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The Rookie: The Incredible True Story of a Man Who Never Gave Up on His Dream

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This book is only superficially about baseball. In fact, Jim Morris' autobiography is an inspirational story about sticking it out and becoming all you can be. Morris' minor league baseball career was cut short due to injury. However, he had other trials such as a marriage he had to work on and grinding out a living as he completed college, becoming a teacher and coach. If he had never had another opportunity to play professional baseball, his story would have been an inspiration as he became an excellent science teacher and wonderful coach. His teaching and coaching was leading to a fulfilling and productive career.

Of course, as the title of this book implies, he went beyond teaching to again get an opportunity in baseball. And, based on the title of the book, I am giving nothing away by stating that he does indeed make it to the major leagues. With two children in school, I can categorically state that Jim Morris is the type of person I want teaching them. I don't know if he will go back into teaching but it is clear he is as talented in motivating his students as he is as an athlete. I highly recommend this book.

The Oldest Rookie recounts the improbable journey of pitcher Jim Morris to "the Big Show". Born to young parents, his father a military man who didsdained authority, and a mother who picked up the pieces after each move, Jim always remembers having a ball in his hand. Throughout the many moves, sports provided an introduction to new schools, new friends, and self esteem. Sports also provided a safe haven from the change and the chaotic life at home. Baseball was his first love, and the chance to play minor league ball at the age of 19 was a dream come true. Several years of struggle and injury finally eneded the baseball dream, and Jim moved onto real life, a wife, kids, debt, and struggle. Throughout this time, Jim continued school, played college football (punting for his college at the age of 29). Eventually, he found himself coaching high school baseball. Sensing his love of the game, the students make a bargin, if they make it to regionals, Jim will try out for the major league job he never achieved. At the age of 35, Jim Morris was the oldest rookie to ever start in the big leagues, pitching, no less. The story is remarkable enough, but Morris' accounting of the struggles of a young man unable to realize his dream is compelling. Along with co author,Joel Engle , he tells the story of the man his younger teammates came to call "the Unnatural". A wonderful story for any baseball fan, and a story of hope for anyone who feels they have let a dream pass them by.

Jim Morris was a kid with big league baseball ambitions and a big league arm to match. Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers, he spent time in their minor league system working his way toward the majors until injuries to his arm as well as his shoulder sent him to the hospital for surgery and then back to Texas where he scrambled to make a living. He married and had a family, but he never really gave up his dream. Finally, as he coached the Reagan County Texas High School baseball team to a championship, he made a pledge to his players. If they were successful, he would try one more time to pitch on the big league level. They were and he did. At at time in his life when most professional athletes are thinking of retirement, Morris made it to the majors with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. That his old arm problems continued to haunt him seems almost irrelevant. This is a very well written and easy to read story of perserverance and pride told around the narrative of one man's quest to fulfill his dream. The framework of the story is present day baseball, but the quest is timeless. Recommended to all who dream.

Most people will be familiar with the story of Jim Morris from the film, "The Rookie." In brief: Morris was the son of a career Navy officer who grew up with a single, all-consuming ambition: to play major league baseball. Multiple shoulder and elbow surgeries ended his career while he was in the low minor leagues and in his mid-20s. In the meantime, he had married, become the father of three children, and purused a teaching and coaching career. One fateful day he lectured his baseball team about the importance of pursuing dreams, especially those that seem to be out of reach. His team accepted the message, and he accepted their challenge: If they were to make the state playoffs, he would seek a major league tryout at the ridiculously advanced age of 35. The kids did it...so Morris kept his part of the bargain, expecting it to all be over in a couple of hours. Instead, in defiance of all logic, he found himself throwing faster than he had even before his surgeries. The book ends where the movie did, with his successful major league debut.

Some observations about the book and the movie: the film version turns out to be very close to Morris' own story. Morris' isolation while growing up, his often difficult relationship with his parents, all turn out to be true. But while his improbable comeback is the focus of the film, it's only a small portion of the book. This may disappoint some readers, but to me, it added more depth to Morris' story. In the book, he's honest, almost painfully so, about the stresses his marriage endured, in large part due to the pursuit of his dream. I found myself closing this book with a feeling of encouragment and uplift; I think you will too.

...This book tells a really fabulous story the way it should be told. The only reason anyone cares about Jim Morris story is because he tells us everything about himself in this book. We get to like him and that means we get to care about what happens to him. If the book had gone right to the major leagues, there would not even be a book. I guess what I'm saying is that I loved this book (I think it is the best book like it I have ever read), and the reason I did is because he did such a good job of telling us everything about himself. He is a funny guy and he did something really, really incredible.

This is the autobiography of Jim Morris, the oldest player to enter major league baseball since 1970. The book transcends sports though baseball fans will enjoy this well written autobiography. However, Mr. Morris' extraordinary story is more about fulfilling dreams that might sound like Don Quixote still going for the gold. He also pays homage to his family for their sacrifices and to his West Texas team that encouraged and assisted an injury-plagued high school coach and turns him into a major league pitcher at thirty-five. Great inspirational story worth reading because Mr. Morris along with Joel Engel tells an amazing true story with grace and honor. Perhaps my spouse's dream of swinging the bat one time is not as farfetched as it sounds.

Harriet Klausner

The Oldest Rookie

Joel Engel and Jim Morris really did a wonderful job when they wrote the book The Oldest Rookie. The story was so good in fact that it inspired a movie called The Rookie. Although I thoroughly enjoyed both of them I would have to say that the book was better. There are a number of superior qualities about the book. You know it must be really good to because I almost always like the movie more then the book. The Oldest Rookie is easily one of the 5 best books I've read.
In the book, you really get inside Jim Morris's head. You can see how he goes from a kid who did nothing except play baseball, to a minor leaguer who had to retire because of arm troubles, to a patient high school teacher, to a major leaguer. In the movie you see him as a kid playing baseball, however in the book he talks about how when he was younger the only toys he would play with were balls and how he was only in kindergarten when the fifth graders let them play in his baseball games because he was so good. Morris explains how the only think he cared about was baseball and he knew he wanted to be a pro ball player all his life. In the movie you are left to either assume that or to not know it at all. One of the most effective parts of the book was when Morris is describing when he went to play in his first major league game. He talks about how the hard journey had been worth it and you can almost feel his happiness as a smile spreads across your face and you turn the page. In the movie there was no way they could capture this moment perfectly. They just had him stand outside of the stadium for a few moments. In the book, you really get to see how Morris's brain works. He explains how he was a perfectionist and that it really hurt his life. They don't even touch this subject in the movie, even though it had drastic effects on his life. Feeling what Jimmy Morris feels really enhances the story.
The characters in the book are also superior to the characters in the movie. They include pretty much every person who ever had an effect on Jimmy's life, while in the movie they pretty much just focus on him. The other characters really add a lot to the story. For example they didn't even mention that Jimmy had a grandfather, while in the book Jimmy says that his Grandpa was perhaps the biggest influence in his life. It was his grandpa who taught him to work hard and to not feel bad for himself when things didn't go his way. Also, they completely changed his parents. In the movie they make them seem like a normal couple, while in the book Morris explains how they didn't even like each other. They only married each other because Jimmy's mom got pregnant and they eventually got divorced. The movie really messed up on the characters.
The biggest part where the book has the advantage over the movie is in the story. There were gapping holes in the movie. In the movie they started at page 1 and went to about page 12 and then they went to about page 200, and the book was less then 300 pages long. They skipped the meat of the story, which is when he is in the minors for the first time. If you watched the movie you'd have no idea he had ever really played in the minors before. They left out how he had started playing pro after his first year of junior college and then went on to the grueling minor league system where he would ride in small buses for countless hours and then stay in cheap motels. Then when he finally did pitch he did horrible and right when he started doing good his arm started to hurt. In the movie they mentioned he had received arm surgery but they did not explain how important to him it had been. In the movie they made it seem as if he had gotten arm surgery and then retired when he had really came only to need arm surgery again the next season. He even got one more after that one before he retired. Then his family went through harsh financial times before the movie finally picked up the story again. The movie plot is very flawed.
The movie tried to do what they do to most inspiring stories, and that is make it feel more like a fairy tail then something that could really happen. They failed to show a lot of the hard work he put in to get where he did. You should really pick up the book The Oldest Rookie , it's a great story and it a speed read!

Jim Morris chased a baseball dream from early on. But along the way, he had to stop chasing it and think about other people, like his ailing grandfather, dying of ALS, who was very influential in his life, making up for some training his own father didn't give him in morality.

He had to lay it aside for his wife and children, struggling to support a family, paying the price for chasing his dreams with the mediocre jobs he was able to land (he opted out of finishing college, signing early with the Brewers system). He always managed to stay close to baseball, and sports in general, in his "free" time. Finally, he landed a decent coaching job in Big Lake, Texas, and perfected his pitching stroke while daily pitching batting practice. In an effort to inspire the team to "dream big", they dare him to dream. "If we win the division, you gotta try out with the pro's, coach" says catcher Joel DeLaGarza. Morris writes an HONEST account of his recollections, describing how he prayed, not for his dream to come true, but for guidance in salvaging his rocky relationship with his wife, caused by his own lack of communication of feelings to her. Being a father of 3, I could appreciate his dragging them to the pro tryout with him. A great story, not because of how it is told, but because of the honest truth that oozes out of the cracks of it.

The story of Jim Morris, who made his major league debut at age 35 in 1999. The book covers his entire life, from his childhood obsession with balls of any sort, to the end of his 2000 season. If you've seen The Rookie, then a lot of the later part of the book will be familiar, but you will also discover Morris' road to the majors had a lot more potholes in it than were evident in Disney's kinder-and-gentler portrayal. A much more complete portrait of the man, the book is the perfect to the film. A must read for any baseball fan with an appreciation of the history of the sport.

This is one book I couldn't wait to read. The Jim Morris story to me, a 45-year-old still continuing my lifetime passion by playing hardball in men's adult leagues, was one of the most improbable and inspiring sports stories, EVER. For a 38-year-old guy to go from coaching his high school baseball team, to showing up at a major league tryout camp and start throwing 98-mph fastballs, then get signed, THEN reach the majors all in the same season, well, if it hadn't actually happened I never would have believed it. I followed his story closely as it was happening, and actually met him while he was playing in the Arizona Fall League in October 1999. I was there playing in the Men's Adult Baseball League World Series and managed to catch a game (Morris didn't get in, but he did sign a foul ball my buddy had caught). That said, "The Oldest Rookie" just didn't deliver. I thought starting off with Morris' childhood in chronological order was a big mistake. If I had co-authored the book, it would have begun with his feelings of first appearing in a major league game, of stepping onto the stadium turf, of what it was like to be staring down a big league hitter he had been watching on TV just months before. After all, why else would anyone be reading it? Once the book did get into that magical 1999 season, it picked up. But it took way too long to get there, I thought, and seemed to lessen the impact of what he had accomplished. Also, I was disappointed in the lack of photographs, which amounted to one tiny, non-uniform mug shot of Morris on the inside book jacket. I can't understand why photos weren't included. So The Oldest Rookie was an opportunity wasted, overall. Maybe a movie will be made someday and Jim Morris will get his just due. But until then, The Oldest Rookie will have to fill the void, and it just doesn't.