Customer Reviews

The 26th Man: One Minor League Pitcher's Pursuit of a Dream

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author like many young stars in high school and college, started with great promise and expectations. But though he stood out in the minors, he never really got a chance at the major league level. This diary of his last year in baseball tells what day to day life as a minor league pitcher was like, and demonstrates that the system is sometimes as blinded by images, by prejudged expectations, as the rest of us. Fireovid was a better pitcher than several who were elevated, but "They were a prospect, I was a suspect."

I'm not really a baseball fan, but I very much enjoyed this frank picture of the life of a mature, thoughtful man making one last try for his childhood dream.

even though my dad wrote this book, i never knew what all went on. i think it's enjoyable to read, and very unbiased. i'm glad i read it, and it's fun to see my name in it.

Steve Fireovid played parts of 6 seasons in the major leagues. I guess the best way to describe him was that he was viewed as good enough to almost make the team, aka the 26th man. This baseball diary explores the process of actually making a baseball team. The roster spots don't always go to the best players. Money, contracts and connections often affect the decisions of baseball executives.
Fireovid reveals the inner workings of baseball and his struggle to make it in the majors. Despite the letdowns, he never comes across as bitter, just factual.
In a world full of autobiographies of almost every star, this unheralded book, by the self-described 26th man, accomplishes what most of the others don't. This book reaches out and grabs the reader. You care about him and about others like him.
This is not a tale of failure. This is the story of a true success, Steve Fireovid.

The author tells his story with an honest, easy going approach. It was refreshing to read an athlete who is not bagged down with an enormous ego. I was pulling for Steve the entire way, and I hope that one day his sons will pitch for the Phillies and lead them to the World Series.

This book is an excellent text for any aspiring professional ballplayer. Decisions aren't always based upon the best talent/playing ability, a cold fact of life not mentioned much by recruiters and scouts. Wonderful reading for a baseball fan.

Steve "Fire" Fireovid has written a solid memoir of his time as a career organizational player in the minor leagues. He describes what it's like to spend thirteen years in the minors save a couple of cups of coffee. Although Fire puts up impressive numbers at the triple-A level he describes how he and other deserving veteran players are rarely given a long look at the major league level as those precious 25 man rosters are full of stars and up and coming prospects. Fires' book is remeniscient of Jim Bouton's Ball Four. And is full of useful observations and pitching tips. For those who would like a more lively and recent look at a struggling pitcher in the minor leagues I would heartily recommend Dirk Hayhurst's, The Bullpen Gospels.

Overall, I was rather disappointed in the book. The majority of the book derived from a journal kept by Steve Fireovid over the course of a single season and it reads like it. While the routine of a AAA player was interesting enough to read once, you tend to get same get up, go to the park, play, go to the next game account with almost every chapter. While that may be the reality of the lifestyle, the repetition doesn't make for very entertaining reading.

This isn't a minor league Ball Four. There just aren't many incisive insights or anecdotes to be had here from the inside perspective of a AAA pitcher. In fact, the real weakness of the book is that Fireovid, like so many athletes, seems to have little grasp on the realities of the game that they play professionally, as he openly questions organizational decisions on the basis of poor stats like wins and ERA while overlooking his terrible strikeout rate, low-80s fastball and his mid-30s age. He's a weak-armed journeyman minor-leaguer who would be eaten alive in the majors and who has no upside if he did exceed expectations as a fringe big leaguer. The teams knows it, the scouts know it, but Fireovid never seems to figure it out. I suppose strong self-belief is necessary for anyone who competes at that level, but it is obvious that Fireovid veers into delusion, never really coming to terms with his limitations and, despite his best efforts, letting bitterness creep in and making it hard to for the reader to really sympathize with him. It is also obvious the Fireovid at his point in his career no longer wants to play baseball and would rather stay home with his family. The depressing final, slow burning out of his major-league aspirations just isn't page-turning reading; the reader realizes the outcome way before Fireovid ever does.

If you get past the angst, the book does illustrate the hard road that minor league baseball players face, even the highly-touted prospects like Fireovid once was. Low pay, dirty uniforms, lousy hotels and long bus rides are common and 99% of these guys will never even make the majors. The account of his high school championship season is pretty thrilling and Fireovid describes well the petty small-mindedness with which baseball teams are often managed. Overall though, the book was like the career of the pitcher who wrote it, an easily forgotten fringe effort.

Even non-baseball fans will appreciate this book and the story of a man facing life at a crossroads.