Things Happen for a Reason: The True Story of an Itinerant Life in Baseball

by Terry Leach, Tom Clark, Paul Auster (Introduction)

Born in 1953 in Selma, Alabama, Terry Leach first plays baseball as a Little Leaguer. In college, he stars at Auburn until an arm injury threatens his future. He recovers sufficiently to pitch sidearm and enter the independent leagues in Louisiana, which leads to his major league career. For every Sosa, there are a dozen major-league players such as Leach. His professional pitching career began in 1976 with an independent minor-league team in Baton Rouge and ended in 1993 with Birmingham in the Triple AAA minors. In between, he pitched parts of 12 seasons in the majors, won 38 games, pitched almost 700 innings, and had a very respectable 3.37 earned run average. He was never a star, and every season of his career was a struggle to make a major-league roster. What dominates this book is Leach's love for the game, its camaraderie, its history, and his small role within it. Guys turning down contracts for millions of dollars often say—and fans know better—"It's not about the money." It's nice to know there are some players who can truthfully say that. Leach is such a player. This book relates his precarious experiences in baseball. His perspective is that of someone who was always fighting for the last roster spot on the team because he was never quite talented or young enough.

185 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2000

Reviews

[Adamdaigle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the most well-written book, but this guy had one hell of a baseball life.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm wondering why I picked this one up in the first place, possibly because it was recced as an example of "life of quad-A reliever" and there really aren't many memoirs of that type available (until Dirk Hayhurst's book comes out in 2010, I suppose.)

I forgot Terry Leach was a part of the 1991 Twins, which really explains the comment about relievers being fungible.

[Brian Stark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting if you are a Met fan.