Review of “Welcome to the Circus of Baseball”

 Having just gone through some very cold weather here in the Capital Region of New York State, it was great to read a book about baseball and having “Summer” in the subtitle was a bonus. Oh, and the book was excellent too!  Here is my review of “Welcome to the Circus of Baseball”

Title/Author:

“Welcome to the Circus of Baseball” by Ryan McGee

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:   

There are plenty of books available about life in baseball’s minor leagues - that is, books about players whose time in the minors is described. However, there aren’t as many about others who help to make a minor league team run smoothly. This book by ESPN writer and podcaster Ryan McGee looks back fondly at his one season of being an intern for a minor league team.

In 1993, McGee was fresh out of college looking to land a job with ESPN. Having no success there, he and many others with the same dreams of working in sports went to the Winter Meetings for baseball executives, hoping to lad a job in the game. McGee did so - an intern for the Asheville Tourists, a low-level minor league team in the Sally League that was based in the Carolinas.

What follows is a very good description of the friendships he made (some of which still continue to this day) with not only fellow interns, but also front office staff, workers in various parts of the ballpark such as concessions and grounds keeping and even coaches. The players weren’t included in this as interns were not supposed to spend much time in the clubhouse, but there were ways around this - one of the numerous stories told in the book.

Those stories not only made great reading for their humor and personal touches, but they also gave a great perspective and admiration for those people working at a ballpark. Having worked in concessions for many years at Minnesota Twins games, I found myself relating to many of McGee’s stories of his nights working concessions. I was laughing at his mishap while filling the soft serve ice cream machine and his method of quickly moving beer kegs on “Thirsty Thursday” nights when beers sold for $1. 

Sticking with concessions as an example of how McGee made stories have a wonderful human interest perspective, one of the best stories was when he offered to take the girl who worked the snow cone stand to her prom after she was stood up by the person who originally did so. While not a typical story that would come from working at a ball park, it just shows how much that summer in Asheville meant to McGee.  Also, these types of stories abound in the book, whether he was working concessions, tarp duty (some of the funniest stories come from that) or anything else.

There is a little baseball discussion, especially as that was the summer that Michael Jordan played baseball and he did take a trip to see Jordan play. Jordan was not in the league where the Tourists played, but that didn’t lower the buzz around the ballpark about him. The Tourists had a home game during the other big news item that summer, the O.J. Simpson police chase. Another great story in the book.

No matter the level of interest one has in minor league baseball, this is a book practically anyone who has ever attended, worked at or played in a minor league game will enjoy. It comes highly recommended for any reader.

I wish to thank Doubleday Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Circus-Baseball-Perfect-Ballpark/dp/0385548400/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=