Catch A Major League Life

Scarborough: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1989. BOOK: Corners, Spine Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Lightly Soiled; Slight Yellowing Due to Age. DUST JACKET: Lightly Creased; Lightly Chipped; Slight Yellowing Due to Age; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. JACKET AND BOOK DESIGN: Kirk Alexander Stephens. JACKET PHOTOGRAPHS: Jim Allen. CONTENTS: October 2, 1988; The Off-Season, 1987; February; March; April; May; June; July; August; September; October. SYNOPSIS: Ernie Whitt first put on a catcher's gear as a seven-year-old in a suburb of Detroit. Before long, he'd decided that hew anted to be a big league player. There was nothing unusual about that. Millions of kids have that dream. But few set about with such perseverance to make their dreams come true. Catch A Major League Life tells how Ernie made his dream a reality--how he believed in himself, developed his talents, found his rhythm and balance, and carved out a place at the top of his profession. It's his record of a path to the major league life that wound through the Red Sox organization all the way to a new baseball team in Toronto. As the last of the players taken in the 1976 expansion draft to still be on the field, Ernie Whitt has become more than just the solid anchor for the Blue Jays, both on and off the field. He's become more than just one of the team's most popular players. He's become the keeper of the flame for a ball club that in only a decade went from a seemingly permanent place in the cellar to the elite of the tough American League East. Within the framework of a month-by-month recounting of the troubled 1988 season, Ernie remembers all the early years of frustration and dogged patience, the later years of hopes and thrills, the exhilaration of the Drive of '85 that caught the imagination of a country. He remembers the managers and the players, the good times and the bad, with humour and affection. He gives new insights into how a major league life affects an individual, a marriage, and a family--the strain of celebrity status, the big dollars, the opportunities, and the joys of recognition by fans and peers. A consummate professional known for his thoughtful observations and dedication to hard work, Ernie takes the reader inside the game as few players have before. From his unique perspective behind the plate, he describes the plays, the personalities, the well-thought-out strategies, and the fluky events that make baseball the fascinatingly simple, yet complex game that it is. Catch a major league life. Capture the triumphs and the tears of Canada's most famous baseball team and most popular baseball player. Greg Cable was born and educated in Toronto. A writer and editor for almost twenty years, he has produced everything from books, articles, and TV scripts to newsletters, reports, and mixed media events. For six years he was an editor in the book trade, working with authors as diverse as Peter Newman and Bobby Hull. Since leaving publishing as a senior editor in 1985, he has provided writing and editorial services to a variety of clients. He lives with his wife and their four children in Kitchener, Ontario.. First Edition 1st Printing. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.