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Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball

0/5 ( ratings)

Starting with the spark of ambition to play ball professionally and ending with the necessity of reinventing life after baseball, former minor leaguer and anthropologist George Gmelch describes the lives of the men who work at America's national game.

Twenty-four years after his own final road trip with the Detroit Tigers' organization, Gmelch went on the road again with a busload of players, this time with a pen and pad to record the details of life lived around the diamond.

Drawing on over one hundred interviews with major and minor league players, coaches, and managers, he explores players' experiences throughout their careers: being scouted, becoming a rookie, moving through or staying in the minors, preparing mentally and physically to play day after day, coping with slumps and successes, facing retirement. He examines the ballplayers' routines and rituals, describes their joys and frustrations, and investigates the roles of wives, fans, and groupies in their lives.

Based on his own experience as a player in the 1960s, Gmelch charts the life cycle of the modern professional ballplayer and makes perceptive comparisons to a previous generation of players.

"This is the rare book that can actually make you see a baseball game in a different way."
-- New York Times Book Review

"…one of the funniest of all baseball books."
-- Sports Illustrated

Language: English

Pages: 242

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press

Release: February 17, 2001

ISBN: 1560989882

ISBN 13: 9781560989882

Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball

0/5 ( ratings)

Starting with the spark of ambition to play ball professionally and ending with the necessity of reinventing life after baseball, former minor leaguer and anthropologist George Gmelch describes the lives of the men who work at America's national game.

Twenty-four years after his own final road trip with the Detroit Tigers' organization, Gmelch went on the road again with a busload of players, this time with a pen and pad to record the details of life lived around the diamond.

Drawing on over one hundred interviews with major and minor league players, coaches, and managers, he explores players' experiences throughout their careers: being scouted, becoming a rookie, moving through or staying in the minors, preparing mentally and physically to play day after day, coping with slumps and successes, facing retirement. He examines the ballplayers' routines and rituals, describes their joys and frustrations, and investigates the roles of wives, fans, and groupies in their lives.

Based on his own experience as a player in the 1960s, Gmelch charts the life cycle of the modern professional ballplayer and makes perceptive comparisons to a previous generation of players.

"This is the rare book that can actually make you see a baseball game in a different way."
-- New York Times Book Review

"…one of the funniest of all baseball books."
-- Sports Illustrated

Language: English

Pages: 242

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press

Release: February 17, 2001

ISBN: 1560989882

ISBN 13: 9781560989882

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