A False Spring [Paperback]

Pat Jordan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

In A False Spring, Pat Jordan traces the falling star of his once-promising pitching career, illuminating along the way his equally difficult personal struggles and quest for maturity. When the reader meets Jordan, he is a hard-throwing pitcher with seemingly limitless potential, one of the first “bonus babies” for the Milwaukee Braves organization. Jordan’s sojourn through the lower levels of minor-league ball takes him through the small towns of America: McCook, Waycross, Davenport, Eau Claire, and Palatka. As the promised land of the majors recedes because of his inconsistency and lack of control, the young man who had previously known only glory and success is forced to face himself.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

"A painful memoir and self-analysis of a young, aspiring baseball player who failed to make the majors" (LJ 5/1/75), this book recounts Jordan's three years playing bush-league ball while trying to develop his skills in hopes of becoming a star. This "well written portrayal of baseball life and business" is for all sports and biography collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“One of the best and truest books about baseball, and about coming to maturity in America.”—Time

(Time)

“A False Spring, by turns rueful, amused, nostalgic and disgusted, is just fascinating, probably the best book imaginable about baseball’s underpinnings.”—Boston Globe

(Boston Globe)

“One of the most fabulous failure stories of our time.”—Kansas City Star

(Kansas City Star)

“A major triumph.”—Philadelphia Inquirer

(Philadelphia Inquirer)

“An unforgettable book.”—Los Angeles Times

(Los Angeles Times)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books; Revised edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803276265
• ISBN-13: 978-0803276260
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #628,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Summer Dreams.... June 21, 2001

By Charles J Horne

Format:Paperback

I love baseball books; especially nonfiction books, and Pat Jordan has written a beautiful yet depressing account of his turbulent years in the minors. Once upon a time I played baseball, but unlike Pat, I didn't hold the talent and ability to progress into the upper levels. We follow Pat as he makes his journey from high school pitching phenom (whom scouts were foaming at the mouth to sign)to a broken-down, frustrated and average minor league pitcher. Pat Jordan accomplishes something that few other baseball books have in the past: loss of place and time. I for one become immersed in books that I read and A FALSE SPRING will allow you to be caught up in the struggle with Pat. You will feel his exhileration when he is signed, his pain when his career comes tumbling down; and, like Pat, at the end of the book you will ask yourself why? A FALSE SPRING has many charismatic characters that infiltrate the pages, and like Pat you will come to like and dislike them for the same reasons. Any baseball fan will quickly become enthralled with the story of this young and confused man as he trudges through the lower levels of baseball. After reading this book I ventured out and caught my first minor league baseball game. I sat in the stands, caught up in the excitement and amazement of a game that is still played for pure joy and not money.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb bittersweet rites-of-passage memoir December 1, 1998

By dave young

Format:Paperback

Browsing thru the previously posted reviews here at amazon I'm reminded that I too first read this book nearly 20 years ago and that I've never forgotten it. From its original Dodd, Mead cloth-covered edition to a Bantam mass market to a figurative cup of coffee in a Simon and Schuster trade paperback this book has been available only occasionally since that time. Hungry Mind Press has reprinted it and hopefully will keep it in print long enough to introduce it to new generations of readers. This book succeeds on so many levels: a return to late-50's America when everything looked so promising, an inside look at baseball in the minor leagues, a travelogue of middle American small towns. But it's at a more personal level that this book takes its place among my favorites. From a distance of 15 years, Pat Jordan dissects his childhood, his youth and his young adulthood with a razor sharp pen. He chronicles his early successes which inexplicably turn to failures and he lets the reader share his thoughts as he follows that seemingly inexorable path. This book succeeds most as a wonderful coming of age testimony, as a witness to the ways that the dreams of youth are replaced with the realities of a real world. This is one of the best baseball books ever written but it's also one of the best books that I've ever read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Classic November 18, 2003

By Brian Sullivan

Format:Paperback

I first read excerpts from "A False Spring" about 30 years ago when they appeared in three consecutive issues of Sports Illustrated. From the moment I began reading that first installment, I was entranced. It is hard to describe exactly why, but I am sure that the baseball action in the book was not the reason. Instead, I remember Jordan's vivid portrayls of such seemingly mundane things as a prarie thunderstorm, an afternoon fishing in the swamplands of Florida and the glow of the instruments on his dashboard. These depictions riveted me, I'm convinced, because they put into words how I saw the world. As an 11 year-old, this was a unique and novel experience for me.

Jordan's portrayal of his own feelings of dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, rage and finally resignation also resonated with me. Most of the reading I had done up to that point portrayed life's events in a linear fashion that was totally at odds with what I had already experienced. I was fascinated that Jordan could take an accessible subject matter and weave all of these other elements into it.

Mind you, all of this came to me from reading the three SI excerpts. I never did read the book until, by chance, I was searching on this site and came across a name I remembered. So, 30 years later, I got a copy and tried to find out whether this book would have meaning for me anything like what I experienced as an 11 year-old.

Some pompous windbag spoke at my college graduation ceremony about the test for what he called "clahsic stahtus." According to this guy, any writing qualified for that status if one could read the work at widely spaced intervals and still feel the same spark as in the previous readings.... He assumed, I guess, that peoples' perceptions and interests change over the years and that only writing that had a certain breadth would be able to appeal to a reader who had undergone those changes.

"A False Spring" certainly passed the test. All of the vivid descriptions -- the hand-me-down uniforms, the barracks-like atmosphere of minor league spring training, the experience of pitching in frozen northern outposts-- remained as vital and gripping as before, as did Jordan's portrayal of the unravelling of his baseball career. With the benefit of 30 years' experience, I was able to understand the author's struggles in more than the visceral way I did as an 11 year-old. Further, I got the strong sense -- confirmed in Jordan's later memoir, "A Nice Tuesday" -- that Jordan himself had not figured out exactly why things had gone so wrong for him.

At times, reading this book was like watching someone reliving some horrible nightmare. At other times, it was simply a pleasant experience to read Jordan's description of day-to-day life in small town America in the late 50s. Throughout, the book was just as gripping as those SI excerpts that grabbed me 30 years ago.

I have read that Pat Jordan set about to create a persona in this book and that the portrayal of that persona was calculated and not always accurate. Even so, this book reveals enough of the real experiences of the man that it withstands the test of time. I'm not so interested in absolute historical accuracy when I come across a book that can hold my attention and bring me back for more 30 years after the first reading. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book with no closure March 31, 2007

By Todd Stanley

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Pat Jordan wrote this book about his three years playing minor league baseball trying to live up to the giant bonus the Milwaukee Braves had given him to be a pitcher for them. He chronicles what days he can remember spent in small towns, meeting interesting people, and going through the struggles any 18 year old boy must go through with the extra added pressure of having to throw a small white ball past a professional athlete.

What makes this book stand out from other such books is that Jordan is an extremely strong writer. Some of his landscape descriptions bring back Steinbeck and his tales of dankness Dreiser. He is very talented and I finished the book in about four days because of its easy flow.

The biggest disappointment was that many parts of the story are left unresolved. About halfway through the book he drops a major bomb after calling an old girlfriend and yet nothing more about it is ever mentioned. The ending too is sort of dropped on us, almost as though there is was another chapter that got cut off. I know this is a non-fiction book and sometimes real life is unresolved, but it seems as though there are parts left out. I only hope some of the answers are contained in his sequel to the book written almost 30 years later entitled "A Nice Tuesday".