There are about 250 minor league baseball teams. That doesn’t include the numerous club and city league teams scattered around the country.

The top teams, the ones where players are seemingly a step away from The Show, are organized and run from the top club down. But when you get to the lower levels, the single-A and unaffiliated teams, where owners are in the game for the business of the game, it’s a different story.

There are a few teams where the general manager, the person in charge of putting together the team, is the owner. There are others where there may be a GM, but they’re just the voice piece of the owner.

And regardless of your position within the business, it’s important to remember that at the end of the day, every baseball team is a business.

They rely on attendance. They rely on advertising, both local and if possible national for the audiences they generate. They rely on marketing within the community and finding alternate sources of income to exist.

So if a local guy with a lot of friends in the community, both in business and willing to pay customers, is a decent enough ball player, a minor league owner can allow for, sanction and sign anyone they want.

That explains why Justin was facing some guy with his high school friends from Ogden in the stands when he unleashed a 98-mile per hour fastball that scared the batter half to death.