The Minor League Business

Tonight, my fiancee and I took in a game by the Bridgeport Bluefish professional baseball team. They're part of the Atlantic League, an independent faction that plays at a level that can be roughly described as somewhere between Double-A and Triple-A. We enjoy these games a great deal. Tonight, we got in extra cheap -- as the Bluefish hosted a promotion offering all lower-level seats for $3 apiece.

Atlantic League teams are a unique blend of ballplayers -- and the Bluefish are no exception. Some are young guys who were perhaps overlooked in the Major League drafts and are just looking for a big-league team to notice them and pick up their contracts. More often, however, these Atlantic League players have played some minor-league or even big-league ball. Somewhere along the road, many got hurt, suffered a slump or were just viewed as washed up and released. These players now seek a second chance. Few make it, but since forming in 1998, over 50 players from the Bluefish alone have had their contracts purchased by affiliated clubs and some have made it back to the majors.

Thanks to The Blogging Ladder, a group I created last week on Facebook that now numbers about 100 people, I now feel a real sense of community with other Web site operators, bloggers and small business owners (who often hold the former two titles as well). I feel like we're a community of minor-league business owners. That's not to disparage anyone's business but merely to point out that we're all trying to grow into something greater than ourselves -- and leaning on each other to do so. That's the beauty of Facebook -- it's filled with individuals determined to succeed but less cold and corporate than a pure business networking site.

Like every Bluefish player who dreams of making it to the majors, I ponder whether most of us will become independently wealthy through our businesses. Statistics might suggest only a few of us will get there. But if the camaraderie, teamwork and "ladder" concept -- designed to pull us all up together -- prevails, we certainly stand a better chance than most!

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