Baseball life near the top

Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball

By John Feinstein

Doubleday. 384 pp. $26.95

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Reviewed by Jon Caroulis

Near the beginning of Where Nobody Knows Your Name, John Feinstein's first-rate and absorbing book on minor-league baseball, much-traveled pitcher Chris Schwinden observes that no kid ever pretends to be playing in triple-A:

"No one goes into the backyard and says to himself, 'Here's Schwinden on the mound for the Buffalo Bisons.' "

The Bisons are the triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. They are one step below the majors, which, like Nirvana, are very hard to reach.

Where Nobody Knows Your Name looks at what Schwinden and others at the triple-A level deal with and experience while trying to make it to the big leagues. The title refers to the tendency of baseball fans to know who the top prospects on a minor-league roster are without usually knowing the names of the other players.

Feinstein, a sportswriter, author, and host of a show on CBS Sports Radio, interviewed dozens of people in triple-A baseball - including several who played for the Phillies farm team in Allentown, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, where their boss was current Phils manager Ryne Sandberg. "Now that Sandberg is managing in the big leagues," Feinstein writes, "his players would be well advised not to bring . . . 'major league attitude' to the ballpark each day because it won't go over well with the manager."

While many are quoted, Feinstein focuses on "three pitchers," including Schwinden, "two outfielders, a designated hitter, two managers, and an umpire."

"Each, in his own way, defines the struggle of people who are extremely good at what they do - but not as good as they want to be at given moments," Feinstein writes.

Unlike the lower minors, where players are in their teens or early 20s, some triple-A players are nearing 40. During the 2012 season, one saw his dream end, one finally reached his goal, and another was released in midseason, but in October was a key contributor to a major-league team's playoff run. "His was one of the stories that keep minor-league players going," Feinstein notes.

Brett Tomko, 39, won 100 games in the majors, but during his 100th win he felt something pop in his shoulder. He had to have surgery, derailing his big-league career, so Tomko rode buses in the minors, trying to make it back to the majors. "I couldn't walk away," he told Feinstein.

Scott Podsednik, a speedy outfielder, and Scott Elarton, a 6-foot-7 pitcher, signed with the Phillies and hoped to make the big-league team out of spring training, but both began the season in Allentown. One made it to the majors, the other didn't, and both wondered whether they wanted to give baseball one more try the following year.

Podsednik enjoyed a "dream" moment when he hit a walk-off home run in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series, but seven years later he was trying to win a job as a backup outfielder for the Phillies. Even World Series heroes have no guarantees.

One of the joys of this book is discovering the culture of triple-A baseball that Feinstein reveals: Without giving anything away, you'll learn why Aug. 1 is the hardest day for triple-A players, and why they all gather at the TV set when something specific happens during a major-league game.

Every manager interviewed said the best part of the job was telling a player he was going to the majors, whether it was a hotshot prospect like Evan Longoria or someone who had played 16 years in the minors before getting a chance at the Show (and a few days later was back in triple-A - but he made it!).

Feinstein, author of A Season on the Brink: A Year With Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers and one of the better but lesser-known baseball books, Play Ball: The Life and Troubled Times of Major League Baseball, deftly handles the high and low moments each person experiences.

Feinstein had access to players, coaches, and front-office types who have great stories to tell. One manager said minor-league baseball is baseball. Perhaps something in the human psyche is drawn to struggle, the struggle to persevere when a dream is within sight, even if that dream, being in the majors, is never realized.

All of the people Feinstein focuses on are thoughtful - they bare their souls as they talk of why they keep chasing the dream of returning to or making it to the major leagues.