Bluegrass Baseball

Forget the steroid-addled, overpaid, and unmotivated players: Americas pastime is still alive and well, and is still the heartfelt sport its always beenin the Minor Leagues. And nowhere is this truer than in Kentucky, whose rich baseball history continues to play out in the four teams profiled in this book. Following these teams through the 2010 seasonthe triumphs, struggles, and big league hopes and dreamsthe book tells the larger story of baseball in Americas smaller venues, where the game in its purest form is still valued and warmly embraced. The story begins before the season with national-anthem singing tryouts in Lexington, then tags along with players, staffs, and fans at home, in the office, and on the field, offering a rare glimpse of the unglamorous reality of Minor League ball. From the front-office staff in Bowling Green planning kooky promotions, to a trainer grocery shopping for a team on forty dollars a day, to a new wife coming to terms with her husbands transitory lifestyle, to a father struggling to make it back to the Majors and a Cuban defector blowing everyone away with a 100-mph-plus fastball these are the people who live to make baseball happen, in all its nitty-gritty glory.