Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life

by Katya Cengel

Forget the steroid-addled, overpaid, and unmotivated America’s pastime is still alive and well, and is still the heartfelt sport it’s always been—in 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 season—the triumphs, struggles, and big league hopes and dreams—the 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 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 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.  

Genres: Baseball, Nonfiction

274 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2012

About the author

Katya Cengel is the author of four non-fiction books, including most recently Straitjackets and Lunch Money, which the San Francisco Chronicle called “incredibly affecting” and Kirkus Reviews called “harrowing but engrossing”. Cengel’s earlier titles cover everything from minor league baseball in Bluegrass Baseball to falling in love at Chernobyl in From Chernobyl with Love. She has received an Eric Hoffer Academic Press award, an Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY), and a Foreword INDIES.

As a journalist Cengel has written for New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine and Atavist Magazine among others. Her writing has taken her to Utah to search for Bigfoot (she didn’t find him) and to Mongolia to write about female street artists. Cengel has been awarded grants from the International Reporting Project, the International Women’s Media Foundation and the International Center for Journalists. Her stories have received a Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Award and a Society for Features Journalism Excellence-in-Features Award.

Reviews

[Yancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katya Cengel does a fantastic job of bringing the Minor Leagues to life. From fair-weather fans to fanatics, Bluegrass Baseball is a great read for anybody interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the real lives of real players. In addition, she gives a face to the owners, managers, staff, families, and friends of the game. I enjoyed the ups, the downs... and the suspense. I'm happy that someone has taken the time to give a window into this unique cultural phenomenon.

[Michael Burrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

After moving to Kentucky, I thought it would be a good idea to learn about all of the local baseball teams in the area. This book did a great job of giving us a background on how all of these teams came to be, and the people behind the ball clubs. As a huge fan of minor league baseball, I really enjoyed the stories on the players and how they cope with day-to-day minor league life. We've now been to see of these teams, and it's just fun knowing the background, and makes the games more enjoyable.

[James Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight. I have no interest in baseball, but liked the Ron Shelton movies. I do have an interest in people striving hard to make it and the realities of sport outside of the big time.
It's well written and reminded me of 'Nomadland'. She did well to get the material, being, as she said, 'a fairly young woman and single.'

[Matt Caputo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katya Cengel’s work in Bluegrass Baseball provides a rare look into the soul of sports. A dynamic storyteller, Cengel’s attention to fine details and masterful reporting form an intimate story of life in baseball’s giant machine.

[Ann Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reflection of what it must be like to be in the minor leagues.

[Brett Fass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love baseball. It’s fun to hear about the teams and players at the time and know what happened to them afterward.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book at first looks like it will be just another account by or about a particular player, and the difficult and often ribald life he leads while drudging his way through the minors. In fact, it's quite different from that. First, it's written by a woman, and one who had not previously been a sportswriter. Katya Cengel, a features writer for the Louisville newspaper, was asked to take on the assignment of following some Kentucky teams and players over a season.
Second, her perspective in fulfilling this assignment turns out to be broader than just the players themselves; she looks not only at the players, but also at how the Kentucky teams developed, who owns and manages them, what makes them successful (or not), and at the families, girlfriends and wives, and fans of the players. It's a great cross-section of minor league life.
Ms. Cengel's writing is not sparkling but it's workmanlike, and although her knowledge of baseball seems a bit superficial in spots, it's good enough to carry her narrative. The book may not be great art, but it's certainly interesting for those with a weakness for minor league baseball and the many devotees who participate in it as players, their families, fans, owners, or employees.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book I knew basically nothing about baseball's Minor and Independent Leagues but figured getting perspective on that world would be interesting. My hunch was right because Cengel's account of professional and semi-professionals players in Kentucky and neighboring states delivered. It's full of inspiring and heartbreaking stories of players and their families giving everything for the dream of making it to the Big Show.