My strange relationship with minor league baseball

To a young baseball fan, there's nothing more exciting than being invited on the field before your local pro-team is set to play a ball game.

I was a young, bright blue eyed, blonde headed kid standing in between second and third base, waiting for my "McDonald's Baseball Buddy" to hit the field. Yeah, those little kids you see at Goldeyes games that each match up with a player, I was one of those once.

I met Jack Johnson. I think it was in the year 2000, and I can honestly say I don't remember what he did with his baseball career after that day. But I don't think he made it to the majors, he might not have even played after that year.

Not a lot of ball players do. You have to be pretty exceptional to get there. But to an eight year old kid, that didn't matter. He was a professional athlete, and that seemed pretty cool.

The Major Leagues: Every Young Baseball Fans Dream 

The Major League Baseball draft lasts 40 rounds. With 30 teams that means that 1200 players get drafted into the MLB every single year. Not to mention players that get plucked from different leagues around the world, like Japan, Mexico, or Cuba.

The number of players in the MLB currently sits around 1,200. And that is with the expanded 40 man roster teams are allowed to carry in September. Regular season, and playoffs they can only carry 25 players. Which means in any other month aside from September there is only about 750 baseball players in the MLB.

It's not an easy sport to make it to the highest level.

That's not to say that any other sport is easy to make it in. No sport is easy. But baseball is exceptionally tough. In the baseball business, you could be batting .300 in Triple-A, which is pretty exceptional. But if you make more mistakes in the field than a guy who's batting .240, you could find yourself out of a job. On the flip side, you could never make a mistake in the field but only hit .220 in Double-A and find yourself out of affiliated baseball and without a place to play.

It's a pretty cut-throat business. But many stick with it and end up in the minors. Most players who find themselves without a job in any organization have options across the continent to keep playing ball.

For example, let's look at Casey Haerther of the 2013 Winnipeg Goldeyes. He hit .270 with Arkansas in Double-A during the 2012 season with 10 homers and 56 RBI. For most, that's enough to catch the eye of the big club for at least a spring training invite. But that was not the case as Haerther was released at the end of the 2012 season and ended up with the Goldeyes in 2013, batting .307 with 10 homers and 66 RBI in what was a pretty successful season for him. He was a young guy who just slipped through the cracks of the system he was playing for.

On the other side of the spectrum. We have a guy like Ray Sadler. Who was also a Goldeye for half of the 2013 season. He's a veteran who's been to the majors before. He only spent three games with the pirates but he hit a home run. Not many independent ball players can say they've homered in the majors. Those three games would be the only time he'd spend in the majors. He just couldn't stay at that level.

Four members of the Goldeyes in the past two seasons have played in the MLB. Ray Sadler and Yurendell de Caster each played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tyler Graham got into ten games with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Chris Roberson played 85 games with the Philadelphia Phillies over two seasons, making only two errors in his time there. They are now all playing independent ball.

That's the kind of game that baseball is. One week you could be on top of the world. The next you could go 0 for 10 at the plate and find yourself out of a job. You have to be good. Very good.

Salaries in the Minor Leagues and Independent Baseball vs MLB Salaries

There are currently 9 independent baseball leagues in North America. As well as leagues in Mexico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, where many players play winter ball.

The average amount of money a player makes in Triple-A is $2,150 a month. Double-A, $1,500 a month. Anyone below that level will be lucky to make $1,200 a month. The Mexican league pays their players a bit better, a player will usually make about $10,000 a season in Mexico. In a league like the American Association, a very high end player will end up making $1,200 a month. Rookies will only make about $800.

Most players who play independent ball will head for Mexico if they have the opportunity. As an example, I will use Goldeyes CF Tyler Graham.

Graham was traded to Winnipeg from Fargo early in the season. After spending a short time here, Graham had a chance to go and play in Mexico. He did for three and a half weeks, and made more money in those three weeks than he made all year on his contract with the Goldeyes. 

The travel is also not easy. In some leagues like the Can-Am and Atlantic league the teams are all in very close proximity to each other. The American Association, however, isn't like that. Though the Goldeyes sometimes only have to travel to Fargo, St. Paul, or Sioux Falls, they still take long trips to Nebraska, Indiana, Iowa, Texas, Kansas, and even out east in Quebec and New York to play inter-league games with the Can-Am league.

On the flip side. Team's like Wichita and Laredo make the long trek to Winnipeg, as did Quebec and Trois-Rivieres from the Can-Am league.

Some people ask me why I like this lower level of baseball. Everything I've just described makes independent baseball sound crappy. And obviously the level of play is far below major league standards.

I mean, why would a guy play for $900 bucks a month for four months and make barely enough money to live just to play baseball? Why do they pack themselves into boiling, crammed busses with no A/C and take 10-24 hour bus rides for next-to-no money? I've even asked myself those questions at times. Why should I like something that I've often heard described as "a joke"?

The truth is I can't speak for any of the players. I don't know why they do what they do. My best guess, simply put, is that they do what they love, and they love doing it.

While these guys may not be playing in the majors, they are still professionals. That is not a matter of opinion. Which is why it irks me when people say that it's "a joke." Anyone who wants to challenge that notion can step in and try to hit an 85 mph fastball, or a curveball that starts at your chest but ends at your knees. It's not an easy. So imagine how tough it would be to make it to the majors where pitchers can throw 90-100 mph fastballs with consistency.

I find what these guys do admirable. Day in and day out, from the start of the season to the end of the season with very few days off in between they show up to the ball park, and do what they love.

I also find the salaries of MLB players to be disgustingly high. To the point where I feel sick knowing that MLB players make so much more than minor league players.

Alex Rodriguez, who just began playing again after a cheating scandal and could still face a life-time ban makes $28 million dollars a year. The payment distribution in baseball is so unbalanced it's a wonder that minor league team's don't demand more money from their parent clubs in the MLB.

While minor league players struggle to make ends meet, A-Rod has more money than anyone on this planet knows what to do with.

Usually, when people ask me why I like minor league baseball, they expect me to give an answer similar to "I just love the game". Well, I do love the game, but I also like watching players who work hard at what they do for very little money on the off chance that someone picks them up and they get to affiliated ball. Or even just playing ball for the sake of playing ball. Call them delusional if you'd like, but I admire them. 

Don't Get Me Wrong

Before I conclude, I'd like to clarify that I am not bashing Major League Baseball. I'm a Blue Jays fan, I love watching the MLB on TV, and the best players in the world play there. They are world class athletes at the peak of their sport, and most of them have the skills and abilities to be there no matter what they did.

To me, minor league baseball is baseball in it's purest form. They don't play for fame, or money, or sponsorship deals. As cheesy as this may sound they play because they love the game. I love seeing players work their asses off not because they get paid millions of dollars to do so, but because they love the game they're playing and they want to work hard. They hold on to that dream of playing ball professionally that so many young baseball fans have.

I like knowing that there are independent teams that draw good crowds night in and night out. The Goldeyes have consistently led all independent baseball in the past five years, averaging about 5,880 fans a game.

I like seeing great ballparks get filled up with fans who want to watch baseball, like Shaw Park, or the beautiful Haymarket Park in Lincoln, Nebraska, the home of the Lincoln Saltdogs.

Playing and watching baseball is something I've always enjoyed since I was a kid, and I understand in a town like Winnipeg, baseball isn't at the top of the list. But it's great, cheap, and fun entertainment. I'll always suggest that if you have nothing to do on a warm summer night, head down to Shaw Park. Pay 5 bucks to get into the ball park and enjoy good food, cold beer, and some baseball.