Great American Dream

Even after the minor-league season ends, the work to get better doesn’t. Just days after celebrating a championship with Pensacola, Shed Long was on his way to Goodyear, Ariz., to start getting ready for the 2018 season.

It's as great as advertised.

Not all big-league dreams end in the big leagues. What happens when you fall short of your goal? Two former Reds minor-leaguers, Bo Lanier and Bryson Smith, tell their stories, one a decade removed from the game and the other in his first season outside of baseball.

In the minors, it’s not the years, it’s the mileage.

The trade deadline and the working-man athlete. Some stuff you just can’t control. A lot of stuff, in fact. When a blockbuster trade is made at Major League Baseball's trade deadline, a slugger or ace is heralded as the final piece for a World Series title. The other side is usually several minor leaguers who have to move from Sacramento to Louisville or Fayetteville, Ark, to Pensacola, Fla. Every big-league move has minor-league ripples. This is the story of the players at the end of the story, not those in the headline.

Shed Long was recently moved up to Double-A Pensacola, a new start with a new team in a new city. Upward movement is always the goal, but the road goes both ways. As the Reds struggle in 2017, several players have had the highs of being called up to the big leagues combined with the lows of returning to minor-league life after a taste of the big leagues.

Life in the minor leagues can create bonds and relationships that last a lifetime. Promoted from Daytona to Pensacola, Shed Long is now playing beside close friend Blake Trahan in the Blue Wahoos' infield.

Before the minors, there is the draft. For baseball players in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, getting the call from one of 30 Major League Baseball teams in the three-day, 40-round draft is a dream. Finding those players is the job of a network of scouts. Once they do their jobs, then the players start their march to the big leagues.

It wasn't always this way. The Big Red Machine was one of the most racially diverse in any sport. But these days baseball is being called 'a white man's game' by some. If you look at the numbers of who plays and who watches, they aren't far from wrong. Why? And can anyone fix that?

Everybody speaks baseball, but not everybody speaks English. No problema.

Shed struggled briefly but then found his swing. The living arrangements in the minors do prove a little complicated.

Meet Shed Long, a 21-year-old from Anniston, Alabama, who is starting for the high-Class A Dayton Tortugas in Daytona, Florida.

Coming April 24: Great American Dream is the story of the path to the big leagues, following current Reds minor league second baseman Shed Long in his journey toward Major League Baseball. Long's journey is one taken by thousands every year and their stories all different, but travel a similar path from cities across the country all with the same dream.