Growing up on a dairy farm in New Hampshire, Neal Huntington knew at an early age that farming was not his calling. But he wanted to embark on a career for which he had the same passion that his father felt for the farm.
Baseball was that calling, though despite a solid playing career at Amherst College, Huntington knew playing pro ball was a long shot. Working in a front office proved to be the next-best option, so he began his journey with the Expos in the early 1990s thanks to Dan Duquette -- another Amherst alumnus.
Huntington worked under Mark Shapiro in Cleveland for a decade before joining the Pirates as general manager in 2007, building the foundation for a Pittsburgh team that finally ended its 21-year postseason drought in '13.