Demoted from Triple-A to Single-A? Ouch!

Yes. Single-A is the entry-level of professional baseball. It really should be all 18 and 19 year olds, fresh out of high school, but of course, this is Hollywood.

Triple-A is the level right below Major League Baseball.

Normally you move in single-league jumps, so that you go from Single-A to Double-A, Double-A to Triple-A, and Triple-A to the majors. However, at the end of the season, anything can happen, as shown in the movie.





I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

No, when Crash gets released, it's a mirror to the scene at the beginning of the movie when the first catcher gets released, who Crash then replaces. Released basically means fired - the team has the right to release you from your contract at any time. Getting released from a single-A team means "death" in baseball - if you're not good enough to be on the lowest level team in the minors, then you'll never be good enough to make the Major Leagues. Most players, when they're released from a single-A contract in baseball, just "hang 'em up", meaning, they quit the game entirely.

Instead, Crash joins the Asheville Tourists, a single-A team, also in North Carolina, in the South Atlantic League. He heard that they needed a catcher to finish out the season. He did it so he could get his home run there before finally retiring with the ignominious record of having hit the most home runs in the minor leagues. Not a record to really be proud of.

So that team he joins at the end is the same level as the Durham Bulls. He just moved laterally, not up or down.

Then Annie mentions that they're looking for a manager in Visalia. That's another single-A team in California. As a catcher, Crash would be well-suited to manage. This is because, whether or not it's true, catchers are generally regarded as the smartest players on the field. They've studied how the other team hits, who hits what pitch, who doesn't hit what pitch, and therefore the catcher controls the pitch selection with the pitcher (as you see Crash doing throughout the movie with Nuke). They generally move the defensive players on their team around on the field based on how the other team's players hit, waving the second baseman to the left or right, for example, if a certain opposing player has a tendency to hit the ball left or right, that sort of thing. Catchers are, in effect, like on-field managers.

By the way, another piece of information for you is that almost all of the minor league teams are owned by the major clubs. A major league club will own their own triple-A club, double-A, and usually at least two single-A clubs. The major league club has the right to "call up" any of the players in the minor leagues to the "big leagues" whenever they want. They will generally do this at the end of the baseball season, in September, when they are mathematically eliminated from having a chance to be in post-season play - the playoffs, the World Series. They do this because at that point, what the team does (win or lose) just doesn't matter any more. They do this so that they can see what their minor-league stars are really capable of against other major league hitting and pitching, and so that these players get some experience of the majors. Crash mentions he had a brief stint in the majors too, and you see all the other players going ga-ga over him about this.

If you ever come to America, you should definitely see a game - at the stadium. Baseball is a slow game, and it can be a little boring on television. It's not boring at the stadium, though.





I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.