Miami Herald Series on Minor League Baseball

[Laura]

The Miami Herald ran a four-part series on minor league baseball from different perspectives -- community, business, team and player.

 

Luis Montanez and Sean Gallagher were both quoted in the player perspective article -- "A long, bumpy road: Travel in the low minors is full of endless bus rides and bad food." (bugmenot info for the herald: crockett@tubbs.com, miamivice) The article doesn't focus on the Cubs, but does quote several Florida-area minor leaguers.

 

And in the majors, where there are charter flights, five-star hotels and expensive meals, it is. But life in the low minors couldn't be more different, consisting of bumpy nine-hour bus rides, sleeping two -- or more -- to a room at cheap roadside motels and eating post-midnight dinners out of vending machines or truck-stop convenience stores. And for that the players earn between $300 a month (the basic salary in the Dominican and Venezuelan summer leagues) to $2,150 a month in Triple A, the highest level of the minor-league competition. Players in the rookie-level New York-Penn League, where Staten Island plays, make $850 a month, and the paychecks stop when the season does.

 

''It's a grind,'' concedes Luis Montañez, a former Coral Park High standout who has spent six years riding buses and living off junk food in the low minors. ``There's long bus rides. Your legs cramp up. You can't sleep right because you're always sitting on the chair.

 

``You're away from home for a long period of time. Just the same thing over and over, like Groundhog Day.

 

Montañez unfondly remembers a 13-hour bus ride from Boise, Idaho, to Vancouver, British Columbia, that took 13 hours, including a check at Canadian customs.

 

Most first-year minor-leaguers, especially those drafted out of high school, are used to dominating inferior opponents, so being matched against players as skilled as they are can take a serious toll on their confidence.

 

''In high school you just went out there and threw,'' says right-hander Sean Gallagher, who was 10-1 with a 0.67 ERA as a senior at Fort Lauderdale's St. Thomas Aquinas but lost twice as often as he won in his first summer in the Chicago Cubs' system. ``You've got to change speeds here because everybody can hit a fastball. The hitters are more on top of things. They have an idea what you're going to be doing, so you have to mix it up and hope they guess wrong.''

 

Gallagher went 1-2 in the AZL last summer ... it seems to be stretching it just a *little bit* to refer to him as having "lost twice as often as he won in his first summer." [-X

[ChiefsVoice]

Kevin Baxter of the Miami Herald spent 3 days in Peoria on this series. He interviewd Montanez and Gallagher as South Florida natives and also talked with myself, Rocky Vonachen, Pete Vonachen and a couple of our interns about the business/promotion side of baseball. On the first segment from Sunday there were quotes from Rocky and also photos of O'Brien Field on the slide show.

 

And this segment on baseball in Peoria as a feature!!

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/12452382.htm

[Laura]

Excellent -- thanks for the link.

 

I don't know how I missed the entire Peoria story when I typed up the first post. :oops:

[ChiefsVoice]

Excellent -- thanks for the link.

 

I don't know how I missed the entire Peoria story when I typed up the first post. :oops:

 

If you follow the rest of the links too there is a certain radio broadcaster quoted a few times as well...

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/12444524.htm

[Laura]

Even better! That's a great series. I bet you'll be getting more questions after people read through that article.

 

Does Pete Vonachen still attend games frequently? I think I've recognized him at a couple of the games I've been to, but I haven't had a chance to meet him yet.

[ChiefsVoice]

Even better! That's a great series. I bet you'll be getting more questions after people read through that article.

 

Does Pete Vonachen still attend games frequently? I think I've recognized him at a couple of the games I've been to, but I haven't had a chance to meet him yet.

 

just about every night. And he loves to talk to anyone. I love chatting with Pete every chance i get at games. He turns 80 one week from today!