Welcome to the Circus of Baseball

A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time

By: Ryan McGee

Narrated by: Ryan McGee

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A gloriously funny, nostalgic memoir of a popular ESPN reporter who, in the summer of 1994, was a fresh-out-of-college intern for a minor league baseball team. Madness and charm ensue as Ryan McGee spends the season steeped in sweat, fertilizer, nacho cheese sauce, and pure, unadulterated joy in North Carolina with the Asheville Tourists.

"A sweet and funny book that reminds us it’s not just the game itself that draws us. It’s also the people."—Tom Verducci, MLB Network, Fox & Sports Illustrated, and New York Times bestselling author of The Yankee Years

In the spring of 1994, Ryan McGee (new college graduate) bombed his coveted interview with ESPN—the only place he ever wanted to work. But he did receive one job offer: to work for $100 a week for the Asheville Tourists, a proud minor league baseball team in the heart of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. McCormick Field, home to the Tourists, had once been graced by Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Jackie Robinson. What could go wrong?

Welcome to the Circus of Baseball is McGee’s hilarious, charming memoir of his first summer working in the sporting world. He has since risen the ESPN ranks to national TV, radio, and Internet host, but his time in Asheville still looms large. Among the many jewels of his experience. . . McGee recounts one of the most entertaining on-field brawls you’ll ever witness (between the fourteen league mascots who had assembled for the all-star game—an eight-foot-tall foam-costumed crustacean, a pudgy red fox, a giant skunk . . . and they were really fighting), as well as the nervous moment he oversaw the game-day entertainer known as "Captain Dynamite and His Exploding Coffin of Death." Most important, McGee details a magical summer of baseball, of learning the ropes, of the ins-and-outs of running a minor league team, and of coming to understand how the pulse of a community can beat gloriously through a minor league ball club.

Welcome to the Circus of Baseball is a baseball classic in the making.

©2023 Ryan McGee (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Evoking the shimmering green of Asheville’s sunny diamond, Mr. McGee’s chronicle is a celebration of baseball when it isn’t only the greenbacks that matter. The circus of baseball is still, despite all the problems, the greatest show on Earth." —The Wall Street Journal

"If you fell in love with baseball at some point when you were growing up, you will love this journey back to the scene of your first love. McGee clearly loves minor league baseball, and in reading his new book, you will, too." —Baseball America

"Every once in a while, every baseball fan should go to a minor league game to be reminded of why they love the game. And if you can’t get there, or don’t want to risk spilling nachos on your lap, Welcome to the Circus of Baseball is the next best thing. Ryan McGee has crafted a sweet and funny book that reminds us it’s not just the game itself that draws us. It’s also the people." —Tom Verducci, MLB Network, Fox & Sports Illustrated, and New York Times bestselling author of The Yankee Years

Great Content & Narration

One of the best books I've heard on Audible. I think the storytelling and Ryan's narration made it a masterpiece. This will definitely get a second listen.

Great Book!

Absolutely incredibly fun listen. Took me back to my memories watching the AA Memphis Chicks in Tim McCarver stadium.

A natural story teller

Even if you’re not a sports fan or fan of the Marty and McGee show, this is a tale that touches your heart, makes you laugh out loud and reminisce about your own life especially if you were involved with sports while growing up.

Great book and fun narration

Seriously great entertaining book about the inner workings of MILB baseball. Also, I really enjoyed the narration by the author.

A sports lovers must read!

Ryan is a great storyteller! I’ve read / listened to several books and this is one of the best I’ve listened to in a long time. If you love baseball especially MiLB you need to listen!

Pure Baseball

at first I was hoping it would go into the story of the minor leagues itself a little more but the more I listened the more I enjoyed hearing about a particular team in a city and how that minor league team impacts the town and the people in it. I live in a town that has a triple A team and it reminded me of going to the games as a kid when he was talking about the plastic helmets filled with ice cream

Great story and storyteller

Ryan McGee is an excellent storyteller in relating his experience as an intern with a minor league team when he was fresh out of college. His love for the people he worked with is more than evident as well as his love for the sport and that stadium in west North Carolina. I felt as though I knew these people from his description and felt his sadness as he left when offered a job with ESPN. Having been to a some minor league games, there were more than a few laugh out loud moments as I could see exactly the scenes he related. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, a very enjoyable read. He definitely brought this team and people to life.

Long Live Baseball!

Loved every word of this book. Thanks Ryan for being such a great story teller.

Grand slam home run of a book. This book is hilarious and perfectly captures the charm of both McCormick Field and minor league

This book captures the charm of both McCormick Field and minor league baseball, where you feel like you are living the movie “Bull Durham “Don’t take a called strike three. Read this book

Piece of Americana

Thoroughly enjoyable listen & welcomed trip down memory lane from one of ESPN’s most authentic hosts provides opportunity for escapism through the pictures he paints in your mind while listening