How can someone try out for minor-league baseball teams in the
Philadelphia area, and when and where are the next tryouts?

Hello lmusher,

I should initially mention Minor League Baseball's statement on tryouts:

"Tryouts are not held by our Minor League Baseball teams.  Our teams
are assigned players by their Major League Baseball affiliate.  The
Major League Scouting Bureau conducts tryout camps around the country
and can be reached at 909-980-1881 for tryout information."

At least two Major League Baseball teams have scheduled tryouts in the
Philadelphia area, and provided information on those tryouts (for
example, when to arrive).

- Lampeter, PA on July 21, and other fairly close cities on other dates

"2005 Reds Tryout Camp Schedule" [under "Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Maryland and Delaware"]
MLB.com: Cincinnati Reds
http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/cin/fan_forum/tryouts.jsp

- Blackwood, NJ, on August 24, and Flemington, NJ, on August 25

"Milwaukee Brewers 2005 Summer Tryout Camps - Open"
MLB.com: Milwaukee Brewers
http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mil/schedule/tryout_schedule.jsp

Other notable pages are:

"Frequently Asked Questions About Open Tryout Camps" [possibly
out-of-date; refers to 2004]
MLB.com
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/about_mlb/tryout_faq.jsp

"Major League Scouting Bureau: 2005 Tryout camp schedule" [nothing
current in Philadelphia area]
MLB.com
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/about_mlb/tryout_us.jsp

"2005 Club tryout camp schedule" [no listings now, but conceivably will be updated]
MLB.com
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/about_mlb/tryout_club.jsp

The Minnesota Twins, the San Diego Padres and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays
have posted tryouts, but not near Philadelphia.  In case these or
other teams announce tryouts near Philadelphia, you might wish to
contact the Major League Scouting Bureau, and periodically search
MLB.com (as I did for this answer) for:

tryout [Note: This search may produce too many results]
tryouts
"tryout camp"
"tryout camps"
"tryout schedule"

You should also contact the Major League Scouting Bureau or the
particular team if the information about how to try out seems unclear.

- justaskscott


Search strategy:

In addition to searches of MLB.com noted above, I searched for the
following terms on Google:

"minor league baseball" tryout
"major league scouting bureau"
[cities and states -- e.g. Lampeter PA -- in order to check maps for
location relative to Philadelphia]

Great, thank you!  Saved me some time.