Review of "Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball," by John Feinstein

 Review of

Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball, by John Feinstein ISBN 9780307949585

Five out of five stars

Deep insight into the minor leagues

 All sports nonfiction books provide insight into the machinations of the action to some degree. However, few provide the depth of revelations like this book. The main characters are a group of baseball players, managers, coaches and one umpire that have spent an extended about of time in the minor leagues. Many of the players have spent at least some time in the majors, some little more than a cup of coffee, but others had significant success, yet for whatever reason, ended up back in the minors and still retain the dream of going back.

 For me, there were two major revelations in this book. The first was about the umpires, who also start at the very bottom and slowly work their way up the levels until some of them get the call to be full-time in the majors. The most recent contracts with the major league umpires provide for in-season vacation relief, so there is a list of umpires in the high minors who are on call for brief callups. One of the characters described in the book is umpire Mark Lollo. From his experiences the reader learns how tough an umpiring career is. He has reached the level of triple A and has worked in some major league games. However, there are no statistics such as a batting or earned run average that can be used to evaluate an umpire. At the end, Lollo has reached his peak and is told that he is at the end of his career as an umpire. It was a bit of a surprise to learn how difficult the profession is.

 The second major revelation concerns the actions in the triple A minors, one level below the majors. The compositions of the teams are a complex entity, the players generally fall into one of a few categories. The first contains the players that are prize prospects that will soon be called up to the majors. Everyone on the team, including the manager and coaches understand this and act accordingly. In that case, player development takes precedence over the success of the team.

 The second category are the players that have reached the majors but have been demoted. Some of them are bitter and resentful and create problems while others resolve to improve themselves so that they can go back. Then there are those that have likely reached their peak at AAA and refuse to give up their dream of the major leagues.

 This combination makes for an interesting dynamic when it comes to fielding a team and competing for a championship. With all of this complexity, managing the team is a very difficult task. Yet, one manager has a standard response to a player that complains about their position in the hierarchy. “Play better and they will call you up.”

 The insight into the reality of minor league baseball gleaned from this book is very educational. The minor leagues are a place where dreams go to be realized for a few and to die for the majority.

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