MARK KIGER beat the odds to enjoy a brief moment of sporting success. Only 10% of the thousands of players in Minor League Baseball go on to play at least one game in the Majors, and he made it that far. Selected by Oakland Athletics in the draft in 2002, he went on to play in the MLB during the first round of the playoffs in 2006. But he would leave baseball due to an injury: after that, things started to unravel.

Tabitha Soren, an artist and former reporter, became curious about the men who dreamed of becoming professional baseball players and what happened to those dreams (Michael Lewis, Ms Soren’s husband, had introduced her to the draft picks while he was writing “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”). She photographed Mr Kiger along with 21 other baseball players who were part of the 2002 Oakland A’s draft class over the course of 15 years, charting the realities of trying to make it as an athlete. Compiled in a new book—which also includes essays penned by some of the players as well as short stories by Dave Eggers—Ms Soren states that her photographs capture “a psychological state of striving and what it looks like to try to touch greatness”. She shows them as they stretch while warming up, as they slide to safety while reaching a base, and as fans crowd around to take photos. There are plenty of the highs and adrenaline that sport provides.

But the book is most effective in exploring the second acts of sporting careers. Jeremy Brown goes from five seasons in the minors and one in the majors to coal mining, before returning to baseball as a coach. Joe Blanton retired from the game and bought a vineyard in the Napa Valley, returning to the pros as a relief pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers (a neighbour got him back into the game: he needed somebody to play catch with). Nick Swisher ends up playing for the New York Yankees in the World Series-winning team of 2009; in 2010, he becomes an All-Star. Through her lens, we see the passion and the disappointment that always accompanies sporting ambition; the images are most powerful when showing those who did not attain great stardom or immortality. On the opening page, Steve Stanley, a former outfielder for the Oakland A’s, is pictured swinging a bat; we are informed that he now works as an insurance agent. Steve Obenchain—who pitched in the minor leagues for five seasons—is shown teaching his young son (he was forced to retire due to an arm injury). He now works as a supervisor of portfolio support services at Donaldson Capital Management in Evansville, Indiana.