For 27 years, Rick Dell was a fixture at the College of New Jersey as its baseball coach, plotting strategy and instilling baseball fundamentals in his young players.
But in 2007, Dell decided he was ready for a change -- and quite a change it was. He journeyed to China to become the director of baseball operations in Asia for Major League Baseball (MLB), the world's top baseball league.
"I feel fortunate to have this job. This is the dream job for me," Dell said during an interview in his office in downtown Beijing.
For Dell, the abrupt career move was not a total surprise. He has been a "baseball ambassador" of sorts since 1989, when he worked in the former Soviet Union and later in Italy. He started to work exclusively with the MLB in 1994, teaching summer courses and coaching in 16 Asian countries as of 2007.
The decision to move a world away was made easier when his entire family and colleagues strongly encouraged him to do so.
"Nobody around me, the people at the College of New Jersey or my family, never hesitated to say 'you've got to do it.' So that was pretty good," Dell recalled.
When he left for China, Dell told people that the baseball aspect of the job would be easy. The bigger challenge would be building relationships and learning about the culture, which would entail understanding the local people and demonstrating his cultural awareness.
"Baseball is always the easy part," the 58-year-old coach said. "The challenge is that you've got to develop relationships and you have to develop trust."
During his first two years in China, he worked quite hard, but in his mind, he didn't see a lot of return for his efforts.
But the veteran coach didn't get frustrated. A true man of the world -- he has been to 74 countries -- Dell is accustomed to handling challenging environments.
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