cover image The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH

The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH

Shawn Green with Gordon McAlpine. Simon & Schuster, $24 (226p) ISBN 978-1-4391-9119-4

Retired baseball player Green shares his enlightened approach to hitting major league pitching. A student of both Eastern philosophy and hitting, the two-time All Star used the former to improve the latter in an era when less natural means were in vogue. Green devised an unorthodox but efficient method of repetitive drills using a batting tee that evolved into a form of meditation. Meditation via what is essentially an act of violence seems counterintuitive, but the "spiritual seeker" found an "inner stillness" through his drills that allowed him to gain "control both at the plate and in life." Novelist and critic McAlpine (Joy in Mudville) collaborates in the conversational tracing of Green's year-by-year development from rookie to respected hitter to mentor. While this structure is repetitive, it does provide an insider's perspective on the mundane details of life in major league baseball. Baseball fans will appreciate his recollections of facing some of the greatest pitchers of his era, and how he came to recognize and take advantage of their "pitch tipping." (June)