Minor Leagues, Major Boom: Local Professional Baseball Revitalized (review)

As we move rapidly into the twenty-first century, it seems fitting to reminisce about the days when, as children, we would go with our family to a Minor League game in Billings, Montana, or El Paso, Texas, or Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Minor League baseball was once important to young people who were able to attend games on Saturday afternoons as a member of the knothole gang. But the interest in Minor Leagues appeared to wane as Major Leagues expanded into some of the areas where, heretofore, Minor Leagues had been the only games one could see live. By 1950 Minor Leagues were financially unable to continue, and thus the pastime of many knothole gang members was crushed. Those childhood memories were filed away somewhere "to be revisited at another time."

Jon C. Stott reminds us of those memories in Minor Leagues, Major Boom. Stott's readers will likely recognize his writing style from an earlier book of his, Leagues of Their Own. His personalized style is exceptionally interesting in his must-read preface. In this introduction to Minor League baseball, Stott explains clearly why his interest in Minor League baseball is so keen, piquing the reader's interest (and memory). Stott encourages readers to renew their love of the Minor Leagues rather than to let that love lie dormant. Thus this extremely interesting and easy-to-follow book introduces readers to modern Minor League baseball at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Stott has divided his book into three sections: section 1 introduces the coming of age of the "new" minors (1991-2001), section 2 discusses six specific Minor League teams, and section 3 is a short epilogue.

The first section of the book focuses on the organization and operation of Minor League baseball from 1991 to 2001. In this section Stott informs readers about the decline of Minor League baseball prior to its post–World War II lowest level of attendance and its ultimate revitalization. The operations discussion discloses how various teams around the Minor Leagues added additional entertainment and opportunities to buy apparel and souvenirs. Stott also notes that the comfort of the fans became important to the team owners, leading to an attempt to keep ticket prices low. This section also discusses what happened to Minor League baseball after September 11, 2001.

The next section of the book focuses on six Minor League teams located in selected geographical locales within the United States and Canada. Readers interested in the Minor Leagues will find the author's historical approach to the individual team's fortunes and misfortunes interesting. In this section, after a brief historical explanation, Scott reviews six teams: the El Paso Diablos, Mahoning Valley Scrappers, Billings Mustangs, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, Lancing Lugnuts, and Edmonton Trappers. The author highlights information demonstrating that the issues faced by Minor League teams sometimes differ among teams. The teams he chooses have varying geographical locations and, therefore, varying misfortunes, ranging from finances to natural weather circumstances. In this section Stott has supplemented his writing with about fifty black-and-white photographs, which add interest to the chronological entries of daily activities.

Stott's personal approach to writing is conversational and informal. The chapter titles are enticing: "The Great White North: Edmonton Trappers of the Pacific Coast League"; "At the Epicenter of Baseball: The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League"; "Cincinnati's Kids Come to Billings: The Mustangs of the Pioneer League"; "Down in a West Texas Town: The El Paso Diablos of the Texas League"; "Turning Diamonds into Lugnuts: Lansing of the Midwest League"; and "Scrappers Training to Become Indians: Mahoning Valley of the New York Pennsylvania League." If there is a fault to be found within this book, it is in section 2. Each chapter in this section begins with a historical discourse followed by a description of the development of the "new" Minor League team. In these descriptions, the author uses a day-to-day [End Page 158...