A Player to be Named Later

This was a documentary that I found at the library that followed the Indianapolis Indians during the 2000 season. It focused on a group of five players that all had the potential to make it to the big leagues and their struggles to get there.

There is a huge difference for these players from playing Triple A ball and in the big leagues. The pay increase is a huge bonus. But the pressure that is relieved once they arrive to the majors is one of the biggest rewards they get.

There's also a bizarre feeling for managers and owners of minor league teams. While they want to have a good team and win, they are at the mercy of the major league teams they are affiliated with reguarding what players they get and for how long. You could be putting a nice run together and trying to win their championship and your best guys can be taken away from you at any time.

Alot of the managers and higher ups that were running the Indians at the time said repeatedly that their first priority was player development, and not win's and losses. But I can't see how you can be brought up all your life to play a game to win, and then hit a ceiling where you are instructed and expected to disregard everything you knew before and not care about winning and losing. No matter how good a player you are, if you are trying to become a better player I think it would be really difficult to stay positive if your team keeps losing.

I always assumed that if you were playing professional sports you were making alot of money. But the truth is that most of the players in the minors make about $40k a year in AAA ball. They play 144 games in 150 games. There is just no let up to their schedule. While $40k doesn't a pauper make, but it's far from well off. I was also surprised that most major league analysts predict only 6% of players that are drafted in baseball ever make it to the major leagues. Even smaller of that percentage actually maintain their careers in the majors.

The numbers are a huge obstacle to overcome if you are a young guy hoping to play pro ball one day.

It was a pretty entertaining doc that showed some of the ups and downs of pro ball. And I do loves me some good doc's.