By John Smoltz, Don Yaeger
John Smoltz was once one of many maximum significant League pitchers of the past due 20th / early twenty-first century—one of in basic terms in baseball background ever to accomplish twenty wins and fifty saves in unmarried seasons—and now he stocks the candid, no-holds-barred tale of his lifestyles, his occupation, and the sport he loves in Starting and Closing.
A Cy younger Award-winner, destiny Baseball corridor of Famer, and presently a broadcaster for his former staff, the Atlanta Braves, Smoltz provides a strong memoir with the type of interesting perception into online game that made Moneyball a runaway bestseller, plus a heartfelt and actually inspiring religion and spiritual conviction, just like what illuminates each one web page of Tim Tebow’s spoil hit memoir, Through My Eyes.
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Additional resources for Starting and Closing: Perseverance, Faith, and One More Year
Sample text
Spring training got off to an entertaining start when McCarthy, defusing a possible confrontation with Williams, broke his own coat-and-tie rule and showed up for dinner in the hotel dining room wearing a loud sports shirt. " asked McCarthy when Williams arrived for the first morning's workouts. A few minutes later the Red Sox were busily taking batting practice, and Williams had his first clue that he and McCarthy might see eye to eye after all. Within days, McCarthy called the writers over and asked them not to discuss the ticklish question of which established shortstop, Pesky or Stephens, would move to third.
Boudreau had already had a remarkable career. A graduate of the University of Illinoiswhere he had been a star basketball playerhe had joined the Indians after a few months of minor league experience in 1939. He immediately established himself as a great shortstop and a good right-handed line-drive hitter. In 1942, when Roger Peckinpaugh stepped down as Cleveland's manager, Boudreau seized upon a chance comment by a reporter, marched into the front office, asked for the job, and got it. At twenty-four, the "Boy Manager" was the youngest in modern history.
With his lantern jaw and chunky body, he could be an impressive presence on the field, and although he respected umpires, he also knew how to try to intimidate them in a key game. "God damn you," he told Ernie Stewart on a hot July day in 1943, when Stewart had ejected pitcher Charley Wensloff for throwing his glove in protest, "you didn't put my pitcher out, did you? If you put that pitcher out, I will turn this crowd loose on you. '' But when the game was over, McCarthy told Wensloff, ''I don't know what you did to minor league umpires in throwing your glove or anything like that, but you are in the major leagues now and you can't do that.