A Day in Minor League Baseball

Most people don't understand that professional baseball players do a lot more work than play a three hour game every night. For every Major League player your see on ESPN or read about signing a multi million dollar deal there hundreds of minor league guys working for their chance.

I signed my first professional contract with the Chicago Cubs Organization in 2002 making $175.00 a week! We had to wake up every morning at 8:30 am and eat breakfast and work out with weights. Then we would change in to our practice uniforms and practice as a team for about 2 hours. At noon we would play a 9 inning game in the 100 degree Arizona heat. About 10 fans usually show in Rookie ball. Moms, Dads and girlfriends make the game but thats it. They do not sell beer, t shirts or hot dogs at these game. The game usually ended about 3:30. After they game we would run together as a team and then go to "special groups" and work on our personal weaknesses for about an hour. Finally about 5:00 we were done and fee until curfew at 9:00 pm. This was my life 6 days a week.
By the way your miss curfew your cut I was told.

I ended up being traded, released, resigned, and "loaned to Tijuana" of the Mexican League the next year. This time I was getting 375 dollars a week and a free apartment. We had to be at the ballpark of 4:00 pm for the 7:00 game and played in front of 5-15 thousands fans a night under the lights. No curfew however many days we would finish playing at midnight, leave Tijuana fly to another city such as Monterrey,Mexico City, or Cancun and arrive at 5:00 am bus to the hotel and get there at 6:00 am. We had to be at the field at noon for practice on the first day of every road trip. And many times I have rode a bus all night straight back to the stadium to catch a double header in the Mexican heat without having been home or to a hotel room. We only fly if he don't have the time to bus. We only had three days off a month and many of those days were spent on a bus driving home.

We only get paid in the summer not the winter. And in the winter the club will send your a running and workout program and you better do it because if you get a knock at your door one day and its a club Representative and your cant produce or your out of shape....you are out of a job too.

Nine out of ten players who sign a pro contract never make it to the big leagues, of the ones who do make it only 3% of those guys will make enough money to retire when their playing career is over. Moral of the story is go to school and study so you can write better than me.