Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball

by George Gmelch

Starting with the spark of ambition to play ball professionally and ending with the necessity of reinventing life after baseball, former minor leaguer and anthropologist George Gmelch describes the lives of the men who work at America's national game.

Twenty-four years after his own final road trip with the Detroit Tigers' organization, Gmelch went on the road again with a busload of players, this time with a pen and pad to record the details of life lived around the diamond.

Drawing on over one hundred interviews with major and minor league players, coaches, and managers, he explores players' experiences throughout their careers: being scouted, becoming a rookie, moving through or staying in the minors, preparing mentally and physically to play day after day, coping with slumps and successes, facing retirement. He examines the ballplayers' routines and rituals, describes their joys and frustrations, and investigates the roles of wives, fans, and groupies in their lives.

Based on his own experience as a player in the 1960s, Gmelch charts the life cycle of the modern professional ballplayer and makes perceptive comparisons to a previous generation of players.

"This is the rare book that can actually make you see a baseball game in a different way."
-- New York Times Book Review

"…one of the funniest of all baseball books."
-- Sports Illustrated

Genres: Baseball, Nonfiction

242 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 2001

Reviews

[Larry Hanus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the insights on the Seattle Pilots from the business perspective, which really brought to light the ultimate need to leave Seattle for Milwaukee.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was written by an anthropology professor from Union College in Schnechtedy, NY. Part a story of baseball and part an anthropology textbook. Explores different aspects of a young baseball-mostly minor league- players experience playing baseball from having talent, breaking in to the game, being scouted, how players move up to eventually their home lives and families and how they respond to their careers ending. Interesting book. Have to view it with the context that the author is a college professor reaching out to his minor league roots.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book might disappoint the hardcore fan, since there are few obscure details here. The book's strength is the anecdotal perspective provided by minor-league players, most of whom you have never heard of.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite baseball books. I swear I was riding the buses with them when I was reading this.