Knocking on Heaven's Door: Six Minor Leaguers in Search of the Baseball Dream (review)

Marty Dobrow's Knocking on Heaven's Door: Six Minor Leaguers in Search of the Baseball Dream knows its audience: anyone who would gladly give up a summer of their job to play minor-league baseball for what is ultimately close to minimum wage. Yep, Dobrow has us pegged.

The odds, of course, would be stacked against us. Never mind the fact that our bats are slow and our fastballs even slower. That fact is, even the best player in our town probably won't make it. We just want the chance, and don't care about the probabilities of making the major leagues.

And neither do the six young men Dobrow catalogues in his book. The lives and careers of Brad Baker, Doug Clark, Manny Delcarmen, Randy Ruiz, Matt Torra, and Charlie Zink make for compelling reading. Although the six players have different backgrounds, experiences, and outcomes, the one thing they have in common is that they are all represented by DiaMMond Management. The antithesis to the (Scott) Boras Corporation, DiaMMond is run by three people-Jim and Lisa Masteralexis and Steve McKelvey-who actually have other full-time jobs.

Dobrow does an excellent job telling the stories of each of the young players, and establishes their personalities, quirks and all, so we have an idea of what makes each man tick. Manny Delcarmen, the former Boston Red Sox relief pitcher who was traded to the Colorado Rockies at the 2010 trading deadline, is the best known of the players featured. A second round draft pick of the Red Sox, Delcarmen's rise from the Hyde Park section of Boston to Fenway Park is marked by struggles with immaturity, injury, bad luck, and performance. The story of knuckleballer Charlie Zink starts with a childhood first spent in Folsom State Prison in California (where his father was a prison guard); continues to Georgia where he pitched for manager, and former Red Sox great, Luis Tiant at the Savannah College of Art and Design; and follows his travels through various minor-league towns until he eventually reaches Boston.

The most interesting story belongs to Randy Ruiz, a bomber from the Bronx who hit with power and for average in the minor leagues. Like so many minor leaguers, Ruiz was constantly on the cusp of being called up, but seemingly always faced roadblocks, whether it was a phenom in front of him (a young Ryan Howard) or positive drug tests (for, among other things, Viagra). Ruiz is exactly the kind of minor leaguer we all root for. He has amazing talent, has overcome a number of obstacles, remains devoted to his grandmother and his Bronx roots, and doggedly pursues his dream. Most of all, as Dobrow describes, he is just a big kid. When Ruiz's agent, Jim Masteralexis, asks, "You're twenty-seven years old, man. What's the deal with the Viagra?" Ruiz answers with a smile, "Jim, this shit works" (117).

Brad Baker, Doug Clark, and Matt Torra also have stories that are engaging, if not typical for most minor leaguers. All have dreams of reaching the big leagues, of playing the game they loved as boys for a living, of throwing that perfect pitch, or making solid contact up the middle on the biggest of stages. Their paths are different, but their goals are the same. The great strength of Dobrow's book is that he gives us not only the situations-the games, the play-by-play, and the statistics-but, more importantly, he gives us insight into the thoughts, emotions, and backgrounds of these six men. Kudos to them for letting us see into their lives and letting Dobrow frame their personalities and experiences in a way that anyone who loves baseball, or believes in the American Dream, can support.

Perhaps it is cliché to say that baseball is America's pastime, or that...