From Joseph Bosco’s The Boys Who Would Be Cubs, page 65 (I might have arranged these a little differently….)
The omnipresent, osmotic process by which the collective wisdom of the game is passed by the chosen who went before to the newly chosen who are attempting to follow.
Scouting departments might bird-dog, cross-check, and sign them. General managers and farm directors might set their monetary value and if, where, and for whom they will play. But it is the organization’s minor league staff of managers, coaches, and instructors who are responsible for teaching bonus-baby amateurs how to play, think and live as professional baseball players.
In the major leagues, American Legion, and NCAA they play the game. In the minor leagues they teach the game. Even as they live it, breathe it, do it, and talk it on-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, from March till September.
Strikes me as an excellent summary of the circumstances of baseball in the low minors. And that very strange first sentence/paragraph is what Bosco actually wrote.