MINOR PLAYERS, MAJOR DREAMS

"Mandel has given us a riveting insider's account of the experience of playing minor league baseball. A must for all aficionados of our National Game." - Benjamin G. Rader, author of Baseball: A History of America's Game. "Brett Mandel has written a minor book about the minor leagues, but a good and honest one. No Plimptonesque exhibitionism is to be found here, and no new-journalistic narcissism: just a plain, straightforward account that is amusing, revealing and affecting." - Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post. "Here's the sleeper of spring....Mandel has a gifted eye for detail, be it the rookie pitcher who sticks a feather inside his cap before each game or the frustrated manager who takes out his anger during batting practice by plunking his own players....Snap this book up." - John Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News. "Mandel doesn't romanticize the experience: the money is poor, and the odds are stacked against the young players, most of whom, he notes incredulously, are unaware of the unique opportunity they've been given. A fine baseball book....Every aspiring big leaguer should read this revealing account of day-to-day life in the low minors." - Booklist

Save money by ordering  Minor Players, Major Dreams  from Amazon.com today!

In 1994, I spent a season signed to a minor league player's contract to write a book about the minor league experience and tell the story of the young men who chase their major league dreams in the little show. Minor Players, Major Dreams is the result of that season of dreams.

Brett Mandel, tired of his nine-to five job, dreamed of a life of baseball instead: not merely as a spectator, not in weekend pickup games, but in professional baseball. Unlike millions of other dreamers, he made it happen. In 1994, he convinced the newly formed Ogden (Utah) Raptors of the Pioneer League to allow him to join the team and write a book about the minor league experience - and the Raptors' first year in baseball.

The Pioneer League is a rookie league designed for first-year professionals, fresh from college - or even younger. It is the first step many take toward the major league career that will open to very few. Most are destined to last only a brief moment, but that moment is full of promise and was particularly so for the Ogden Raptors, a new team for a city that had a proud baseball heritage but had been without a team in recent years. Minor Players, Major Dreams is a wonderful insider's view of the low minors and the young men chasing dreams as big as the skies they play under in Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Alberta.

Brett Mandel serves as Financial and Policy Analysis for the Philadelphia City Controller's Office. This is his first book.

FanLink is a great source for minor league information, chat, and stories as well as THE source for Baseball America on the Web.
 

ATTHEYARD.com is the perfect place to get inside the world of minor league baseball, full of player diaries, tips, and merchandise.
 
 

Drop me a line at  brett@libertynet.org to tell me what you think about the book.  I'd love to hear your reactions and I'll be happy to respond or answer any questions.