It is hard to play Major League Baseball. But it might be even harder to be a Minor League Baseball player. With salaries that are less than the federal minimum wage and living conditions that have players literally stacked on top of each other when they sleep, Minor League Baseball is baseball’s darkest secret that no one wants to talk about.
Tampa Bay Ray’s minor league pitcher and co-founder of More Than Baseball, Simon Rosenblum-Larson is heading up the effort to seek change in the MiLB. He along with a small staff and a board of advisors founded the nonprofit organization to help financially assist minor leaguers by taking in money from donors ranging from everyday people to present-day major leaguers.
Rosenblum-Larson joins the show alongside former minor league manager, Rick Mangante who was a part of the Oakland Athletics organization for more than 25 years. Mangante, or Skip as he’s referred to by people in the business, was a part of the Moneyball-era Athletics and was a scout that helped put the famous, 2002 Athletics roster together with the use of new wave baseball knowledge (Most famously implemented by Billy Beane). Skip also managed in South Africa in the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic. Skip is a big proponent of player safety at the minor league level and was fired by Major League Baseball from his latest job, for calling a game because of positive COVID-19 tests on his roster. When he left, over half the team left with him in support.
Toshi Nagahara is a trainer in the Houston Astros organization. Nagahara has spent time in a major league dugout as a Japanese interpreter/athletic trainer for the Clevland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates. As a trainer, he is in charge of a lot of team planning, including hotel reservations, laundry, medical supplies, and bus times on top of making sure players remain in tip-top shape while on the field.