The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH

AUTHOR: Shawn Green (Shawn Green, outfielder, not to be confused with Sean Green, pitcher, not to be confused with Sean “I was a Giant when all that happened” Estes, pitcher)*

PUBLISHED: 2011

GENRE: Non-fiction; Sports

I first heard about this book during an interview with the author. Green started in the ‘90s playing outfield for the Toronto Blue Jays, then moved to the Los Angeles Dodgers and eventually my New York Mets.  I never particularly thought much about Green – he was only around for a few years - and probably would not have read his book if I hadn’t found it had a reference in it to my favorite player of all time, John Olerud.**  It turned out there were only a few sentences about Olerud in the book, but by the time I figured that out, I had already bought the thing, so I kept reading.

Green isn’t your typical jock, even in baseball, where the players tend to be slightly more erudite then those in other sports (see Dickey, R.A.).  He credits a large part of success to the practice of meditation and of deeper thinking – the separation of ego from the self and the mind from the body.  When the story begins, he is a struggling rookie, desperate to impress his teammates and his manager, but failing miserably.  It’s only when he begins an intensive regimen on a tee in the batting cages that he begins to see a difference.  The repetition of placing the ball on the tee, swinging the bat, and hitting the ball, then starting all over again, for hours at a time, allow him to quiet his thinking and to slow his actions mentally, if not physically.  Eventually, he acquires one of the greatest skills a hitter can have – the ability to decipher what pitch the pitcher is throwing as it leaves his hand.  He suddenly can feel when his foot’s lifting too high or his arms are extending too far, and is able to correct for it.   As a result, his career explodes, and the skinny little kid from California becomes a power-hitting star. 

But it’s not all sunshine and happiness.  Green acknowledges that he frequently allowed his ego to sneak back in and the pressure to get to him, leading him to force his swing.  His sudden celebrity status and a trade from sleepy Toronto to loud Los Angeles wear on his good habits and set him back.  Each time, he must return to the basics and find his peace again.  It’s actually a really great story, and I respect Green a lot for his methods and for his willingness to admit his own faults in written form.  But the book is basically the same pattern over and over again; by the third chapter, it has lost all its momentum.  Green also never offers up any tips on how to apply his practices to the reader’s life (presuming the reader is not a Major League Baseball player).  I know this isn’t a self-help book – “How to Hit a Home Run in Your Life!” – but it kind of leaves you thinking, “well, gee, great for him, but what about the rest of us?”.  It would have made a great magazine article (Sports Meditations Illustrated, perhaps?).  But ironically, for a book about a power-hitter, it just doesn’t have enough pop.

LENGTH: 224 pages

MAINSTREAM OR NOT: No.  It’s too much baseball for non-fans and too much meditative thinking for hardcore sport nuts.

SO, SHOULD I READ IT OR NOT?: As much as I want to say yes, no.  I have a new appreciation for Green and like his thinking, but it just really isn’t that interesting.

*Remember when all that stuff went down between Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza during the 2000 World Series (you know, when Clemens ‘roid-ed out and chucked a bat piece at Piazza)?  The next time the Mets faced the Yankees, pitcher Sean Estes was left with the task of defending Piazza’s honor.  But Estes had been a Giant when the 2000 nonsense went down and quite obviously wasn’t very enthusiastic about being pulled into it.  So he “accidentally” threw BEHIND Clemens – a rather large target – when he came up to bat, which just left the Mets looking like a bunch of fools.  And since Sean “Punk-Ass” Estes isn’t suitable for mixed company, he is now known as Sean “I was a Giant when all that happened” Estes. 

**Olerud was around for the length of time as Green – 2 years – but made a significantly different impression.  Much like the one in his forehead.  HI-YO!†

†John Olerud underwent emergency brain surgery in 1989 when doctors found an aneurism.  The surgery left him with – appropriately enough – a baseball sized dent in his forehead where they removed some skull, which is why he wore a helmet at bat and on the field.  So yes, that was a brain surgery joke.  And yes, that was my best Ed McMahan impression. And yes, this is a footnote to a footnote.