From an award-winning journalist, a real Field of Dreams story
about a legendary coach and the professional-caliber baseball program
he built in America's heartland, where boys come summer after summer to
be molded into ballplayers — and men
Clarinda, Iowa,
population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the corn
fields and hog yards, is a ball field with a bronze bust of a man named
Merl Eberly, a baseball whisperer who specialized in second chances and
lost causes. The statue was a gift from one of Merl’s original long-shot
projects, a skinny kid from the ghetto in Los Angeles who would one day
become a beloved Hall-of-Fame shortstop: Ozzie Smith.
The Baseball Whisperer traces
the remarkable story of Merl Eberly and his Clarinda A’s baseball team,
which he tended over the course of five decades, transforming them from
a town team to a collegiate summer league powerhouse. Along with Ozzie
Smith, future manager Bud Black, and star player Von Hayes, Merl
developed scores of major league players (six of which are currently
playing). In the process, Merl taught them to be men, insisting on hard
work, integrity, and responsibility. More than a book about
ballplayers who landed in the nation's agricultural heartland, The Baseball Whisperer is the story of a coach who puts character and dedication first, and reminds us of the best, purest form of baseball excellence.
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams by Michael Tackett
Posted by Tention Free on 10:56 in Biography Non-Fiction Books Sports and Games | Comments : 0
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