In 2002, Tabitha Soren first began photographing a group of minor league
draft picks for the Oakland A's--young men coming into the major league
farm system straight from high school or college. Since then, she has
followed the players through their baseball lives, an alternate reality
of long bus rides, on-field injuries, friendships and marriages entered
and exited, constant motion, and very hard work, often for very little
return. Some of the subjects, like Nick Swisher and Joe Blanton, have
gone on to become well-known, respected players at the highest level of
the game. Some left baseball to pursue other lines of work, such as
selling insurance and coal mining. Others have struggled with poverty
and even homelessness.
Fifteen years after that first shoot, Fantasy Life portrays a
selection of these stories, gathering together a richly textured series
of photographs taken on the field and behind the scenes at games, along
with commentaries by each of the players and memorabilia from their
lives--from kindergarten-age baseball cards to x-rays of player
injuries. Dave Eggers contributes five linked short stories that
compellingly condense the roller-coaster ride of the minor-league
everyman, from youthful pursuit of stardom through the slog of endless
hardscrabble games, to that moment of realization that success may not
be just around the corner after all. Additionally, a number of the
featured players add their own real-life experiences of trying to make
it to "The Show." Together, these elements evoke the enduring spirit of
this quintessential American fantasy of making it in the major leagues.
