I really enjoyed this book as it chronicled the summer of an intern in minor league baseball. I never gave much thought to the logistics and planning it takes to pull off so many games and, even more so, themed nights, but I was engaged the whole time. I would definitely recommend this book for any baseball fans who want to know what life in the minors is really like.

Extremely whimsical and entertaining. As a North Carolinian and journalism professor, I strongly identify with the author and setting. McGee takes us back to a place that still exists, but just barely: the scraping by minor league franchise immortalized in Bull Durham (but through the gawky eyes of a staff member and not on the shoulder of the star veteran slugger), but also the sleepy summer mountain town that has now priced out most of the characters presented in this memoir. The Asheville in these pages is unrecognizable today (unless you go to Shelby or Morganton or Marion and squint real hard), but is still more real than the idea of sustainable independent minor league sports. Its a shame, bc as the conglomeration of sports and entertainment makes this formerly democratized version less and less of a real thing, less Americans will have access to something that used to be considered a pastime, but now is just a relic from a past time.

Welcome to the Circus of Baseball by Ryan McGee is a captivating tale that transports readers to the idyllic atmosphere of a perfect summer at the perfect ballpark during the perfect time. Through vivid storytelling, the book provides a rich tapestry of experiences and emotions, capturing the essence of a magical baseball season.
The narrative revolves around the enthralling journey of a group of friends as they immerse themselves in the world of baseball, experiencing the thrill of the game, the camaraderie of the fans, and the captivating allure of the ballpark. McGee deftly weaves together the excitement of the sport with the nostalgia of a bygone era, evoking a sense of timelessness that resonates with readers of all ages.
The author's vivid descriptions and heartfelt anecdotes effortlessly transport the reader to the heart of the ballpark, allowing them to feel the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, and the palpable nostalgia that infuses every page. Through the author's lens, readers are given a front-row seat to the magic of baseball, where every game is a journey and every moment is an opportunity for unforgettable memories.
Welcome to the Circus of Baseball is a perfect blend of joy, nostalgia, and the enduring love for America's favorite pastime, making it an essential read for anyone who cherishes the spirit of baseball.

Thank you for the ARC!

Huge fan of minor league baseball and love to see it making a comeback across the country. McGee's book hits at the right time as popularity is surging with the Savannah Bananas' World Tour. It brings communities together. And it has some of the best entertainment you could ever hope to find.

I was in literally tears of laughter reading the first chapter (or preface?) of this book. It's a cast of characters who you will grow to love and recognize as people within your own life.

Loved this book. Recommended to anyone who likes baseball, comedy, oddball memoirs. It's a really, really fun read. I listened to the audio book too and it's fantastic.

Thanks to NetGallery and the publisher for the ARC to review. Thought this was a great book and inside look at the lower levels of minor league baseball. Even if it is dated because it takes place two decades ago. Hightly recommend for any sports fans.

What a fun and entertaining baseball book. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction.

Ryan McGee delights with his memoir of working behind the scenes in the bush leagues with his Welcome to the Circus of Baseball.

McGee, half of ESPN's Marty and McGee duo, writes of a time before his ESPN fame, the summer of 1994 when he worked as an intern for the Asheville Tourists, the class A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

The book follows McGee's path to get a job in the baseball world, and it is about baseball, but it's also about more than that. It's about a young man trying to find his way in the world alongside his friends. It's about the people that he encounters along the way, and how they help him along his journey. And it's about the stories and experiences that stay with us for years after they actually happen.

Given that this was minor league baseball and the summer of 1994, the book includes strong portions of Michael Jordan playing baseball and a guest providing a unique perspective on the OJ Simpson Bronco chase. It also includes the stunts and suprises that are the hallmark of minor league baseball, tales from the merchandise and concession stands, and a very unfortunate encounter with a soft serve ice cream machine.

McGee's experiences - long hours, low pay, carefree hijinks - will resonate with all of us who have ever worked for a minor league franchise or college athletic department. McGee is a worthy and skilled narrator to the story, both the sports related elements as well as the coming of age challenges and lessons.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Taking a break from the New York baseball scene, we have a couple of books that deal with various alternatives to major league baseball.

The more traditional of the two is WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS OF BASEBALL: A Study of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time by Ryan McGee. (There go those superlatives again).

About that title: The “summer” might be referring to the author’s life at the point (1994) when he was just out of college, working as a paid intern in the sport he loves but relatively free from care. The “ballpark” was historic McCormick Field, steeped in history, where the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Ty Cobb played almost a century ago, and thus perhaps is the perfect setting for this memoir. And the “time” could be the benefit the minors received as the major league was about to shut down over labor issues, leaving the bushes the only place to find pro ball.

I doubt there was much effort to disguise the similarity in the title to Ron Shelton’s THE CHURCH OF BASEBALL, which looked at the making of Bull Durham, unfailingly recognized as one of the best movies about the sport. Both are about life in the low minor leagues, where the players --- many in or barely out of their teens --- might never have been away from home before (especially true of the Hispanic athletes who had the additional burden of the language barrier).

McGee, a senior writer for ESPN, goes into his humble beginnings, learning the ropes as an intern for the Ashville Tourists, then becoming an affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. And, indeed, many of the tales he tells about the crazy promotions and absurd mascots (you name it) are quite reminiscent of what you saw in Bull Durham. There’s the unpredictable play on the field, the behind-the-scenes colorful characters, the constant attempt to get fannies in the seats through the use of promotions (dollar beer night, anyone?), etc. Max Patkin, the “Clown Prince of Baseball,” even shows up here.


From "2023 Summer Baseball Titles: Tradition and the Bucking Thereof" on Bookreporter.com

I highlighted this book on my Booktube channel. The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/5DgHXSHUDfs

A beautifully written love note to the game of baseball. It doesn't get any more American than minor league baseball in a small town, the Ryan McGee does' a wonderful job recounting his time working in minor league baseball. A must-read for any baseball fan or anyone in general that is looking to understand (and feel) the pull of nostalgia that is an essential part of being a baseball fan.

A delightful love letter to minor league baseball and a must-read for fans.

ESPN’s Ryan McGee was once a lowly $100 a week intern for a minor league baseball team, and he’s got the sweet and silly stories to prove it.

That’s essentially what McGee is doing here—just telling stories—but they’re good ones, and that’s what many fans will tell you baseball is about: Telling stories. It is indeed the most narrative of sports, and McGee delivers an homage to that perspective, as well as a great reminder that those working hard to fulfill their dream of working in sports aren’t just the guys on the field.

There’s plenty of tribute and love for baseball, and especially for the minor leagues here, but there’s also loads of terrific humor. From a mascot battle royale to the hilarious horror of operating a concession ice cream machine, I laughed out loud a LOT while reading this.

Come for the behind the scenes look at how a minor league ballpark runs, stay for the feral cats.

Ryan McGee tells the story when he first gets out of college and in 1993 attends Major League Baseball's winter meetings in the hopes to get a job. This is not surprising as he details that he had a love for minor league ball at an early age. And the fact that the Carolinas have had a history with minor league ball especially in the 1980's when there were 19 towns with a minor league team. He ends up getting a job as an intern for the Asheville North Carolina Tourists a minor league team who plays in the South Atlantic League and is a farm team for the Colorado Rockies. Asheville also has the notoriety of being called Beer City since early 2000's as there is 100 different beers brewed there. The author gives you an inside look on what it takes to work for a minor league team performing many task for the princely sum of $100.00 a week.
This quite informative of the many things an organization will do to get people in the seats like getting people to sing the national anthem with one lady's tryout that was so bad she made the neighborhood dogs howl and some interesting side acts. Crazy to think that a small town stadium on a thirsty Thursday could sell the equivalent of over 10,000 cans of beer in one evening.

The author does good job telling you about the workers and the players and makes you feel like your there were you can smell the fresh cut grass and the cheap hotdogs. This is a good read even if you are not a big baseball fan.

Ryan McGee is the kind of guy you’d be lucky to sit next to at the ballpark, telling entertaining tales from first pitch to final out. In WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS, he combines a deep well of baseball knowledge with a sharp eye for detail, a keen sense of humor, and empathy for everyone he met during a memorable year in baseball’s minor leagues. This is a perfect book about baseball, and like a day at the ballpark, the game is only a small part of the story. Best enjoyed with a hot dog and a cold beer close at hand.

I’ve always thought of Ryan McGee as a College Football guy. I had no idea that he started out his career in professional sports as an intern in the minor leagues. Mr. McGee spent the Summer of 1994 as an intern for the Ashville Tourists of the South Atlantic League. The Tourists were an affiliate of one of the newest teams in baseball at the time, The Colorado Rockies. Mr. McGee regales us with stories of his memorable summer from
his time changing kegs in the cooler all night long during Thirsty Thursday promotions to his ritual feeding on Julio the Cat (a stray who roamed the stadium).

I have a soft spot for any book that details life in minor league baseball, but I especially like Welcome to the Circus of Baseball. I’ve read a number of books on the minors from player accounts to outsiders chronicling a team, but I have never read one from the prospective of an intern with the team. I found the book to be fascinating and insightful. Mr. McGee is an excellent storyteller who know exactly how to make you feel like you are a part of the story. The stories themselves are great running the gambit from funny to heartwarming. My only criticism was that the book was too short. I wanted more stories! I also found the ending with a short follow up to where are the major characters are now to be the perfect way to end the book.

This is a must read for all fans of minor league baseball. Even if you aren’t a fan, I would recommend picking it up. It tells the story of a young man spending a summer doing what he loves. The characters are likable and fun, and I know you will get sucked into the book just like I did.

There are plenty of books available about life in baseball’s minor leagues - that is, books about players whose time in the minors is described. However, there aren’t as many about others who help to make a minor league team run smoothly. This book by ESPN writer and podcaster Ryan McGee looks back fondly at his one season of being an intern for a minor league team.

In 1993, McGee was fresh out of college looking to land a job with ESPN. Having no success there, he and many others with the same dreams of working in sports went to the Winter Meetings for baseball executives, hoping to lad a job in the game. McGee did so - an intern for the Asheville Tourists, a low-level minor league team in the Sally League that was based in the Carolinas.

What follows is a very good description of the friendships he made (some of which still continue to this day) with not only fellow interns, but also front office staff, workers in various parts of the ballpark such as concessions and grounds keeping and even coaches. The players weren’t included in this as interns were not supposed to spend much time in the clubhouse, but there were ways around this - one of the numerous stories told in the book.

Those stories not only made great reading for their humor and personal touches, but they also gave a great perspective and admiration for those people working at a ballpark. Having worked in concessions for many years at Minnesota Twins games, I found myself relating to many of McGee’s stories of his nights working concessions. I was laughing at his mishap while filling the soft serve ice cream machine and his method of quickly moving beer kegs on “Thirsty Thursday” nights when beers sold for $1.

Sticking with concessions as an example of how McGee made stories have a wonderful human interest perspective, one of the best stories was when he offered to take the girl who worked the snow cone stand to her prom after she was stood up by the person who originally did so. While not a typical story that would come from working at a ball park, it just shows how much that summer in Asheville meant to McGee. Also, these types of stories abound in the book, whether he was working concessions, tarp duty (some of the funniest stories come from that) or anything else.

There is a little baseball discussion, especially as that was the summer that Michael Jordan played baseball and he did take a trip to see Jordan play. Jordan was not in the league where the Tourists played, but that didn’t lower the buzz around the ballpark about him. The Tourists had a home game during the other big news item that summer, the O.J. Simpson police chase. Another great story in the book.

No matter the level of interest one has in minor league baseball, this is a book practically anyone who has ever attended, worked at or played in a minor league game will enjoy. It comes highly recommended for any reader.

I wish to thank Doubleday Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
5 big stars
Hilarious memories of a year in the life of a minor league baseball team intern. The author, a writer for ESPN and a fellow Red Sox fan (I appreciated all the Sox references) mentions in his acknowledgements that he had a smile on his face the entire time he was writing this book. Ditto for me while reading it. It's also laugh out loud funny, from the prologue (Captain Dynamite) through the 9 innings (chapters) to the postscript.
Personal favorites:
living in a retirement community
great movie references (now I need to re-watch Bull Durham for the 100th time)
filling the Dairy Queen soft serve machine
chapter 4's press box shenanigans (I was laughing so hard I had to stop reading & take a breather)
Are you a baseball fan, even a little bit? This should be required reading. You will not be disappointed.

A really enjoyable read about a season of minor league baseball.Larger then life characters great stories a fun season to read about..#netgalley #doubleday.

In WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS OF BASEBALL, by Ryan McGee, the reader spends the summer of 1994 with Ryan McGee and the Asheville Tourists. McGee is right out of college and stumbles upon this opportunity to intern for the Tourists and it turns out to be a summer he will never forget. As McGee makes his way through the season, the reader can see what makes the life of minor league baseball team so challenging and fascinating at the same time. Many old traditions are applied with a mixed bag of success, while the same can be said for the new tradition. One thing that is for sure is properly managing that balance is at the core of how successful a minor league team is in totality, above how well they perform on the field.
Very early in the book, the reader begins to really feel like a part of the Asheville Tourists. McGee's ability to describe the stadium, the staff, the team and the various jobs (fun, not fun and downright gross) are loaded with fun details and entertaining reflection. McGee sprinkles some history of minor league baseball and specifically about the Asheville Tourists, but in a wonderfully non-intrusive way that only enriches the book. It's clear how important this job was to McGee because the care and passion taken to describe each person, place and event are from such a special place.
Under all of the stories and all of the colorful characters, McGee is also reminding the world that there truly is magic in minor league baseball and in Asheville in 1994, there was perhaps a little extra. WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS OF BASEBALL is a must read for any baseball fan and I enjoyed it immensely.

As a life-long baseball fan, I was thrilled to get the chance to read this new book by Ryan McGee. I have to admit that when I started I didn't realize this was half of the Marty and McGee radio show that I also love to listen to! But after learning the latter, the book made perfect sense. The humor, the honesty, and the humility of a man who loves what he does is very evident. The stories are so compelling that you'll have a hard time putting the book down between innings! This book is the heart and soul of a sport that the caretakers of it have forgotten. It should be require reading for the commissioner of MLB and every owner. If there is hope for baseball to return to being the American Pastime, it will need to re-discover the magic of the Minor Leagues and their communities! Ryan has done a great job of telling their story by telling us a slice of his own!

As a minor league baseball lover - the mix of stories and characters was perfect! I will absolutely share this in my network...