News
Road to The Show not an easy one
While some quickly make it to bigs, others toil in Minors
By Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com
06/17/09 12:30 AM ET
It was yet another hot July afternoon in Round Rock, Tex., in 2008, and John Baker's patience had run dry.The catcher, now with the Marlins, was in the middle of his seventh year in the Minor Leagues after making his fourth All-Star team, but his dream of being a big leaguer had still not come true.
And he was just tired.
Tired of putting up solid numbers at every level of the farm system, but continually being passed over.
Tired of painstakingly waiting his turn while younger, less-accomplished catchers got playing time over him.
And simply tired of the cold, harsh reality that can sometimes be the business of baseball.
"What am I doing here?" Baker rhetorically asked one of his Albuquerque Isotopes teammates that day. "I need to go home and go back to school."
Baker was a fourth-round pick in the heralded 2002 "Moneyball" Draft of Billy Beane's Athletics, but he found himself riding the backseat to Oakland's No. 35 overall selection that year, Alabama catcher Jeremy Brown.
Brown obviously became the organization's top priority, and Baker -- no matter what -- was pretty much stagnant for five long years.
But Baker's isn't an isolated situation. Not even close.
"It's very, very difficult," said Giants catcher Bengie Molina, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner whose patience was constantly tested through seven years in the Minors. "When you're busting your butt, and you're doing everything right, and you're putting up the numbers and working your way up, and all of a sudden -- because of the Draft choice, or because they've got a lot of money invested -- a guy is going to [play] over you and nobody pays attention to you. That's really tough."
Dale Thayer knows what that's like.
The right-handed reliever -- a 47th-round pick in 1999 -- spent the better part of seven years in the Minor Leagues before finally making it on the Rays this season, at 28 years of age, despite sporting an ERA no higher than 3.00 every season while in the Padres' and Rays' organizations.
"I took a while," Thayer said. "But if you keep going at it, good things will happen."
The problem, however, is many players can't afford to keep going.
Financial issues
A player in his first Minor League season will make $850 a month, and his first year in Triple-A won't get him more than $2,150 a month -- an income finding the player's pockets only during the season.
Giants reliever Justin Miller was a fifth-round Draft pick of the Rockies in 1997, but didn't have a full season in the big leagues until '02, with the Blue Jays. The 31-year-old right-hander was married with a child at 19, and by the time he reached the Majors, he said he was already $25,000 in debt.
| "You learn a lot about yourself, your resiliency, dealing with being a Minor League baseball player for a long time. It's not an easy job. It's tough physically, it's tough mentally, it's tough psychologically. But playing one day [in the Majors], for me, was definitely worth it." |
| -- John Baker |
"The Minor Leagues just kill you," said Miller, who worked at Walmart and Blockbuster Video during the offseason to make more money. "I wish baseball would do something for Minor Leaguers to make more money. I understand the gap from the Major Leagues, but it's not livable."
In 2004, a San Francisco Chronicle survey showed 42 players in the Major Leagues at that time had graduated from a four-year college. But in the 1994 First-Year Player Draft, for example, 11.4 percent ended up making it to the big leagues at any point.
For the many others who linger in the Minor Leagues and eventually deal with the dilemma of chasing the seemingly impossible dream, or getting another job to better support their families, it's a tough situation.
"I have no school, I have no education -- I went to junior college for barely a year," said Cardinals rookie right-hander Blake Hawksworth, who was initially on the fast track to the big leagues when he went into '04 as St. Louis' No. 1 prospect, according to Baseball America, but was passed over after ankle and shoulder surgeries.
"Whatever our field, baseball is going to be a part of our life because that's our whole resume."
A grind
You often hear the term, "Baseball is a business."
But while the business side is played out with contracts in air-conditioned offices, its sometimes-harsh realities are lived by the journeymen in the small ballparks, long bus rides and sparse amenities of the Minor Leagues.
Simply put, it's a grueling line of work.
"Nothing is given to you," said Rays reliever Joe Nelson, who made just five big league appearances in his first nine years in professional baseball. "And when you fight through injuries, or you fight through three years in Triple-A, it's rewarding to actually get to the big leagues. You do it for yourself, your family and your friends, but you also do it to show every one of those people that kept questioning you that you made it, and you're living your dream."
Baker eventually lived out his dream, and he hasn't looked back since.
But the road was rough.
Finally getting a shot
The Alameda, Calif., native said he knew when he was cut the first week of Spring Training in '07 that he didn't stand a chance in the A's organization. Shortly thereafter, Baker was shipped over to the Marlins and ended up hitting .285 with eight home runs and 41 RBIs in 89 games for Triple-A Albuquerque that season.
But, initially, Baker kept experiencing more of the same.
For the first game of the '08 season, a furious Baker saw he wasn't in the Isotopes' starting lineup, and he had to listen to his manager explain to him that, even though he was coming off a solid year, Brett Hayes -- a second-round pick by the Marlins in '05 -- was now with the team, so Baker needed to play the backup role.
Hayes then got hurt during the first game of the season, and Baker took over as the starter and was hitting over .300 for around the first three months. But he was still the forgotten man.
Another Marlins catcher, Paul Hoover, was brought back up to the big leagues, and Mike Rabelo -- who came over in the deal that sent Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera to the Tigers in December 2007 -- was down in Triple-A, so Baker was told he needed to step aside once again.
That's when Baker decided he'd had enough.
The 28-year-old stormed to the bullpen in Round Rock that day and told now-Pirates Minor Leaguer Scott Nestor about how he was going to give it all up.
But what he got in return from Nestor -- three years his junior -- was encouragement.
"'What do I do, what do I have to prove?'" Baker asked Nestor. "'This is the second time I've been on the [Pacific Coast League] All-Star team -- fourth time in six years I've made an All-Star team -- and with seemingly no chance to ever realize my dreams of playing Major League Baseball.'
"And he looked at me, and he said, 'Hey, you're going to play in the big leagues this year. It's got to happen. You've gone through too much, it has to happen for you.'"
Then finally, about a week after that conversation, it did.
The Marlins needed another catcher after Matt Treanor landed on the disabled list, and Baker ended up being the guy.
Then, during his second game on July 10 at Dodger Stadium -- about 300 miles from where he grew up -- Baker notched his first big league hit against the Dodgers' Chan Ho Park, and that one crack of the bat sent the ball flying out for his first home run as well.
At last, that feeling of arrival overcame him as he rounded the bases.
A feeling shared by so many of those whose path to the big leagues wasn't so smoothly paved.
"You learn a lot about yourself, your resiliency, dealing with being a Minor League baseball player for a long time," said Baker, who hit .299 in 61 games last season and has been the Marlins' everyday catcher since his call-up. "It's not an easy job. It's tough physically, it's tough mentally, it's tough psychologically. But playing one day here, for me, was definitely worth it."
Alden Gonzalez is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
