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Throwing Strikes: My Quest For Truth And The Perfect Knuckleball (2013)

by R.A. Dickey(Favorite Author)

4.36 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0803740379 (ISBN13: 9780803740372)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Dial

review 1: Great book for baseball fans! I love that someone (R.A. himself?) actually thought of KIDS when this adaption was made from his more adult-version memoir. I'd heard R.A. talking about his book on NPR, and the interviewer kept probing the "secret" that he revealed...but the book is so much more than that. Part self-help, part inspirational, part baseball how-to techniques; it's really a good book for both kids and adults, without all that endless ego-stroking that most athletes/celebrities dish out. R.A. seems to be a truly likable, down-to-earth person, a guy that you'd love to have as your friend. Not that he's reading this simple review, but...Best of everything in the rest of your MLB career, R.A.!
review 2: Throwing Strikes This book is an autobiography abo... moreut R.A. Dickey, an MLB pitcher. This book had one message, and it was never to give up no matter what life throws at you. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he was not a planned child, but it was no accident that he is where he is now in baseball. His parents got married not because they were madly in love but only because his mother was pregnant with him. Their marriage only lasted about 5 years. This was not his only childhood difficulty. During school he was always getting into fights. In 8th grade his school buddy and sister (who later became R.A.’s wife on December 13, 1997) invited him to a church event; he later accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Another serious relationship beginning in his middle school years was his love with sports. He started playing sports because of his dad. His dad encouraged him to play because he was so good at them. Unfortunately, his dad started ignoring him and R.A. no longer wanted to be home. He started sleeping in vacant homes because his home life was no longer comfortable. In high school his varsity coach also inspired him to play sports by telling him to mainly focus on baseball because that was his best sport. He did. After high school in 1993, he went to school at the University of Tennessee on a baseball scholarship. During that time, he won a baseball championship for University of Tennessee. After graduation, Texas Rangers picked him on the first round draft. Then he joined the U.S. Baseball Olympic team, who ended by beating Nicaragua 10-3 for the bronze medal. Right after the Olympics the Rangers retracted their offer of $810,000 because they thought there was something wrong with his arm. A doctor investigated and realized the problem was that R.A. had no UCL, major ligament in the elbow that helps a pitcher control his throwing. He played in the minors for a while, but all of a sudden the Rangers called him back up to the majors. He played his first major league game; he came up in the ninth inning of the 4th game of a four game series against the Oakland A’s. He pitched a perfect inning for a win. Later in 2005, he was put on the injured list for a shoulder injury. Although his shoulder recovered, he was told to kiss his MLB career goodbye or go to Oklahoma to become a knuckleballer. So of course he went to Oklahoma to become one of the few knuckleball pitchers. It wasn’t easy for him. After he became a knuckleballer he was transferred to the Milwaukee Brewers, then to the New York Mets. To this day, he continues to play with two daughters, two sons and his wife at his side. I, as a baseball fanatic, really enjoyed this book because of the way he mentions God and lists Bible verses throughout the book and how he used them in times of struggles, showing me there are some I could also use. Because of the way it was set up in chronological order from his childhood to his current career, it was easy to follow. RA’s struggles in life and how he overcame them inspire readers to do the same. less

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