Let's Talk Baseball!

One thing that we have noticed since being thrown head-first into this lifestyle is how little people know about what happens “behind the scenes” of professional baseball! The “business side” of baseball is something that drastically affects us and especially our guys, and it's something that most people know next to nothing about if they haven’t experienced it firsthand. Even we are learning things almost every day as our guys navigate through their respective systems. SO! We figured it would be a good start to make our first post a little bit informative and explain some of the basics of the MLB/MiLB as well as share some of our FAVORITE (and by favorite we mean NOT so favorite) questions that we are frequently asked. 

THE MLB DRAFT: Let's start from the beginning: The most common way a player enters the world of professional baseball is by being selected in the MLB Draft, which takes place every June. The players (and their families) find out what team they have been drafted to when the MLB Commissioner announces it to the entire nation - not a minute before. The MLB Draft experience is almost a preview of the life to follow; it is insanely exciting, exhilarating and terrifying all at once. The seemingly endless wait for someone else to make the decision about where you will build your life next is a TOTALLY foreign feeling. The Draft was one of the most amazing memories (for all of us!); being there with our guys in the moment that a life-long dream of theirs came true and the moment they were called on by a professional team to join the organization is an irreplaceable feeling. 

With our honeys on draft day!

(We were a little busy during the draft-

Adam was winning the CWS!)

THE SYSTEM: Immediately following the draft is when one of the most common misconceptions occurs: when our boys were drafted, they did not go straight to play with the MLB team! Most people don’t know that every major league team that we see on ESPN or MLB Network has SIX different minor league teams all feeding into the big league club. After the draft, the boys are sent to the lowest level of the minor leagues and must work their way up through the system. This is one of the biggest differences between baseball and almost every other professional sport, which makes it hard for people to understand. The players must be promoted (based on performance and many other factors) several times before reaching the big leagues and they are never guaranteed ANY time with the MLB team when they sign their first contract with the organization. The different levels of the minor leagues are:

Rookie Ball

Class A Short Season

Class A (aka Low-A)

Class A Advanced (aka High-A)

Double A (AA)

Triple A  (AAA)

Yes – this means that our guys are competing with roughly 180 other players in their own organization to even set foot on a big league field. Let that marinate… 

When a player signs a minor league contract, which is the first step after the draft, they are committing to seven years with the organization. This means the organization has complete control over the path our guys take through the minors and the plan they have for them can change at any second – which means that any plans WE might have can also change at any second. No matter what level a player is at (even in the big leagues) the organization can promote, demote, or even release him at ANY POINT during the season with NO notice. This literally means a player and his family could be settled in one city, receive a phone call that he is being moved and have to pack up and leave that night or the next morning. HELLO, ANXIETY! Potentially the craziest part about this aspect of the MLB/MiLB is that all of the minor league teams teams are always in different cities and almost ALWAYS all in different states!

TRADES: Under his contract, a player can also be traded to a different organization at any point during the off-season as well as during the regular season until the end of July. Thankfully there is a trade deadline, whew! Minor league players have no control in any of these situations and often find out if they’ve been traded on Twitter or by watching ESPN. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. News of trades travel fast and the player is seemingly never the first to find out. Trades also HAPPEN fast! If our guys get traded, they are no longer the property of their current organization and are immediately the property of a new team. Yes, we meant to use the word property there- it's the truth. This means they need to get up and get out to the new city/team ASAP, often leaving their significant other behind to pack up their life and make the move.

SPRING TRAINING: Every year players attend Spring Training in either Arizona or Florida, depending on what organization they are with. Spring Training lasts from about mid-February to the end of March – our guys are all starting pitchers, which means they are the first to report and have a longer ST than position players. Spring Training is essentially one extremely long try out, with almost no days off. A lot of people don’t know that players aren’t paid for their time in Spring Training but are still at the field almost all hours of the day. At the very end of ST, the players are officially assigned to a team. Sometimes players aren’t told until the LAST DAY, giving them 3-4 days to move to a new city and find a new place to live (teams only pay for 3 nights in a hotel). Since all teams are in different cities/states, this period usually results in a extremely hectic week for both the players and their spouses – but hey, at least this is the one time of the year we know to EXPECT it!

For us wifeys, this usually means packing up our apartment or house and waiting for a phone call telling us where we are going to be making a new home. Yes, sometimes we get the call on the day that we're planning on moving. Picture this: your car is packed up, your apartment is empty and the movers have already come but you have yet to have a destination. This mad dash also means arranging to find a place to live, renting furniture and setting up all of your bills (cable/internet, electricity, gas, etc) in a new place that you haven't even seen yet while you're on the road to a new town.

Spring Training kicks off each season and following begins another year of travel, unexpected phone calls and set backs, and a lot of excitement. We are with our guys every step of the way, just like other spouses are there for their partners no matter what their profession may be. A difficult part for us (and our guys), is that a lot of people make a lot of assumptions about this lifestyle that most people know very little about.

SOME NEED-TO-KNOWS: It’s very interesting to see people’s reactions if we share that our guys play baseball for a living – a lot of times they are unfortunately negative. Because of this, players (and sometimes us too), make up an occupation to tell people what they do when asked in public, or what someone with a Washington license is doing in Tennessee. Coming up with a fake job is much easier than explaining  “No, I’m not on the major league team” and dealing with the assumptions that come with being a professional athlete. Some of our favorite “occupations” include, but are not limited to: IT guy for the local school district, contractor, real estate, or one of the creators of the app “Words With Friends.”

One major assumption that people often make is that our guys make a ton of money! If you're reading this there is a good chance that you make more money than a minor league baseball player. While some players are lucky enough to receive a large signing bonus when they are drafted, most players aren't as fortunate. Minor leaguers are paid below-minimum wage (considering how many hours and days they work per month, plus unpaid travel time), usually making somewhere between $1,200 and $2,200 per month during the regular season (about April through September, only 6 months out of the year) and as we mentioned, they receive no pay during Spring Training.

Every team will play 140 games in about 150 days, meaning that for six months there are only TEN days "off," although most players will have certain workouts or throwing programs that they still have to complete on off-days. This means no weekends, no holidays, no vacations. Throw in taxes and clubhouse fees, which can be anywhere from $10/day to $20/day depending on which level the player is at, and finances during the season can become a real struggle if you don't have a significant signing bonus in the bank to fall back on. Because of this, players wives (or girlfriends) often opt to live in the couples' "home base" or off-season home to maintain a steady job and income even though they'd prefer to be with their spouse during the season. NOT glamorous.





Travel for our guys during season is not easy either. Minor league players travel from town to town for away series on buses- NOT private planes. These bus rides can be anywhere from 2 hours to over 12 hours! As a player moves his way up the minor league levels, their standard of living improves (as does their pay slightly); the buses and hotels for traveling will usually get nicer as a player moves up. Difficult living situations can also create another dimension of challenges as a player tries to work hard and perform his best through the organization’s minor leagues.

BASEBALL WIFE FAQs:

One of the most difficult aspects of being with a professional athlete is that suddenly everybody thinks that your life, your decisions and your guy's career should be public knowledge. We've come up with a few "Baseball Wife Frequently Asked Questions" that we have experienced and what our responses are:

“Oh, so you’re a ‘baseball wife’…?”

People have all sorts of assumptions about this title and there are people out there who give women in our position a bad name. Yes, we are married to baseball players; that does in fact make us “baseball wives.” That does NOT mean that we do not have our own jobs, dreams, aspirations, and personalities. It is not easy to make the sacrifices we have, but people do crazy things for the ones they love. We are women with degrees, and because of this lifestyle, we are also women with more experience, perspective, and creativity than a lot of people our age. We are extremely independent and driven women to be able to have our own careers no matter the circumstance, and meet new friends, no matter the city. Above all, we are dedicated to the loves of our life, just as they are dedicated to us.

"How much does he make?" 

This is probably one of the most frequent yet most invasive question that we are asked almost regularly. Most people don't go around asking doctors, accountants or retail managers how much money they make, do they? No, because it's rude. Just because my husband's job title has "professional athlete" in it doesn't mean that it's okay to ask what our income is or how we financially support ourselves.


"Don't you worry about there being any other... women?"

No SERIOUSLY, people say stuff like this to us. It's unfortunate that when people hear the words "professional athlete" they automatically associate it with a "sex, drugs and rock and roll" kind of fantasy world that admittedly, some athletes choose for themselves. But honestly, how dare someone ask such an outlandish question without knowing us as women, our husbands as men and the trust that we each have in our relationships?  

Yes, there are people like that out there (whether professional athletes or not), but what people fail to recognize is that far more often or not, these players are normal people trying to live their lives as normally as possible and have a successful career. 

"Well, what if he doesn't make it?" 

Then we take a step back, reevaluate and go forward with a new plan. Just like anybody else would do if their spouse was suddenly facing a career change.


"What are YOU going to do if he doesn't make it?" 

Not really sure what kind of response people think they are going to get when they ask this question, which when you think about it is very offensive. We don't love our guys because they play baseball. So if he doesn't make it, we each have a college education, we are smart women and we will proceed with our lives-- our husbands "making it" has nothing to do with our personal abilities to be successful and have a career. We support and help our spouses as much as we can in order to help them achieve their dreams and we aren't suddenly going to leave them if they fall short. We know that if the tables were turned and our guys had to make sacrifices for our dreams, as we do for theirs, they would do it with no hesitation. That's what marriage and companionship is about and this doesn't change when the dream is to be a successful professional athlete. 


"How do you do it?"

Just like most everybody else would if their spouse got another job in another city across the country. If it's feasible (financially, logistically or otherwise) anybody would most likely make adjustments to be with their spouse. It's AMAZING what you can do when you're faced with a different circumstance- even if it's completely foreign! And of course, thanks to all of our close family and friends for the endless support.

Anybody still here?? Well there you have it, the not-so-short-but-necessarily-lengthy basics of life in the MiLB! Thanks for sticking with us!

xoxo

Al, Jax, & Mon