Cup of Coffee: The Very Short Careers of Eighteen Major League Pitchers

by Rob Trucks

Following in the footsteps of the fictional Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams, writer Rob Trucks traveled the country in search of modern Moonlight Grahams – former pitchers whose major league careers lasted less than fifty innings. Cup of Coffee collects Trucks’s conversations with eighteen of these men – what they went through to reach the major leagues, why they didn’t stay, and what they saw, heard, and learned along the way. These are stories of success and failure, accomplishment and disappointment, heartbreak and fulfillment, all while rubbing shoulders with baseball legends on the national pastime’s greatest stage. Cup of Coffee speaks not only to baseball aficionados, but students of the human condition as well.

Genres: Baseball

420 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2003

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book of the year for me so far (granted, it's early February). I loved Trucks's idea-- talk to a handful (18 actually) of big league pitchers, none of whom threw more than 50 major league innings. Trucks get to the inside of the near-miss. All of these men are talented, and all come across as decidedly human. Some remember everything with nostalgia, some with bitterness, but everybody has his own story of how he got to "The Show," and how it all came crashing down in a hurry. Oral history works well with baseball and I consider this book a cousin to the legendary "Glory of Their Times," which chronicles legends of the deadball era. Trucks's players may not be legends, but they're no less interesting, and maybe more compellingly human.

[Will Dahlberg]

Book #35 for 2020.

I was at a SABR meeting in the early 2000’s and I heard Rob Trucks talk about his book that had just come out. I remember intending to get a copy of it…and it only took me about 19 years to do so.

This 400+ page volume is full of dreams often barely fulfilled, desperation, and heartbreak. There is a lot of wonderful retrospection in it as well. Is it the best baseball book I’ve ever read? No. The worst? No. One of the most honest and revealing? Yep.

If your interested in the life of average guys who had a chance to make it to “the show “ and have a taste of their dreams, pick up a copy.

[Thom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection has 18 interviews with pitchers who made it to the major leagues for just a few innings or games - a "cup of coffee". I think it would have been better with a conclusion highlighting differences or common threads. Great source material, but a little dry.

Rob Trucks is the great nephew of famous pitcher Virgil Trucks, and knows the lingo of baseball. In the introduction, he compares his project to the quest for Moonlight Graham from Shoeless Joe by Kinsella, filmed as Field of Dreams. The interviews are presented as transcripts, with Rob's questions in italics. There are some common questions, but others develop from the player's stories.

The author has written other books about baseball, including a series called "Behind the Seams".

[Lucas]

not only is this book about baseball, something i enjoy a lot, but it is written by one of my neighbors that lives on my floor. it looked like there was a tremendous amount of research involved in the book, and it makes me appreciate it more. the book is about players that never really had good careers in the major leagues, and it was really interesting to hear their stories.

[J Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of interviews of some men who pitched briefly at the major league level. Some of their stories and careers are interesting and some aren't at all. The book is very hit-or-miss in that regard and I think only a very serious fan of the MLB would enjoy the whole thing.