Anthony Avitabile will never hit a home run, strike out a batter or make a spectacular catch to win a game, yet he may be the MVP–most valuable person–in major league baseball today. The national pastime's director of risk management, in outlining the demands of his “dream job,” was no doubt the envy of everyone in the room as he described his work during a speech last month in Honolulu at the Risk and Insurance Management Society's annual conference.

Even though a life in baseball sounds like fun and games, when you come right down to it, insurance and risk management are no different in professional sports than in any other field, Mr. Avitabile made clear. A risk manager must deal with an insurance industry few outsiders understand, and coax everyone to deal with worst-case scenarios they would rather not think about.

The challenge was daunting for Mr. Avitabile and his colleagues, as they tried to convince 30 autonomous clubs to boost risk management and save money by working together to control losses. “Some member clubs didn't want a league-wide program,” he recalled. “A few had corporate parents with sophisticated risk management systems in place, and their own local broker they were comfortable with.”