A well-intentioned, competent sports memoir that will appeal most to MLB fans.
A memoir from a former star pitcher in Major League Baseball.
In his first book—written with YES Network analyst Curry (co-author, with Derek Jeter: The Life You Imagine, 2000)—five-time All-Star Cone offers advice on becoming a successful pitcher, recollections of specific games, and professional gossip about teammates and opponents encountered during his long career (1986-2003). From an early age, the author, who grew up in Kansas City, was determined to play baseball professionally—and not just as any player, but specifically as a pitcher, arguably the most important position on the field. In the early pages, Cone discusses the tireless coaching from his father as well as the influences of his mother and siblings. Quickly, however, the author moves on to baseball matters. He focuses on a professional career that began in the minor leagues on teams controlled by his hometown Kansas City Royals—and ultimately included five World Series championships. Cone concedes that sometimes he acted immaturely off the field, but his dedication to the craft of pitching is undeniable—as a student and, later, a teacher. His insights about how pitchers must develop not only physically, but also emotionally and intellectually will be enlightening for all baseball fans. Readers uninterested in the didactic pitching insights should find satisfaction in Cone’s accounts of his stints with the Royals, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox. The author compliments many players, coaches, and managers, but he is also candid about the flaws of many of these individuals. Thematic chapters about the synergy—or lack thereof—between pitchers and catchers, and between pitchers and home-plate umpires, add to the richness of the narrative. Currently a broadcaster for the YES Network, Cone briefly discusses that career, as well. Although the book is mostly chronological, the ordering of the chapters is occasionally puzzling. The narrative will be best digested as individual chapters rather than a connected narrative.
A well-intentioned, competent sports memoir that will appeal most to MLB fans.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5387-4884-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
SEEN & HEARD
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