Why Should You Read “One Summer in the Minors”?
Did you love Bull Durham, Major League, or The Naked Gun? “One Summer in the Minors” has elements of all three of these classic movies, with one major difference; this work is non-fiction. When I started faxing teams all over the country at the behest of Atlanta Braves scout John Stewart, I only wanted to find that one team that would take a chance on me.
As fate would have it, that team was the Greenville Bluesmen of the Texas-Louisiana League. I set my course for Greenville, MS thinking only about making a strong impression from the start. What I wasn’t thinking about or anticipating was any of the ridiculous, hilarious, and incredibly rare things that would occur throughout that brief season. It was my only season in pro ball, and I knew before it was over that it would eventually turn into a book, that I would write a narrative non-fiction work chronicling the best of it from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Well what was so crazy and funny about that season anyway, you ask?
How about mascots, including perhaps the most famous mascot in all the world, getting proper beat-downs? If that’s not your thing (then again, whose thing isn’t giving a mascot a good whomping? Or at least reading about a lunatic that goes on mascot-destroying rampages…) then perhaps you will prefer a good old fashioned clubhouse caper, where my teammate and former major leaguer, Alejandro Sanchez, gets his National League championship ring stolen, in a classic case of whodunnit. Or maybe reading the only first-hand account of the most bizarre perfect game there ever was. Or maybe learning our survival and coping strategies on a dismal team mired in last place, and yet still being collectively crazy enough as a team to love coming to the ballpark? Whatever your “thing” is, I promise that my book will make you laugh, probably out loud. If it does, I will have done my job, because that season made me laugh. And it felt good like laughter always does.
Me pitching for the Greenville Bluesmen
