up close are this girl’s best friend by DONNA SOPER photos by GREG NEWINGTON or the average fan, America’s her expertise in the area of the collec - Ffavorite pastime is a simple game. tive bargaining agreement in Major Whether it’s a Little League game or a League Baseball, particularly those pro - Major League game, baseball, as a sport, visions in the agreement that have is generally easy to follow. impacted the competitive balance in Yet for those whose enthusiasm baseball. exceeds that of the average spectator, In just a few short years, Dosh, the game of baseball and the industry who practices real estate law at Taylor that supports it can be quite complex, English Duma in Marietta, has turned a and there is no shortage of folks who longtime hobby into a second career dedicate their careers to dissecting it that consumes much of her free time. In from every angle. fact, the committed baseball blogger Take Kristi Dosh, for example. At and new contributor to SportsMoney E first glance, this 28-year-old Atlanta on Forbes.com is hard at work on her attorney doesn’t strike you as someone first book, which bears the working title “A good friend of mine used to say: ‘This is a very simple game. You throw the ball; who would be versed in the intricacies Balancing Baseball: How Collective you catch the ball; you hit the ball. Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose; of the sport. However, after even the Bargaining Has Changed the Major shortest of conversations, it becomes Leagues. The book is scheduled to be sometimes it rains.’ Think about that for a while.” – EBBY CALVIN “NUKE” LALOOSH, “BULL DURHAM” apparent that this confident, intelligent published by McFarland & Co. Inc. in young woman is no average fan. In fact, early 2011. Dosh has gained quite a following for To understand how her passion 76 lifestyles n july/august 2010 july/august 2010 n lifestyles 77 up close for baseball evolved, Dosh says you have to go back to when High School (former Brave Jeff Francoeur’s alma mater), Dosh, who E she was a young girl who was developing a common interest with said she always wanted to be a lawyer, enrolled in Oglethorpe her dad. University, where she received a bachelor of arts in politics, and then This confident, intelligent young woman is no average fan. In fact, “My mom worked at night my whole life,” she says, “and so it in the University of Florida Law School. Dosh has gained quite a following for her expertise in the area of the was just me and my dad at home. He had been a baseball fan “When I was in law school down in Florida, I started writing collective bargaining agreement in Major League Baseball. throughout his life, so we watched the Braves together every night.” on the Braves blog (Chop ‘n Change) just so I would have someone After graduating from Parkview to talk to about what was going on with the Braves,” Dosh says. Toward the end of law school, however, she took a tax class and convinced a professor to allow her to McFarland & Company, which would eventually become the pub - ing model through the collective bargaining agreement was not only write her paper on something a little unorthodox: lisher of my book. It was through the conversations I had with those thought-provoking, but extremely interesting to the students,” internal taxation in baseball, as related to revenue men that I decided the book would expand on my paper and cover Brison said. “For many of them, this was their first time being sharing and the luxury tax in MLB’s collective all the major provisions of the collective bargaining agreement,” exposed to information that can be complex and hard to bargaining agreement. It was a topic she knew Dosh said. follow. Kristi delivered the information in a manner that not only only a little about at the time, but she By last fall, Dosh had put together a book proposal with a few showed her passion for the subject matter, but made it easy for the immersed herself into researching and writ - sample chapters, and in January, she signed a contract with students to understand.” ing the paper, which subsequently was McFarland Publishing. While she was working on the proposal, Dosh Dosh also started her own blog “It’s a Swing and a Miss” and published by the University of Denver began to search for avenues to gain more exposure as an authori - joined Twitter too (@BaseblEconoMiss). And, from her exposure on Sports & Entertainment Law Review ty on her topic. the Internet, she was soon asked to become a contributor to in 2007. Natasha Brison, clinical instructor in Georgia State University’s SportsMoney on Forbes.com. In June, she was preparing to launch Then, a fortuitous encounter with an masters program in sports administration, said Dosh contacted her kristidosh.com , a website that will pool together all of her writings. editor at Baseball America at her first law last year about speaking in one of her classes. In what little time she has to actually watch baseball, Dosh said firm led to her current book deal. “I decided to invite her to the revenue generation class,” she tries to make the rounds—the Braves rounds, that is. “I live in “I told him about my paper, and he was Brison said. “Her knowledge of the economics of Major League Gwinnett, so I like the flexibility of going to see the Gwinnett Braves the one who introduced me to an editor at Baseball and the evolution of the luxury tax and the revenue shar - and the Rome Braves, as well as the Atlanta Braves.” n 78 lifestyles n july/august 2010 july/august 2010 n lifestyles 79.