Kouzmanoff playing third base for the San Diego Padres.
Kevin Kouzmanoff was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the sixth round of the 2003 MLB Draft from the University of Nevada, Reno. He played parts of four Minor League seasons before making his MLB Debut in 2006. Kouzmanof hit the first pitch that he saw in the Major Leagues for a grand slam. He also played third base for Dallas Braden's perfect game on Mother's Day 2010. Those remarkable moments aside, Kouzmanoff shared some astonishing stories from his tenure in the MiLB. Like a lot of the MLB guys that we interviewed, he acknowledges that this sacrifice was more than worth it.
"How about the long bus rides? Playing a game at 7 PM and getting done at 10 PM. Then getting on a bus at 11 PM and driving eight hours to the next city arriving early in the morning to check into the hotel for a few hours before you go back to the stadium to take batting practice. You’re tired and yet we are still eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before the game. We were getting paid $800 a month.
We did not have any option to rent furniture this one year so we all went to a Habitat for Humanity secondhand store and got all used furniture. We couldn't afford much and we went to Walmart and bought air mattresses and slept on them. I remember sharing a two bed two bath apartment with four other guys sleeping on air mattresses. We didn’t cook much so we ate a lot of canned tuna with mayonnaise and mixed anything we can into that to get our protein.
When we would go on the road our meal money would be $20 a day and $11 of that would go to club house dues and club house dues bought us peanut butter jelly sandwiches, chips, cheese balls, and also got our laundry loops and uniforms cleaned. It also included terrible dinners after the game such pork chops which was like eating your shower sandals.
You are squeezed into these little club houses that barely have running water and your lockers that are sometimes 10 inches wide. I couldn’t even fit a pair of shoes in there. Sometimes it would be a race to the shower to get the hot water because you know the hot water would run out.
These were the best times of my life. I met my best friends during these times... grinding it out on the buses, playing with each other trying to make it to the next level, the camaraderie in the clubhouse/dugout.
But it is an investment. You have to put the time and work and dedication into it to see the light at the end of the tunnel. A lot of guys were unhappy about the way we were treated and the amount of pay we were receiving but those are the guys placing blame on everything and everyone else instead of worrying about themselves working hard making it to the big leagues.
- Kevin Kouzmanoff