MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: From infielder to author

John Wolff’s stint as a member of the Bristol White Sox lasted less than three weeks in the summer of 2006. The New York native appeared in just three games for the BriSox and got a grand total of seven at-bats before being released by the Chicago White Sox organization.

However, Wolff still made some memories.

“I wish I was there longer in Bristol, I tell you that,” Wolff said in a telephone interview last week. “I enjoyed the town quite a bit in my short stay and loved the people. I had a great time and some memorable nights.”

Most of those memories are relived in “Harvard Boys: A Father and Son’s Adventures Playing Minor League Baseball,” a Skyhorse Publishing book released last November and co-authored by Wolff and his father, Rick.

The book chronicles Wolff’s first season as a professional baseball player after he was a 47th-round draft pick by the Chicago organization out of Harvard University. Throughout the book, John corresponds with his dad, who also played baseball at Harvard and had a stint in the minor leagues in the 1970s. The father and son share their experiences of playing in the lower rungs of the minors. 

“Oddly enough, the motivation to write the book was boredom during extended spring training,” Wolff said. “Coming out of Harvard, every minute of my time there was allocated to weightlifting, practice, classes and homework. When I got to pro ball, I was amazed my first year because once I got off the field at 4 p.m. each day [during extended spring training], I had the rest of the day to relax. No homework or anything.
“So I started writing e-mails to my dad, telling what I did each day and sharing weird stories. After sending these e-mails for 5-6 months and with all my different travels, I thought it was a cool adventure and crafted the e-mails into a diary of some sort. That’s how the book came about.”

While Wolff didn’t spend much time in Bristol, the book does cover some interesting tales from his days in the town. He writes about shopping for an air conditioner at Wal-Mart, hanging out at the State Line Bar and Grill downtown and he even encountered the Appalachian League’s version of groupies.

The dilemma of finding a home is another adventure Wolff deals with in the book.

“The only tricky part was finding a place to live,” Wolff said. “There was a little bit of a negative reputation and a lot of the landlords were hesitant to rent out to baseball players. But Chris Ketron, a really good guy and really fair, gave us a break on an old dilapidated house.”

Wolff shared the house with nine of his teammates and with no furniture, each of the players — Wolff, Josh Morgan, Matt Enuco, Andrew Mead, Jacob Jean, Marquise Cody, Marcos Causey, Stefan Gartrell, Scott Madsen and Alex Woodson — slept on air mattresses in the cramped quarters.

“It was classic minor league living,” Wolff said. “That’s the weirdest place I’ve ever lived, but also the most fun. They were all my best friends and great people. We kind of bonded in that goofy environment.”

On the field, Wolff has some memories as well. He made his professional debut at DeVault Stadium, starting at first base in a game against the Johnson City Cardinals. A few days later, he collected his first pro hit at Burlington.

However, he was let go a short time later and the book captures the emotion he felt when getting the word he had been released from Bristol manager Nick Leyva.

His final tally for the BriSox was a .143 batting average (1-for-7), two walks and a run scored. After leaving Bristol, Wolff played for two independent league teams and writes about those stops in his memoirs.

Ironically, one of his teammates with the Kalamazoo Kings of the Frontier League that summer was former Tennessee High pitcher Eli Rose.

Wolff retired from baseball in 2007 and he currently runs a Web Site known as eFieldHouse, a networking site for ex-ballplayers.

“It’s basically a private FaceBook or MySpace site for pro athletes,” Wolff said. “I’m a computer nerd at heart, so I’m having fun with it.”

He also had fun during his time with the BriSox.

“I really enjoyed those days,” he said.
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