‘I Spent Half My Year with Scholars and the Other Half with Jocks’

As a student at Chicago Booth, Fred Jacobs, MBA ’69, split his time between completing his coursework and playing second base in the Washington Senators’ minor league system. He went on to a long career as an accounting professor at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business, but he remained connected to the game through coaching, including three years for Michigan State’s team. Having recently retired, the Chicago-area native has self-published Smart Baserunning: General Principles and Situation-Specific Details (2024). He spoke with Chicago Booth Magazine about his long career. 

Many dream of playing under the big lights. Tell us about how you made it happen. 

Growing up, sports were my life. In high school, though, I was no star athlete—baseball was the only sport I was above average in. I was fortunate to get into Carleton College in Minnesota, where I majored in math and played on the baseball team. One of the highlights was winning the conference championship in my sophomore year, with great support from the entire student body. 

The next season, a scout from the Washington Senators [now the Texas Rangers] came to watch one of our games. Playing professional baseball was the furthest thing from my mind, but I was drafted by the Senators in the fifth round of the first major league draft. Around the same time, I was also lucky to be accepted into Booth’s MBA Program. 

What was it like juggling baseball and graduate school? 

I spent half my year with scholars and the other half with jocks. I went to school in the fall and winter trimesters, as they were called back then, did spring training in March, and played ball all spring and summer. 

I learned something from each group and enjoyed the best of both. At Booth, I learned how to solve problems from Accounting Hall of Fame professors Sidney Davidson, Nick Dopuch, and Bill Beaver. Then I would go play against Baseball Hall of Fame athletes like Johnny Bench and Rod Carew.  

Although I played triple-A ball for a while, one step below the major leagues, I could never see myself taking that next step. The guys I played with had been stars since childhood—and along with that came loads of self-confidence. I lacked that critical ingredient. 

Did you have plans for what would come next?  

When my baseball career ended, by chance I met the incoming president of Kennedy-King College in Chicago. He asked if I’d like to teach there. I did it for three years and loved it. But I needed my PhD to teach at a four-year university, so I enrolled at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and earned my PhD in accounting before heading to Michigan State, where I’ve been ever since. 

In the accounting classroom or on the baseball diamond, I loved teaching and being on a college campus. I just retired after almost 50 years at MSU. 

How did you come to write a book about baseball? 

While playing and coaching, I would see players do foolish things or make mistakes because they weren’t really concentrating, and I would make mental notes. Many of them wound up being about base running. Writing a book, putting things down on paper in a clear and understandable way, is a challenge, but it also comes with satisfaction, particularly if it’s about something that you know a lot about and love. 

William H. Beaver, MBA ’65, PhD ’65, was an assistant professor at Booth from 1965 to 1969. He was elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1996. Sidney Davidson was the Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Accounting before his death in 2007. He taught at the school for 41 years and was elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1983. Nicholas Dopuch, who passed away in 2018, was on the Booth accounting faculty in the 1960s. He was elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 2001.