Andrew McCutchen on why baseball is tough for lower-income kids

Apologies for the lack of updates these past couple days -- I've been traveling, and there hasn't been much going on anyway. But if you haven't seen it already, I'd like to draw your attention to this excellent essay by Andrew McCutchen about the obstacles lower-income kids face in becoming pro baseball players.

One problem is that the easiest way to get noticed as a young player is to travel and play showcase tournaments, which cost money. Another is that even kids who get noticed and area able to go pro might face five or so years of minor-league poverty (although McCutchen, of course, escaped that fate, since he was a first-round pick). There are huge payoffs for big-league stars like McCutchen, but there's no certainty an 18-year-old draftee, let alone a talented 15-year-old. McCutchen notes that when he was young, he felt jealous even of Latin American teenagers who were able to sign for $50,000.

McCutchen doesn't always say much in the press, and it's uncommon for an MLB star to express an opinion this lucid and this long about an important topic. I hope you'll check it out.