Brooks McNiven, a 25-year-old minor league pitcher for the San Jose Giants, often drives up Highway 101 to watch the San Francisco Giants play at glamorous AT&T Park.
But it's a much longer journey to move from the minor leagues to the major leagues, one that can take years, and one where talent provides the only shortcut. It is a trek that only a select few complete.
The path is filled with tedious bus rides, poverty-level wages, loneliness and doubt. And the competition is tough.
"It's a struggle," McNiven said. "You're competing with so many players. You know it's a cut-throat business, when you're competing against your own teammates."
There are about 120 ballplayers in the Giants' minor league system, "all competing for that one spot," he said.
Each year 7,280 minor league players nationwide compete for the chance to live out their dream and become one of the 750 ballplayers who play at the major league level.
Julian Harris, an ex-minor leaguer, gave baseball his all but fell short in the end. Harris, now a local San Jose pitching coach, got as far as the advanced Class A league, just a notch above the regular Class A minor leagues, the lowest level of organized professional baseball.
Playing in the major leagues was all Harris wanted to do. He was a star pitcher, first baseman, and outfielder at Oak Grove High School. As a tall lefty relief pitcher, he relied on his 92-93 mph fastball, changeup, and slider. Harris was 19 when he was drafted by the Anaheim Angels organization. The American League club farmed him out to the instructional rookie leagues to perfect his pitching mechanics.
It was Harris' first time living away from home. He not only had to learn the craft of baseball and focus on his career, but he also had to learn how to live with teammates from all walks of life.
After a year and a half in the instructional leagues, the Angels elevated Harris to a Class A team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. During his first season, he struggled with control problems, going 1-2 with a 4.82 ERA, but he still showed promise and was promoted to Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
There, however, his career hit a wall and he was confronted with the continuing harsh reality of life in the minors.
Harris' salary was only $1,300 a month. He either rented out condos with teammates or stayed with families who were willing to house him for free during the season.
The bus rides were long and tiring. The team was traveling from Rancho Cucamonga to Lancaster when the bus's air conditioner broke.
"It was about 105 degrees outside of the bus and 120 inside,'' he said. "By the time we got to the stadium we were already worn out."
Harris also began questioning his potential after he saw teammates advancing to higher leagues.
"If you don't get a break, you're stuck with the rest of the herd," he said.
His dream came to a halt when the Angels let him go after the season. His release crushed him.
"I was mostly pretty upset, shocked and disappointed," he said. "I ain't trying to be a career minor leaguer."
Disconsolate, he returned to San Jose. But then he signed on with a team in the Northern Leagues in Sioux City, Iowa.
After that season he met his wife, Gina, in San Jose. Gina was everything he ever wanted. He had found his other true passion besides baseball in Gina and their daughter, Angelina.
But his pursuit of a spot on a major league team became a source of tension in their relationship.
"I didn't know if I wanted to be with someone who's gone six months out of the year," Gina Harris said.
She told him he had one last chance to show he could advance to the majors -- or else give it up.
He latched on with a minor league team in Mesa, Ariz., that had no affiliation with any major league team. However, players showing promise could have their contracts purchased by a big league club.
But, in Mesa, his life became a pressure cooker. His career tanked and he realized that his family was more important.
He gave up his professional baseball aspirations, but he remains close to the game: He works as a pitching instructor for kids in the Bay Area, passing on his knowledge to young players with the same dream that he once harbored.
McNiven, on the other hand, is still following his dream. Born and raised in Canada, he played baseball at the University of British Columbia.
In 2003, he was drafted in the fourth round by the Giants organization. He now plays advanced Class A ball for the San Jose Giants.
Becoming a major leaguer "would be the perfect life," he said. But like all minor leaguers, he's paying his dues. The minor league travel schedule and bus rides, McNiven said, are "brutal."
"On some night trips, you get home at 6 or 7 in the morning and you have to be back at the field that day at 3 for" batting practice, he said.
But, McNiven refuses to let anything -- fatigue, rickety motel rooms, lousy fast food, or pesky lead-off batters -- get in the way of his dream.
"It's all part of the experience," McNiven said.