Previous studies on the career paths of professional baseball players have considered only the effects of “fielding position” on players’ later careers as managers or coaches. Data for 1,180 Japanese professional baseball players who retired between 1991 and 2005 were analyzed. In addition to fielding position, eight other variables (years as a registered player, lifelong salary, university degree, playing for a company team before becoming professional, salary in the year before retirement, draft status, maximum number of years played for one team, and last team played for before retirement) were analyzed using chi-squared automatic interaction detector (CHAID) analysis.
Major findings are as follows. (1) The most important variable in the promotion of managers or coaches was the number of years as a registered player. (2) Fielding position was influential only if they had been registered players for over 14 years. (3) If a player had been registered for 8-13 years, having a university degree had an effect on their subsequent career. For players without a degree, “having played for a company team before becoming a professional” was an important variable in later becoming a manager or coach.