From the desk of Katya Cengel
Kayta Cengel is the author of Bluegrass
Baseball, which describes a year in the life
of four minor league baseball teams in Kentucky that tell a larger story about
the culture atmosphere of today's minor leagues. Below
she describes meeting her youngest fan.
Although Bluegrass Baseball is an
adult book, it is about baseball, so I figured I would have some young baseball
playing fans. But I wasn’t quite prepared for the ones I came across while on
tour in Kentucky. Most of them were middle school age boys who hoped one day to
be playing in the minor leagues, like the subjects of Bluegrass Baseball. In
Louisville a ten-year-old with a shy smile thanked me personally for signing
the book his father had bought him. Then he bashfully asked if he could take a
picture with me. A few minutes later he returned with a baseball he wanted me
to sign. Watching him inspect his ball as he walked away is a memory I will not
soon forget. But it was another young Kentucky fan that stole my heart.


