The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game

Journalist Brown (coauthor of The Phenomenon) teams up with retired Major League Baseball catcher Kratz for a compassionate look at the life of a journeyman professional athlete. During his 19-year career as a pro, Kratz played for 15 teams and never rose above the rank of second-stringer before he retired in 2020. Brown chronicles the highs, which included batting .367 during a stint with the Yankees, and the lows—while with the Brewers, Kratz was barred from a team meeting because everyone expected he’d be traded and couldn’t be trusted with the team’s protocol for using players on second base to communicate their opponents’ pitch signs to batters. Passion for the game kept Kratz going; he taught batting lessons to make ends meet while playing in the minor leagues and learned to view trades to bottom-dwelling teams as opportunities for “more at-bats.” Diverting anecdotes about other backup catchers entertain (Cincinnati Reds second-stringer Bill Plummer took pains not to snore when sharing a hotel room with the team’s celebrity starting catcher: “Johnny Bench needed his rest”), but this focuses squarely on Kratz, finding pathos in his unglamorous fight to stay in the game. The result is an empathetic tribute to athletes who spend their lives just outside the spotlight. (July)