Kansas City Royals and the Life of a Minor League Player

Even though the vast majority of us have not lived the major league lifestyle, we have a general idea as to what that would be like. The airplane trips across the country. The premium hotels. The fancy dinners and the top accommodations. The ability to go to the ballpark and enjoy the amenities. Even if we sort of romanticize what life in the majors is like, it is an easy life to imagine.

However, life in the minor leagues is far different. Even though we realize this conceptually, it is still difficult to imagine what minor league life is like unless one has gone through the experience. So, to get a sense for what minor league life is like, we reached out to Friend of the Site Andrew Edwards, to see if he would be willing to share what it is like to be a minor league baseball player with the Kansas City Royals. Here’s what he had to say:

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The life of a minor league baseball player is exactly what it sounds like…minor. Everyone watches big league baseball and the first thing that comes to mind is their lives must be easy. Chartered flights, 5 start hotels, gourmet cuisine and all of the other luxuries life has to offer. While all that is true, people don’t realize, at one point, majority of those guys were living at or below the poverty level while they were in the minor leagues. People see us (minor leaguers) and automatically assume that we all have money and live close to the same lifestyle major league guys do.The fact is, the people coming to watch our games make more than we do. The guys who didn’t sign for a large signing bonus live paycheck to paycheck in the minor leagues with very little money left over at the end of the month.  After you factor in clubhouse dues for home and away games, food for when you are not at the ballpark, gas to get to and from the ballpark and rent to live in the city in which you are playing that season, a lot of guys do not have enough money to treat themselves at the end of the month.With all of that being said, we are living a very privileged lifestyle. We are a small group of guys who have the ability to possibly be part of seven hundred fifty men in the world.Playing professional baseball is a blessing, but it has its downsides. There is the money aspect which I stated earlier, but also some guys are hundred, or even thousands, of miles away from home. Especially for the Latin guys on teams. They come from the Dominican Republic, Venazula, Puerto Rico, and other various countries around the world. Some guys don’t see their family for six months out of the year.  We miss priceless memories that other people take for granted.Another tough aspect is travel in the minor leagues. Major league guys get charted flights from city to city. We travel on charter buses, with trips as long as twelve hours through the night and little to no sleep. We arrive at the city we’re playing in late in the morning, and play that night. It’s a grind for one hundred forty games. The food is anything but gourmet. With the amount of money we make a month, fast food is sometimes the only affordable option. When you are trying to keep your body healthy for five months, fast food isn’t the best fuel. The amount of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I’ve had since starting professional baseball will satisfy my want for many years to come.Even with all of that being said, big league guys have payed their dues in the minors to earn a spot in the big leagues. It’s a trip none of us regret, but wouldn’t want to relive.

Our thanks to Andrew Edwards to giving us insight as to what it is like to be in the minors with with Kansas City Royals.

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