Q&A with Bill Firkus, Astros assistant general manager

Bill Firkus began his career in the healthcare investment banking world, but it wasn’t his passion. The idea of working in baseball was appealing, but like for so many others, it didn’t seem realistic.

That changed in 2013, when Firkus applied for a job with the Astros that he had seen online, ultimately beginning a decade-long run during which Houston won two World Series titles.

Firkus, who was promoted to assistant general manager in November, sat down with MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand to discuss his pre-baseball career, his work on the medical side of the game, how his Berkeley business degree has helped him in the front office and much more in the latest edition of Executive Access.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

MLB.com: You grew up outside of St. Paul, Minn. Safe to assume you were a Twins fan?

Firkus: Yeah. I grew up in a suburb called White Bear Lake just outside of St. Paul. Huge Twins fan; they won two World Series when I was growing up, so that kind of shaped my childhood and my passion for baseball.

MLB.com: Was baseball always your favorite sport?

Firkus: Big time. Between the success that the Twins had, some of the stars they had at the time that I became a huge fan of, it’s really the way I closely connected with my father when I was growing up. He was a coach for my team, so I would make him hit me grounders and pitch to me all the time. Between the fan side of me and the family side, it became the thing that I wanted to do all the time.

MLB.com: You went to the University of Wisconsin for undergrad, getting a finance degree. Was a career in sports your goal at the time?

Firkus: I always had baseball in the back of my mind. I made some early career choices that weren’t for passion and happiness; it was about where can I get a business background, and where, frankly, can I make money? I came to find out with years of retrospect that wasn’t the best decision. I always thought about baseball, I just didn’t put in the effort and didn’t know at the time what the opportunities could be and just assumed that there weren’t opportunities for people like myself. I always wanted to get in, but I started out the career more so going for money and understanding business better.

MLB.com: You went on to get your business degree at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley. What were your plans when you graduated from there?

Firkus: I did healthcare investment banking before business school. I wasn’t all that passionate about…