Tony Okun, who grew up in Omaha watching the Omaha Royals play and now lives in Idaho, gives us a glimpse of the entire journey through the eyes of two players who come from different perspectives in his “Time in the Minors” documentary distributed by Landmark Media.
Tony Schrager, a 28-year-old infielder who was born in Omaha, played for Omaha Westside, and went on to play at Rosenblatt Stadium in the 1997 College World Series for Stanford. The Chicago Cubs drafted him in the 6th round in 1998 and sent him to play in A-ball. Schrager got an $87,500 signing bonus, plus $20,000 to finish school and he was paid $850.00 a month in A-ball, minus expenses.
John Drennen, an 18-year-old highly touted outfielder, received a $1 million signing bonus out of high school with the Cleveland Indians after being selected as a sandwich pick in the 2005 draft. He started in rookie ball, making $1,175 per month.
The documentary weaves back and forth as their stories progress during the 2005 and 2006 seasons, taking viewers into the locker room, weight room and family room of each player. Okun interviews their current and former coaches, scouts and teammates. As you watch, the tension builds, making you wonder if either of them will see their dream realized.
“This isn’t a glamorous story,” Okun said in a phone interview. “It’s hard. It shows the challenge that they go through and that’s exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to just go from A to B and show you what these guys go through. And I hope you walk away from it with a newfound perspective or respect for these kids playing in the minor leagues.”
Okun shows how important timing can be as minor leaguers chase their dream. At one point, just as Schrager is positioned to get a call to the major leagues, he goes into a slump. In another scene, Drennen gets a chance to face Roger Clemens in a minor league game, shortly after Clemens came out of retirement in 2006 to pitch for the Houston Astros. Clemens hung a 2-2 splitter that Drennen hammered over the right field wall.
Eventually, Schrager found himself out of affiliated baseball in an independent league, and you can feel the feel the pressure he is under as he talks about it.
“I wasn’t ready to say that my career was over in affiliated baseball,” Schrager says in the film. “This is really the only way for me to get back in it. Even if I go out here and have a great year, there’s no guarantee. I could have the best year of my career here and there’s no guarantee that somebody’s going to pick me up.”
The DVD is available in two lengths – a 60 minute version or an 85-minute version, the latter of which includes footage Okun shot in Omaha at Rosenblatt Stadium when Albuquerque visited Omaha for a series in 2006. Schrager played for Albuquerque at the time
“It was real special, walking up on those old, slick, metal risers again,” Okun said. “It was bringing back memories from my childhood. I thought it was very special – Tony coming back to his hometown.
“It was great. It was nothing but a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed it. I actually caught a foul ball. I was up with the other videographers and a ball comes screaming up toward me and I caught it. I got a nice ovation from the crowd. It was really funny and I have the ball in a box of stuff I collected while shooting the film.”
The longer version of the film contains portions of a radio interview Schrager did with Mark Nasser, who has been calling Omaha Royals’, now Storm Chasers’, games since 2001. Schrager says during the interview that one of the first things he did after he learned he’d be playing for Albuquerque was to look at the schedule to see if they would be playing in Omaha.
If you are interested in picking up a copy of the DVD, you can find out more by going to the Oh! Show Productions website. Here’s a trailer of the film:
