I think that if I had ever been a ball player, I would have found myself in the independent leagues. Of course, I’ll never know, but it is fun to speculate. It has to be so hard to make it as a pro. In fact, everything I’ve ever read shows that it’s damn near impossible. The odds are really against you. Something like only 10% of NCAA ball players ever get drafted by Major League Baseball (and that number could dwindle as the league has already begun to shrink the draft from 40 rounds to 20 in the last two years). But that’s the beauty of it, right? You don’t have to be a highly-touted recruit, or even get drafted by an MLB team, to love and play the game. Even as a fan, I’m incredibly passionate about baseball. I never want it to end. I get borderline depressed when it’s over. And that’s why I think I would have been a great indy ball player. These are athletes playing baseball strictly out of love and not really for the money in the paycheck. That’s frankly because we’re not talking about a whole lot of coin at this level. According to Indy Ball Island, players would be most fortunate to make around $3,000 a month at this level. Some independent ball players don’t even get a salary at all. So in these players’ cases, it really is about not wanting baseball to end.

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