Have you been to see your local minor league team?

More specifically, have you been to see your local Short-Season A team? I know, I know, not everyone is lucky enough to have a hometown passel of bright, young baseball pros. Short-Season A is the minor league level where many, many young players first experience life in the pros. A good many come to their Short-Season A team straight out of the Major League Baseball amateur draft, some fresh from the College World Series. As such they tend to be between nineteen and twenty three years old.

For some of them, it's their first time living on their own, or their first time away from friends and family. It's also the first time they will play the game as professionals. They haven't yet learned everything they'll need to know to really fit that label--professional--but they are still some of the best ballplayers you'll ever see on a field, especially for under twenty bucks! A-ball is exciting and fun for both the players and the fans. A spate of A-ball teams have been moving to bigger cities, building new stadiums, and drawing big crowds (see the Staten Island Yankees, Lowell Spinners, and the Brooklyn Cyclones...), but many of the short-A teams are still in their small towns.

If you're not lucky enough to be in one of those towns, you can still experience the charm of short-A ball on video. "Hopes And Dreams in Minor League Baseball: A Season With the Williamsport Crosscutters" follows the NY-Penn League affiliate team of the Pittsburgh Pirates through the 2000 season.

The video introduces us to the dedicated Crosscutters coaching staff, the fans, and of course a cast of young players, each one hoping that his time with Williamsport is just the first step on a long journey that includes the Majors. Not all of them will make it, of course, and interviews with the players, coaches, and their families reveal their many hopes and fears.

The documentary also brings the viewer inside the life of a low-rung minor leaguer, where they live, what they eat, and how they get along. (The answers, in short: anywhere they can afford on their meager $800 salary, a lot of McDonald's, and like teammates.) I especially enjoyed the sections involving the players' host families--local folks who rent out beds in their houses to players for the summer. At one such home, one hopeful young player points out that major leaguers Tino Martinez, Jeff Nelson, and Dave Burba had stayed with his host family, and perhaps that bodes well.

My only complaint with "Hopes and Dreams" is that, as with the shortened season in short-A ball, I wanted more when it was over. I suppose I'll just have to wait to see which of these players continue to climb the ladder until I see them in the majors. I really got to like guys like Ray Navarette and Ryan Doumit and, even though I don't root for the Pirates, I find myself hoping to see these guys at my local major league park in a few years. "Hopes and Dreams" is a nice addition to any baseball video library and a good gift for any enthusiast of the grand old game. I look forward to watching it again this winter, when baseball seems far away and I want to bring it close again. (The 90-minute video is available by mail on the Crosscutters web site for a mere $19.95 plus shipping.)

If one team isn't enough for you, there's also terrific book I'd recommend you read. "Stolen Season: A Journey Through America and Baseball's Minor Leagues" by David Lamb. The book is not as readily available as it was when it was newly published, but I found it used, and Amazon.com has used copies as well.

The book follows journalist Lamb on a trip all over the country in search of ballfields and the American spirit. Lamb had covered war zones all over the worldin his journalistic career, and wanted to find a way to connect with the United States and the pursuits of a more innocent age. Lamb is a fine writer, using effective and evocative language to draw the reader into his blossoming love affair with the national game. In fact, reading the book may just make you want to get an RV and follow in his footsteps.

If your appetite for info about the minors is whetted, have a look at some of the following web sites for more:

• Minor League Baseball's official web site
• About.com's Minor League Page
• Nando Minor League Server (with collegiate baseball, too)

So get out and see some minor league ball--you will not be sorry.