Not Rosie O'Donnell.

Tyler Kepner has a fun article in the Times, which is prosaically titled “Pirates’ Ross Ohlendorf Exercised Brain with Federal Internship.” The piece focuses on the middling Pittsburgh starter, who spent a couple months this offseason working as an intern for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

It would seem that the rare professional athlete who is intellectual and well-rounded could have such opportunities for the taking. Ohlendorf wisely uses these open doors as learning experiences. An excerpt from the piece:

“Ohlendorf, 27, has the unusual combination of superior intelligence, athleticism, curiosity and drive. It helped him become a star at Princeton while earning a degree in operations research and financial engineering. It has helped him develop into a dependable major leaguer who was 11-10 with a 3.92 earned run average in 29 starts for Pittsburgh last season.

The internship was the product of a midsummer brainstorm, which can be rather powerful for a person with a 3.75 grade-point average in the Ivy League. Ohlendorf had spent a previous winter as an intern in the finance office of the University of Texas system.

He also helps his father manage a herd of longhorn at the family’s Rocking O Ranch near Austin, Texas.”