Professional Minor League Books

I enjoyed this book very much being it was a dream of mine to be a professional soccer player. Ungrady got the opportunity to be a player on a professional team and carefully relayed the experience to the reader. He detailed the commitment that these players need to make to get their chance and the difficulty of balancing work and sport. These players are not making money at this and this makes the struggle that much greater. Also, I found it quite interesting the amount of work it took Dave to get ready to just practice and that some of the kids could just show up and quickly be ready. It made me more aware of the different warm up techniques of each player whenever I arrive early for a United game or even a Royals game. Being that this was my local D3 team I was also quite interested. This is an enjoyable book that is very good for a summer read at the beach. Read it before you go to the stadium and understand what it took many of these players to make your team be it MLS, A-League, D3, PDL, W-League, or WUSA. The question is does Dave Ungrady get on the field as a professional for the NOVA Royals? You will need to read this for yourself. Enjoy.

Quick disclaimer: I've met Dave Ungrady, though I did so after reading the book. I also write about soccer myself.

There are many who NEED to read this book if they haven't done so already. This would include anyone who has a strong opinion about organizing soccer in the U.S. Ungrady's book just might turn your impression of lower-division soccer on its ear. "A Season of Struggle" is an apt subtitle. It's a tough life lived only by those who absolutely love the game.

For everyone else -- it's simply a good, fun read. You don't even have to be a big soccer fan. He keeps a light touch through his anecdotes, interjecting his own experience but not turning into the "me, me, me" digressions that often drag down books of this type.

Enjoy.

Ungrady approaches the N.Virginia Royals and wants to write a book about the season. What follows is a fact based trip across the D3 league (same level as double A baseball). Other than trying to appropriate blame on an 11 year old boy for getting lost on the way to an away game it is a standard "year in the life of".

The lack of fans, fact that they are all unpaid professionals (oxy-moron?) and life with a full time job and part time player is covered in depth. A great read if you like soccer.

The book provides an interesting view of the lower levels of professional soccer in the US. Most of the time we can only read about the players who have "made it." This book shows the reality of the vast majority of players who haven't quite made it and probably never will. I don't think it's quite good enough a read to merit 5 stars, but I would definitely recommend it to any soccer junkie.

As an English soccer fan, it was very interesting to read about the travails of minor league soccer in the United States. Major League has problems competing with the three leading sports, but these are compounded for Minor League. Ungrady provides a compelling picture of the struggles of the North Virginia Royals to establish themselves. The book is given added interest by his own attempts to get into the team, not helped when he manages to take a large segment of the team to entirely the wrong town. This is a very well written book: it kept me absorbed on a flight from Seattle to Pittsburgh. I can recommend it to anyone interested in soccer or sports more generally.

This is the story of the 1994 season in the minor league independent Northern League. 94 of course was the infamous year of the strike and World Series cancellation. Thus it is hardly surprising that Fatsis' most prominent theme, shared by those involved at all levels -- but particularly ownership/management -- of the Northern League, is that MLB and its minors have become hidebound, soulless businesses. This is absolutely true naturally, but all that is required to confirm it is a couple of examples to hammer that point home, not the drumbeat reiteration that Fatsis provided throughout the book. When he concentrates on the personalities, fans, cities, and -- most particularly -- ballpark atmospherics of the Northern League, Wild and Outside gets much more entertaining. My personal favorite was Ted Cushmore, the put-upon owner of the hapless Duluth franchise. Fatsis had lots of access to many participants in the league and, not surprisingly, those who talked most freely to him tend to get the most sympathetic treatment, a bias which colors the history to an extent the reader can only guess at. As baseball reads go, however, this one ranks in the upper middle of the crowded pack.

Well written and packed with information. Excellent read.

This book has great background of each season which is excellent. Lots of nice photos too. My only complaint is the description says indepth player statistics but books just list leaders, so don't expect a lot of numbers.