From Publishers Weekly
Almost every baseball player who makes it in the major leagues first has to survive a few grueling seasons in the minors, enduring long bus rides and endless afternoons in dull, dusty towns for a shot at the big time. In this book, several dozen players look back at their stints in the bush leagues with a mix of nostalgia and amazement. Lienweaver, a former minor league executive, and Bradley, a pitcher who enjoyed a brief stint with the New York Yankees in 1998, asked their subjects to recall their fondest minor league memories. The authors present these tales in the form of brief first-person accounts. Unfortunately, most of the participants are better ballplayers than storytellers. Drew Henson talks about how his pickup truck was once stolen and then found, but the CDs were missing. Darren Dreifort remembers watching kids tackle the mascot in San Antonio night after night. Then there's outfielder Adam Piatt, a self-styled prankster whose best memory involves breaking into a teammate's motel room, defecating on a towel and leaving it on the heater. Hilarious. Still, some of the essays are worthwhile, such as the story of Ray Fagnant, a career minor leaguer who was playing for an insurance company's slow-pitch softball team when a Connecticut club signed him as an emergency catcher. Just a few weeks after leaving the insurance team, Fagnant hit a home run off star major league righty Jack Morris, who was in the minors temporarily to rehab an injury. Fagnant bought 25 newspapers the next day and clipped the box scores. Few of the entries here are as interesting as Fagnant's, but those who skip around to find the rare gems in the mix will get a taste of life in the minors and the dreams that motivate all young ballplayers. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description
A heartfelt account of life in baseball�2s minor leagues.


From the Back Cover
Minor League Baseball has been around for more than 100 years. Across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, almost every Major League Baseball player, manager, and coach has spent time in the minors before making it to the big leagues.
From Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, and Edmonton, Canada, to Monterrey, Mexico, Minor League Baseball cities have been the homes to some of the greatest stories in the history of the American pastime. Whether it was on the field, on the bus, or on the side, these dramatic, disappointing, embarrassing, funny, unique, and just plain unusual stories actually happened.
Minor Moments, Major Memories is a collection of memorable minor league experiences over the past 60 years that take fans into the stands, onto the buses, and into the clubhouses. It highlights a time when these individuals lived together, ate together, traveled together, and played ball together. A period when the rules of the game were the same, but the stadium lights were dimmer, the crowds were smaller and the mascot coached first base.
These true stories are the actual accounts as told by the individuals, who range from Major League All-Stars to Minor League journeymen.
Author Mark Leinweaver shares this heartfelt collection of the exceptionally good, bad, and unforgettable memories of those who lived the minor league experience while playing, managing, and coaching in small farm towns, bustling blue-collar cities and everything in between.




About the Author
Mark Leinweaver was the radio broadcaster and media relations director of the Norwich Navigators, a Yankees AA affiliate, from 1998 to 2002. This is his first book. He lives in Rhode Island.

FROM THE PUBLISHER