In this Book
- Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Six Minor Leaguers in Search of the Baseball Dream
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: University of Massachusetts Press
summary
The rich slice of Americana found in minor league baseball presents a contradictory culture. On the one hand, the minors are filled with wholesome, family-friendly entertainment-fluffy mascots, kitschy promotions, and earnest young men signing autographs for wide-eyed Little Leaguers. On the other, they comprise a world of cutthroat competition in which a teammate's failure or injury can be the cause of quiet celebration and 90 percent of all players never play a single inning in the major leagues.
In Knocking on Heaven's Door, award-winning sportswriter Marty Dobrow examines this double-edged culture by chronicling the lives of six minor leaguers-Brad Baker, Doug Clark, Manny Delcarmen, Randy Ruiz, Matt Torra, and Charlie Zink-all struggling to make their way to "The Show." What links them together, aside from their common goal, is that they are all represented by the same team of agents-Jim and Lisa Masteralexis and their partner Steve McKelvey-whose own aspirations parallel those of the players they represent.
The story begins during spring training in 2005 and ends in the fall of 2008, followed by a brief epilogue that updates each player's fortunes through the 2009 season. Along the way Dobrow offers a revealing, intimate look at life in minor league baseball: the relentless tedium of its itinerant routines and daily rituals; the lure of performance-enhancing drugs as a means of gaining a competitive edge; the role of agents in negotiating each player's failures as well as his successes; and the influence of wives, girlfriends, and family members who have invested in the dream.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page
- p. 5
- Copyright Page
- pp. 6-8
- Table of Contents
- pp. vii-viii
- Part 1. Spring Training 2005
- Chapter 2: Can’t Miss (Brad Baker)
- pp. 19-35
- Part 2. Opening Day to the All-Star Break
- Chapter 8: Baseballtown (Ruiz)
- pp. 104-118
- Part 3. The Second Half
- Chapter 11: Suspended Disbelief (Ruiz)
- pp. 159-167
- Chapter 13: Goose Bumps (Delcarmen)
- pp. 174-186
- Chapter 15: At Heaven’s Door (Clark)
- pp. 199-214
- Interlude. The Off-Season
- Part 4. Opening Day 2006 to August 12, 2008
- Chapter 17: Going Home Again (Delcarmen)
- pp. 235-238
- Chapter 18: A Giant among Legends (Clark)
- pp. 239-246
- Chapter 19: Knockin’ after Midnight (Ruiz)
- pp. 247-265
- Chapter 21: On the Big Screen (Baker)
- pp. 269-274
- Epilogue. The Strangest Luck
- pp. 292-302
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 303-305
- Back Cover
- p. 371
Additional Information
ISBN
9781613760185
Related ISBN(s)
9781558498426
MARC Record
OCLC
794700494
Pages
368
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No