OCTOBER 2023 - AudioFile
This audiobook takes a dramatic approach to the often unsung role of baseball's backup catchers, who may play only a few innings a week--or not at all. Narrator Justin Price gives them the emotion and drama they deserve, in part by slightly altering his voice for quotes. His delivery is a great example of how a narrator can use technique to capture the writing. Brown and Kratz--writer and catcher, respectively--have teamed up to reveal to baseball fans the challenges these journeymen go through day in and day out. It's tough to imagine any other approach for these stories. Listeners will enjoy--and gain new respect for--players who are rarely in the limelight. M.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
05/08/2023
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)
From the Publisher
Lend Tim Brown’s inimitable voice to a sporting subculture overflowing with personality, mix in Erik Kratz’s tale of perseverance and what blossoms is magic. This isn’t just a story about baseball. It’s about life and the beauty of knowing and accepting who you are.”—Jeff Passan, ESPN baseball columnist and bestselling author of The Arm
"This is a honey of a book. Tim Brown and Erik Kratz have my everlasting gratitude for this exquisite reminder of what baseball—and baseball writing—was like before velo, and rpms, and launch angles and barrels, and $43.3 million dollar annual salaries changed the conversation and the game became a discussion about everything other than people. This ode to the backup catcher with grit beneath his fingernails and grit within his soul is a must read. It will make you feel better about humanity."—Jane Leavy, author of national bestsellers The Last Boy and The Big Fella
"This is a beautiful book. A Sunday morning clubhouse, pregame coffee, the nerves and excitement of going up against the very best in the world. In the middle of all this, the comfort of the Backup Catcher with a gleam in his eye, and a deep appreciation for this moment. This book reminds us of the beauty of baseball, the characters who play, and the lessons we all might carry away from an approach that doesn’t take anything for granted."—Jim Abbott, former major league pitcher
“The late, great Hall of Famer Joe Morgan once told me that baseball is only fun if you're really, really good at it. The rest is unforgiving, hard work. Tim Brown is a baseball fan's writer: really, really good at it while appreciating the hard work, the people who do it, and its costs. Erik Kratz is who we all think we are, dedicated, willing to put in the time for the unglamorous results. The combination of these two is a real story for real people. If you care about the work of baseball, and not just the glory, this is the perfect book for you.”—Howard Bryant, author of Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original
“Tim Brown is a brilliant baseball wordsmith, and Erik Kratz is a delightful baseball personality, and together they have combined to write a wonderful book celebrating baseball’s hidden heart. This is a tale of ultimate grinders who toil in obscurity yet epitomize integrity. While you may have never heard of them, you’ll never be able to forget them.”—Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times sports columnist and panelist on ESPN’s Around the Horn
"Erik’s incredible journey through baseball has created a rare wisdom for both life and our wonderful game. Enjoy the ride through the countless teachable moments that the life of the back up catcher offers."—Craig Counsell, manager of the Milwaukee Brewers
“The backup catcher is one of the most interesting and intriguing positions in major league baseball. He is always ready, always alert and rarely plays. In THE TAO OF THE BACKUP CATCHER, Tim Brown and Erik Kratz take us inside this fascinating world and deliver a riveting account of what players endure in their quest to succeed at this challenging job. It’s compelling, it’s emotional and it’s a must-read for the backup catcher in all of us.” —Jack Curry, three-time New York Times bestselling author and studio analyst for the YES Network
"If God is in the details, then what Tim Brown has done with the story of Erik Kratz is divine. Yes, it’s a baseball book by one of our finest baseball writers. No one better understands the subtleties and hierarchies of life in the clubhouse better than Brown, nor is anyone better at describing the interior of the game. But THE TAO OF THE BACKUP CATCHER is also an ode to that which seems diminished in American life: humility, dedication, craft, a kind of virtue that doesn’t require an affirming emoji, an endzone dance, a bat toss, or even a pat on the back."—Mark Kriegel, author of Pistol and The Good Son
"It’s the stories that make baseball special, and often nobody has more of them than those backup catchers. Tim uses those stories to take us on a rich dive into one of the most underexplored and underappreciated subcultures in the sport."—Joe Davis, FOX Sports' lead play-by-play announcer
"Nobody captures the soul of a ballplayer like Tim Brown. In THE TAO OF THE BACKUP CATCHER, Brown delivers a masterpiece on the invisible yet indispensable character on every team, the guy who knows the value in using a new mitt to warm up a fading veteran, just to get a louder pop on the fastball. With graceful writing and richly detailed reporting, Brown shows that when you know the backup catcher – a role that’s three-quarters psychologist and one-quarter ballplayer, as one practitioner put it – you’ll understand the heart of baseball."—Tyler Kepner, New York Times bestselling author of K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches
“An empathetic tribute to athletes who spend their lives just outside the spotlight.”—Publisher’s Weekly
“A refreshing and inspiring baseball story that will resonate with the 99 percent who never make it big. It will likely enlighten and inspire baseball players and non-athletes alike into learning that greater joy can come from serving others instead of just being served.” —Library Journal Starred Review
Library Journal
★ 06/01/2023
Many children worldwide dream of becoming baseball stars and making loads of money. In reality, however, only a tiny percentage of those actually achieve this dream. Sports journalist Brown (The Phenomenon), cowriting with former pro baseball player Eric Kratz, tells a story about men who have pursued a baseball career into adulthood but who ultimately didn't achieve the hoped-for superstar status. It is told mostly through the eyes of Kratz, a former catcher who, after realizing that superstardom would elude him, still found the goodness that can come from helping others achieve success in a sport that often seemed heartless and unforgiving to him. Kratz's experiences are woven together with interviews of several other professional baseball players and managers. This highly recommended book is a refreshing and inspiring baseball story that will resonate with the 99 percent who never make it big. It will likely enlighten and inspire baseball players and non-athletes alike into learning that greater joy can come from serving others instead of just being served. VERDICT Baseball and sports lovers will likely forever revere and quote this book. It belongs in all general and many academic libraries.—Steve Dixon
