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11" x 8.25" ... Read more

Product Description
This is the life story of a man for whom the American Dream dies hard. Born in 1953 in Selma, Alabama, Terry Leach first plays baseball as a Little Leaguer. In college, he stars at Auburn until an arm injury threatens his future. He recovers sufficiently to pitch sidearm and enter the independent leagues in Louisiana, which leads to his first contract with the Atlanta Braves organization. Later, he reaches the major leagues with the New York Mets, and in 1987 he wins ten games in a row and finishes 11-1. The road to the top is filled with turns and potholes, but Leach learns from them, and eventually develops a personal baseball philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Things Happen For A Reason
This was a very simple easy read autobiography of a baseball player. It was enjoyable to read and being a Mets fan when he pitched made it all the more informative. The average sports fan may not read this book but all Mets and/or baseball fans should.

An OK baseball book
This book is a short fast read a fairly detailed account of Terry Leach's major league career. While it contains almost no controversy or dirt, espicially when he was a member of the "bad boy" Late 80s Mets, the book is a good read when if you would like to know about the lesser players in baseball.

A nice try, but it comes up short
To be honest, I really wanted to like this book because Terry Leach seems like a good guy and an honest man, but this book isn't one that I'll think of when I think about good baseball books.It's an autobiographicalaccount of his playing days in college at Auburn, the minor leagues, andthe big leagues with the Mets, Royals, Twins, and White Sox.It's not avery well-written book.For example, there are a number of grammaticalerrors.He tends to use the word myself a lot when he could just use I orme.He also makes way too many excuses for his failures (I wasn't usedright, I was hurt, etc., etc., etc.,) and he also complains too much aboutnot being treated right by the different teams that unceremoniously dumphim.When he does taste success he can't stop raving about himself orpraising himself. On the plus side, this book is easy to read and easy tofollow.It's possible to finish this book in the amount of time it takesto watch an entire major league baseball game.Another good thing is thathe doesn't have anything bad to say about old teammates, managers, etc. The closest he comes to bad-mouthing someone is when he says that he didn'tcare for some of his teammates in the minors.He seems like a genuinelygood man, and that's why it's too bad this book wasn't a bit moreinteresting to read. ... Read more

Product Description
There is no big league pitcher who is more respected for his skill than David Cone. In his stellar career Cone has won multiple championships andcountless professional accolades. Along the way, the perennial all-star has had to adjust to five different ballclubs, recover from a career-threatening arm aneurysm, cope with the lofty expectations that are standard for the game's highest paid players, and overcome a humbling three-month, eight-game losing streak in the summer of 2000. Cone granted exclusive and unlimited access to baseball's most respected writer-Roger Angell of The New Yorker. The result is just what baseball fans everywhere would expect from Angell: an extraordinary inside account of a superstar.Amazon.com Review
For the four decades he's been writing about baseball for The New Yorker, Roger Angell has led all shortlists of the game's most astute and elegant chroniclers. With A Pitcher's Story: Innings with David Cone, he attempts, with thrilling command, something he's never tried before--devoting a whole volume to one player by spending an entire season at his heels. In pitcher David Cone, a cerebral student of his game and articulate practitioner of his craft, Angell finds a subject as perfect as the perfecto Cone hurled against the Expos on Yogi Berra Day at Yankee Stadium in 1999. Better still, he finds in Cone a partner unwilling to shrink beneath the hot light of what would prove to be an agonizing and introspective year.

One of the game's premier pitchers, Cone came unglued in 2000; his 4-14 season was a disaster. The "wizardly old master" Angell had intended to extol was suddenly "Merlin falling headlong down the palace stairs." There's gold to be spun from that, though, and Angell, the essayist as deft alchemist, spins away. The more Cone struggles--the more he battles age, doubt, injury, and the various curves baseball fate can throw--to regain what he's lost, the more valiant he seems. It gives A Pitcher's Story its depth, its heart, its spirit, and its honor. If Angell entered into the project with the intention of getting a grip on the delicacies of pitching, he does, but he comes away with so much more. Like good battery mates, Cone and Angell work with, and off of, each other. Together, they evoke a canny portrait of a career at the crossroads, and a meditation on the powers of an elite athlete's pride. --Jeff Silverman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Just An Average Book: Not a Compelling Read
Great authour, great pitcher, poor book.

I am a great ball fan and a regular at the Blue Jays games - especially when the Yankees or the A's or Seattle come to town. Cone was here when we (my team the Jays - I do not own the Jays, everyone here calls them his team) won the world series in 92 and we all loved him.

I was excited when the book arrived from Amazon.com, but very disappointed when I actually read the book. I never finished it. I thought it was slow and a bit light. The author cannot keep your attention and the book wanders. Waste of money only two or three stars. Sorry but that is my humble opinion. Read DiMaggios's book "The Hero's Life" for a good biography about life on and off the field.

brought back memories about a great pitcher
I've been a fan of David Cone since I was a little kid growing up in New York as a Met's fan.Even as my team started to unravel after 1986 and 1988, Cone was stellar, leading the league in strikeouts and being the one constant quality player that the team had.When he was traded out of New York I still tried to follow his career and was happy when he returned to New York, even as a Yankee.It was with great disappointment that I read about his last season where he just fell apart and ended with a 4-14 record.It was a sad ending to a great pitcher.

I wanted to read this book about David Cone.The book was originally supposed to be about the craft of pitching, how a top level pitcher prepares and the mechanics of pitching.That is the book that Roger Angell intended to write.However, when Cone's mechanics broke down and his season fell apart, Angell stayed with him and realized that he had a completely different story.This is the story of David Cone's last season with the Yankees and the collapse of a talented ballplayer.

Baseball is a game of digression.Since the only action in the game takes place during frenzied bursts of motion between long periods of waiting, this gives the sportswriters and broadcasters time to talk about the game at hand as well as games and moments from years past.This is a good thing to think about as you begin to read the book.Roger Angell takes us through the 2000 season of David Cone.He also provides a biography of Cone as well as moments from different parts of his pitching career.This is just like a baseball game where everything is connected to history.What is happening in May might recall David's rookie year, or his high school days.This is how the book goes, from the 2000 season when Angell is spending time with Cone right to David's childhood and back again.It may feel at times that there is very little organization, but I felt that it had part of the natural flow of watching (or listening to) a baseball game.

Some readers might be put off by the lack of chronology to the book and that it jumps around quite a bit.It is a little distracting, but it wasn't bad at all in my mind.It just felt like this is the way you tell the baseball story.I was completely enthralled by this book and I'm glad that I got the chance to read about one of my favorite pitchers from my childhood.

A Journey with Mr.Cone
Roger Angell takes you through the troublesome and nail-biting career to the ordinary every day life of the renowned pitcher, David Cone.From his first participation in a major league uniform with the New York Mets, to many thriving seasons with the Yankees and Red Sox, and from the time that David's arm felt like a stable rocket launcher, to the end of his career when he prospered by throwing mostly split-fingers and curveballs instead of a blazing fastball.A Pitchers Story not only makes the reader envision a life as an imfamous pro-baseball player, but also learns from the way to handle themselves under extraordinary pressure.This book is also similar to a pitching lesson in itself, as grips of seams and the twists of wrists are manifested by the masterful Cone.I am sure that this story has made hundreds of people realize how hard-working and dedicated a person must be in order to maintain a respectable and successful career in the big-leagues, as Cone consistently did throughout his almost two-decade career. This book is certainly better than the average biography, and I would recommend it to any lovers of "America's Past Time."

The Essential David Cone
I'd been waiting a long time for a book to be published about my favorite baseball player, David Cone. This book is excellent in describing Cone both professionally and personally. A must-read for David's fans!

If life gives you lemons.....
and your name is Roger Angell you turn them in the best lemonade you can make. Mr Angell's books are the heart and soul of my small baseball books collection and I need only take one of them on a trip away from the ballpark, to be sure that whatever happens the sounds, smell and feeling of the game are close at hand.
Reading this book, knowing already that the task at hand was not what either Cone or Angell had bargained for, I was at first not overly impressed with the story. It went several directions at once and with all due respect felt like the book by an older writer who was too respectfull of his subject. But I take it all back after having finished the book. How many writers would have written this book in the first place? And of those how many would have been able to write a book that shows an athlete, flaws and quirks and all, yet always painting the true picture of the man. The bad year Cone has had makes for a somber tone in this book and maybe that fits with the time we live in. I think you cannot help but admire Cone and his frankness in his talks with Angell. And we cannot thank Mr Angell enough for having the courage and craftsmanship to turn this story into a beautiful novel. ... Read more

Product Description
In the fall of 1995, the New York Yankees suffered a crushing game 5 defeat to the Seattle Mariners-ending their championship dreams. Remarkably, this loss and the end of Buck Showalter+s role as manager would lead to one of the most respected team dynasties in sports history. Now veteran New York Post columnist Joel Sherman, who has spent more time with the Bronx Bombers in the past 15 years than any other writer, tells how a down-and-out manager named Joe Torre, working with young, untested players like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, would win the 1996 World Series and a total of 4 championships in 5 years.Along the way, Sherman captures the drama and behind-the-scenes intrigue of a season that started in disarray but would quickly highlight some of the most talented players in Yankees history. Using hundreds of interviews and years of on-the-spot reporting, Sherman re-creates one of the Yankees+ greatest years as only he can.-To be properly told, the story of the dynasty+s beginning must be told by an insider, someone who can take the reader behind the headlines and box scores to the true pulse of the team. . . . Joel Sherman is that insider.+-Sports Illustrated baseball writer Tom Verducci ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Follow up needed
The author should write a follow up how mismanagement, awful decisions, and a terrible farm system have caused the hideous decline in this team's fortunes over the past five years.

Yankees suck.

Check this out!
If you are a fan of the yankees or grew up during their dominant years then this book is for you. It gives you great insight into your favorite players, and history of their rise.

Did you know Mariano Rivera almost got traded 3 times? Or Jorge Posada was a minor league shortstop?

Good Stuff!

Interesting for fans but terribly written
I'm a huge Yankee fan so I enjoyed the opportunity to remember the events of their first championship season in nearly two decades, but Sherman desperately needs an editor. The book completely lacks structure, with tangent building on tangent to form an incoherent mess. There are diamonds in the rough in the form of interesting revelations, but getting to them can be hard work indeed.

Yankee book review
Great book not only for Yankee fans but for baseball fans in general

A Fascinating Read for Any Yankee Fan
If you're a Yankee fan like I am, this book is a great read.It's mind blowing to see how almost every decision the Yankees made in putting that '96 team together worked out.From 5 other teams passing on Derek Jeter, to almost dealing Mariano Rivera countless times, and for little or nothing in return, this book gives a great insight into what you need to build a championship caliber team.All in all, it was a great read, and I'm sure I'll be reading this book again and again... ... Read more

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8" X 10" color photographs. ... Read more

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Mets Magazine Official Score Book: Volume 31, Number 1 (Bobby Bonilla Cover), edited by Jay Horwitz. 1992 paperback published by the New York Mets. Features color photographs of Howard Johnson, Bobby Bonilla, Jeff Torborg, Eddie Murray, Anthony Young, Keith Hernandez, David Cone, Willie Randolph, Dwight Gooden, Ellis Valentine, 'Choo-Choo' Coleman, Todd Hundley, Bob mandt, more. ... Read more