Former Sox Minor Leaguer Writes Book About Minors

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Recollections of a 47th rounder

'Harvard Boys' recounts the realities of a brief pro baseball career

By Benjamin Hill / Special to MLB.com

 

After failing to make it in the pros, John Wolff has distinguished himself through his prose.

Upon being drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 47th round of the 2005 draft, Wolff decided to take a leave of absence from Harvard University to pursue his big-league dreams. The resulting experience was not quite what he expected.

 

Wolff's tumultuous 2006 season is chronicled in the recently released book "Harvard Boys," a journal-style account that opens a window into the surreal, frustrating and (occasionally) exhilarating existence of a low-level Minor League Baseball player.

 

Providing additional insight into the Minor League experience throughout the duration of "Harvard Boys" is John's father, Rick. A noted author, sports psychologist and, yes, Harvard graduate (hence the book's title), the elder Wolff played two professional seasons in the mid-1970s. He wrote an account of his own playing days in 1975, entitled "What's a Nice Harvard Boy Like You Doing in the Bushes?"

 

"There were so many similarities between me and my dad, it's like something out of 'The Twilight Zone,'" remarked John in a wide-ranging telephone interview. "We were both infielders, and our careers were the same length. The way my life has paralleled his has been kind of creepy."

 

Wolff said his goal in writing "Harvard Boys" was to "keep track of all the things that people didn't tell me about the Minor Leagues."

 

"I don't think people realize how much monotony is involved," he remarked. "It's easy to think that a Minor Leaguer's job is to just play the game, but they don't realize that players are at the ballpark at 11 o'clock in the morning working on fundamentals, stretching, lifting, taking batting practice and fielding grounders. It's easy to get worn down. I remember in Spring Training, my bat felt like a twig. In August, it was like it was made of lead."

 

An Endless Spring

 

Like many baseball stories, "Harvard Boys" begins in Spring Training. In early March, Wolff reported to the White Sox's Spring Training facility in Tucson, Ariz., eager to begin his professional baseball career.

 

Three months later, he was still there.

 

While many of his contemporaries had been shipped off to one of the White Sox's Class A farm clubs, Wolff stayed in Tucson and endured that peculiar institution known as "Extended Spring Training".

 

"It was a baseball purgatory," said Wolff. "You're playing against the same team every day, it's blistering hot and there are no fans in the stands. It really changed my perspective."

 

Coupled with the uninspiring baseball environment is the fact that Wolff and his teammates had very little money or mobility. In one memorable anecdote, Wolff and a roommate hitched a ride to Walgreens to buy a Wiffle Ball, an adventure that served as the highlight of the day.

 

Unbeknownst to John at the time, things were going to get worse before they got better.

 

Bristol to North Shore to Kalamazoo

 

While the above three names might sound like some sort of fantastical double-play combination, it is in fact the triumvirate of teams that John ended up playing for during his roller-coaster 2006 season.

 

It all began in Bristol. After an impressive performance in extended spring training, Wolff was delighted to be suiting up for the Rookie-level Bristol Sox of the short-season Appalachian League. Finally, games would be played at night, and in front of real live fans!

 

"After working hard in extended spring, I got to Bristol expecting to be a veteran leader, and hopefully one of the premier guys on the team," recalled Wolff.

 

Instead, he accumulated just seven at-bats before getting released.

 

"I got drafted and then released before I had the chance to play a full season," said Wolff. "Did I get slighted? In the end, I don't think it matters. But I've always wondered what I would have been able to do if I had been able to play the entire season in Bristol."

 

"I'm at peace with my baseball career, though. I mean, I was cut in order to make room for John Shelby, a first-round draft pick and a big-money guy. Basically, he's a lot better than I am."

 

As anyone who's played professional baseball can tell you, there's no time to feel sorry for yourself after getting released. The immediate priority is finding a new job, and Wolff went about doing just that. He soon ended up with the North Shore Spirit of the independent Can-Am League.

 

Playing in the independent leagues meant more than just adjusting to a new location. It meant adjusting to a whole new way of doing business.

 

"In affiliated Minor League Baseball, it's all about potential," he said. "So, if the organization feels you have talent, you might be given three or four seasons to develop. In indy ball, there's a real 'win now' mentality. The attitude is 'What did you do for us yesterday?'"

 

Wolff learned this reality the hard way, as his career with the Spirit was just about as short-lived as his career with Bristol. The next stop was the Kalamazoo Kings of the Frontier League, where Wolff held the role of starting second baseman despite a late-season shoulder injury.

 

It was also in Kalamazoo that Wolff realized that his daily emails home, which had started as a productive way to pass the time, had the potential to be turned into a book.

 

"I started to take the writing a lot more seriously as the season wore on, and I think you can tell that progression as the book goes on. In the beginning, its fairly choppy and simplistic, but it slowly becomes more elaborate."

 

"Retired" at Age 23

 

As "Harvard Boys" ends, the Frontier League season has just wound up, and Wolff is heading back to Harvard to belatedly complete his senior year of college. However, his baseball career was not yet over. Wolff signed with the New York Mets that offseason and was assigned to the club's Gulf Coast League team for the 2007 campaign.

 

"They had me in the GCL at age 23, which was a little strange," he said. "Most of my teammates were 17-years-old and from Latin America. Fortunately I can speak Spanish, so I fit in pretty well. "After a while I approached Adam Logan, the Mets' director of player development, and asked, 'What's going on here?' He said, 'We love your attitude and influence, and we'd like to make you a coach and send you to our baseball academy in the Dominican Republic.' When I heard that, I asked for my release. Maybe that was a mistake, but at age 23 I still thought of myself as a player. I think the Mets understood where I was coming from."

 

Wolff once again showed his resiliency by signing on with the independent Lancaster Barnstormers, but after they released him, he decided to hang up his spikes for good. While he has long-term goals of obtaining a Major League front-office position, his energies are currently focused on a technological endeavor.

 

"I recently started efieldhouse.com, which is like a private Facebook for professional baseball players," he said. "We have a couple hundred members already, and it is continuing to grow."

 

"Harvard Boys," meanwhile, was released at the tail end of 2007, and Wolff has been happy with the book's reception so far.

 

"People have told me they appreciate the book's honesty and insight," he said. "This is not a Hollywood story. People love to hear about guys like David Eckstein and Marcus Giles, who work hard and beat the odds by getting to the Majors. But with this book, people can read about a 47th-round draft pick whose story is more representative of the Minor League experience."

 

And while Wolff's Minor League experience was often characterized by uncertainty, frustration and fatigue, he obviously has no regrets.

 

"I'm a ballplayer -- a pro ballplayer," he writes in the book's epilogue. "And, in the end, the realization of that dream should be enough for a lifetime."

[Texsox]

I'll read it. My cousin played indy ball for a lot of years. He had fun, but without any real expectation of playing beyind that, he was able to stay level headed and have fun.

[False Alarm]

I mean, I was cut in order to make room for John Shelby, a first-round draft pick and a big-money guy.

5th, but i guess it's all good. he might be better than our 1st-rounder that year anyhow.

[scenario]

Thanks for pointing out the book. Looks like an interesting read.