ABOUT THE AUTHOR: EDDIE AUCOIN

—Milton Berle

Eddie Aucoin is a professional baseball player and instructor who has competed in a number of different leagues throughout the world. An admitted "hired gun" in international baseball circles, he effectively built a career as a professional after injury and adversity forced him to step away from the game and then start over—well past his prime as a signable commodity in the eyes of Major League Baseball scouts.

After suffering an arm injury in college while performing the dual role of shortstop and closer, Eddie took a hiatus from  baseball as he faced the apparent end of his career. It was during this time away from the field when it became grossly evident that he just wasn't ready to walk away from the game.  More specifically, it was on a "frigid, rainy, morbidly gray, throw-yourself-into-oncoming-traffic kind of Monday morning, while swinging a sledge hammer at a downtown Boston construction site," when he decided he had to give the pros just one shot. So a short time later, he packed up his Ford Ranger with little more than gas money in his pocket, hopped on I-95 and moved to St. Augustine, Florida to work himself back into playing shape with his former college team (Flagler College).

In May of 1998, he spent the last of his savings on a room at the Days Inn in Waterbury, CT, for a pro tryout (comically described in the book) the following day. Literally at the end of the road of his pro baseball dream, Eddie was signed as a shortstop by the Waterbury Spirit of the Northeast League of Professional Baseball. After a month with the Spirit, he received an offer to sign with the world famous professional fastpitch softball team, “The King and his Court” by the “King of Softball,” Eddie Feigner, who had been impressed by his play during a tour of the Southeast a few months prior. A chance to travel North America while getting paid to play ball was too much to pass up, so he took it. For three years he toured with the court throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico alongside some of the world’s best fastpitch softball players.

Catching on with a major league organization certainly wasn’t realistic after three seasons away from baseball, and he again found himself on the outside looking in, with little chance to chase the pro dream. That's when he began to work himself into a pro caliber pitcher (in the unlikeliest of places, described in the intro of the book) and embarked on an intensive quest to research and seek out professional baseball opportunities outside of the mainstream. It was through this initial research that he began to discover a great deal of little-known opportunity to play pro ball in various places throughout the world. A few short weeks later, he found himself with a contract and a plane ticket to start all over again.

This was the beginning of a brand new baseball adventure that’s literally taken him around the world. After numerous stops throughout the US, Canada, South America, and all over Europe (including a stint in the Toronto Blue Jays system), he says "I can't imagine ever looking back at one single day I spent as a pro ballplayer, and wishing I was employed doing anything else." Each season, the job offers just keep coming in.

Over the past several years of this journey, Eddie Aucoin has been thoroughly researching and compiling the essential information in this book through his network of contacts throughout the baseball world—including those inside of Major League Baseball. He’s sharing it with you now, in hopes that you or someone in your life can benefit, and also live the dream of getting paid to play baseball.