Review: Time in the Minors

If you want a very good representation of the minor league baseball lifestyle and the near impossible road to the Major Leagues most of these players follow, you should check out Tony Okun’s “Time in the Minors.”

Coming in at just over 85 minutes in length, the movie tells the tale of two minor leaguers at completely opposite ends of their careers. One player, Tony Schrager, is a 28-year-old eight-year veteran infielder fighting to stay in the game to get that long dreamed about big league opportunity. The other player, John Drennen, is hot shot 18-year old high school outfielder who was just drafted in the 1st round of the 2005 Draft, signed for a million dollars, and seemingly has limitless potential to make it to the big leagues.

The movie follows the two players over the course of the 2006 season, Schrager’s last season and Drennen’s first full season as a pro. Over the course of the year you get to see firsthand the unglamorous lifestyle of a minor leaguer where most players make less than $15,000 a year and have just a couple hundred of dollars a month to live off of after all their bills are paid. You see the pitfalls each player encounters and how often things like injuries, playing time, trades, travel, playing conditions and so on are all out of their control.

“I’ve wanted to do a film about minor league baseball for some time and in addition to my love of the game, I was curious myself about the process that the players have to go through to get to the big leagues and that’s really what motivated me to take on the project,” Okun said in a recent interview. “I didn’t realize how much work they put in and how dedicated these kids have to be to make it, even at the lower levels of the minor leagues. I’m sure that playing baseball professionally seems like a dream job for most of us, as it did for me, but from an inside perspective it’s really grueling and a LOT of hard work.”

Over the course of the film you see the rookie Drennen quickly begin to realize that the accomplishment of being drafted is really only the first small step in what is a long, mentally challenging journey to move up many levels and get better in order to reach his goal. You see the veteran Schrager battle the sense of desperation to stay relevant so he can get to the big leagues as he knows his time is close to running out.

Only about 10% of the players drafted ever make it to the big leagues, so you get a firsthand look into the minds of the players as they speak openly about what they have to do to get better to be one of the few who achieve their dream. In the end it is all about “being in the right place at the right time” so any player can achieve what every minor league baseball player dreams: the call to the big leagues.

“I felt that Tony’s idea was good and the video was a fun experience and that it could give newly signed players and their families a look at time in the minors,” Drennen said. “I also have a piece to look back on in my life which I think is pretty cool.”

This video is a must see for any player, parent, friend, or fan of the game that wants a cold, hard look at the harsh reality of how hard it is to make it to the big leagues. For more information or to order the movie, please go to Oh! Show Productions website .