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It’s an
exclusive club. Thirty teams, 25 players each, 750 players in all. For every
new player that wins a place on the roster, another player is removed. A few
talented players have careers that cover more than two decades. Most last less
than three years. But for those who can retain a place on the roster, the money
is good – minimum wage is almost $450,000 a year. And if they’re really
superstars, they can end up with an annual eight-figure salary. But there is
more to it than money.
The men
of baseball love the game and they love the clubhouse. The game sometimes costs
them their wives and time with their kids. The clubhouse is where they bond as
a team and as a family. As with all families, it is a place of laughter and
anger, tragedy and loss, happiness and dysfunction. And what unites that family
is love. The love of a game called baseball.
This
collection of encounters with some of these men by sportswriter Larry LaRue takes
the readers inside the clubhouse and behind the scenes to share with the reader
what these men have accomplished and the price they have paid.
Newspapers
were part of his life long before Larry LaRue started working for them at age
18. His grandmother was a typesetter for a weekly in San Dimas, California, and
he sat in her lap while she’d run an old lead-type machine. He was first
published at 10, when a San Clemente newspaper ran his story on Pookie, his
dog.
He’s
been writing ever since. Five newspapers, a business journal and an
entertainment magazine wrapped around brief careers as a window washer,
bouncer, and private investigator. Always, he wrote.
There
was a book on an American Capuchin priest who performed exorcisms in New York
and Iowa, another on political cartoonists, a novel based on a news story he
followed, and a book of major league baseball anecdotes. All wound up in a
drawer or a closet.
Since
1976, there’s been another constant in his life – George Cunningham. As
co-workers, backpackers, entrepreneurs, political opposites, writers,
photographers and friends they have pursued projects and dreams together.
Reader
Publishing Group may be the best yet for George and Carmela Cunningham, and
LaRue was one of the first to leap on their backs.
Currently
a writer with the Tacoma News Tribune covering the Seattle Mariners, LaRue’s
sports writing can be found at http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/mariners/ and you can follow him and see his
photography on Facebook at facebook.com/kwlarue,
Twitter at (@LarryLaRue and the
News Tribune Mariners’ blog at http://blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners/.
His
most recent ambition hasn’t changed in 35 years – LaRue is writing projects he
hopes Cunningham can use to get him out of the newspaper business.
Links:
My Review:
I actually am not a very good baseball fan. I read this book with my husband and her went through the different players. I felt like we were playing Jeopardy! I also really liked the "inside" stories that could only be heard by someone who was really there. I also thought that this was a great book for trivia as well because there were random facts about each player. I would have liked a short bio stating what team each player played on and the years. It would have made this read a lot faster for me. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.
MAJOR
LEAGUE ENCOUNTERS LINKS:
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