Bluegrass Baseball

Forget the steroid-addled, overpaid, and unmotivated players: America's pastime is still alive and well, and is still the heartfelt sport it's 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 their 2010 seasonthe triumphs, struggles, and Big League hopes and dreamsthe book tells the larger story of baseball in America's smaller venues, where the game in its purest form is still valued and warmly embraced. The story begins before the season with national-anthem tryouts in Lexington, then tags along with players, staff, 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 husband's 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.

Katya Cengel is a freelance writer based in Richmond, California. A staff reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal for eight years, she reported from the former Soviet Union, Europe, and Africa and has published in Esquire and the Wall Street Journal.