The Promise is an account through the prism of one of baseball’s winningest pitchers of one of the game’s most storied franchises. In 1952 Warren Spahn, baseball’s premier lefthander, leads the National League in losses and begins to wonder if perhaps the time has come to retire. The Boston Braves that year are one of baseball’s worst clubs and struggle to a seventh place finish. In September, as the season is winding down, Ernest Hemingway writes The Old Man and the Sea. The theme of his story is that, as fisherman Santiago says, "man is not intended to lose". Before the next season the club moves to Milwaukee, which is more a homespun town than a city. Ordinary Milwaukeeans turn out in droves, and with the enthusiastic backing the Braves begin to win. Warren Spahn wins too, and rejuvenates his career. In 1957 Spahn leads the Braves to the National League pennant and a triumphal upset of the powerful New York Yankees in the World Series. The Braves repeat in 1958, but this time lose a World Series they should have won. Spahn pitches magnificently but loses a crucial game in a heartbreaker. The Series defeat devastates Spahn, his teammates and the city. Milwaukeeans stop attending games, and players, including Spahn, watch as their talents decline with age. The club sinks toward the bottom of the National League. In 1966 the team vacates Milwaukee for Atlanta, where it becomes a perennial cellar-dweller. In 1991 the Braves rise, Cinderella-like, from last place to the World Series. Their foe is the Minnesota Twins, also a last-place finisher in 1990. Warren Spahn, 68 years old and still full of zest, watches the World Series and thinks it is the best he’s ever seen. The events embody Hemingway’s never-give-up theme.
The Promise describes the joys and frustrations of young ballplayers as they engage in the competitive cycle’s highs and lows. Hall of Famers Eddie Mathews and Henry Aaron figure prominently, and other players of the game’s classical era also are mentioned. Ernie Allen, President of the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, former Indians announcer Ken Coleman, former Braves General Manager John J. McHale, former Pirates General Manager Joe Brown, and venerable Atlanta baseball writer Furman Bisher all contributed to The Promise.
