview of life in the front office.
Internships with teams are unpaid because the league is nonprofit, so I got a second job working at a boating hardware store. In the mornings, I’d work there and then go work for Hyannis in the afternoon. We wrote advance scouting reports for the teams playing Hyannis that night: what opposing hitters slug against certain types of pitches and where they hit balls on the field. We would also study video of pitchers and write up the velocity and movements of their pitches. I’d also scour roster pages of college baseball teams when we needed replacement players since some of the college athletes would leave in the middle of the summer. That’s where I’d get into debates with other interns and I’d have to argue why the player I picked is a better fit for the team than their choice. It forced me to think more critically about baseball and my player analysis and scouting skills improved significantly.

What’s next? An attempt to make his dream come true.
The hope is to work as a president of baseball operations someday. It’s probably harder to do than play in the majors. There are only 30 of those jobs in the entire world, so I know how much the odds are stacked against me. I could see myself running my own department in a front office, like a director of international scouting. I know that in order to get to that role or others in baseball, there’s a good amount of fortune involved, which I know I can’t control. If I put the work in, I can’t be upset with whatever happens.