#johnfeinstein

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I guess in the spirit of being a baseball enthusiast and a librarian, I guess a reader's advisory for a good baseball book might be due. 

I recently finished John Feinstein's "Where Nobody Knows Your Name."  It is beautiful, depressing, and really gives you perspective of what it means to be a professional baseball player.  This book considers the plight of numerous minor league baseball players.  It's easy for people to be cynical about multi-million dollar athletes who play a game for a living, but for others, there are athletes who are chasing a dream and that dream is not going to come true, or for some like Scott Podsenik, the dream passes them by before their very eyes.  Even the tease of seeing the Major Leagues only means sleepless nights in airports, or in the rain changing tires along an on ramp, leaving wives and children behind for an uncertain future with no Plan B. 

Pete Incaviglia infamously said that people incorrectly think ballplayers all make millions of dollars, but instead only make a few hundred thousand.  It sounded like an out of touch "let them eat cake" statement regarding the supposed ignorance of baseball fans.  But the idea that there really are thousands of ballplayers who have a handful of years to make all the money that's supposed to last them the rest of their life is sobering when you realize that many of them truly have no Plan B, that they are not going to get that money, and that life can be one giant disappointment. 

In the end, they are playing a children's game.  A game that puts a smile on our face and gives us years of memories and stories to tell our children and grandchildren.  The charm of minor league baseball is enormous.  It's nice to have that perspective, knowing the good evenings and memories that are given to us are often made by those who are chasing a dream that will never come true.