Intentional Walk: An Inside Look at the Faith That Drives the St. Louis Cardinals - Softcover

Rains, Rob

 
9780849964589: Intentional Walk: An Inside Look at the Faith That Drives the St. Louis Cardinals
Softcover
ISBN 10: 084996458X ISBN 13: 9780849964589
Verlag: Thomas Nelson, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

An inside look at the faith that guides the all-stars.

The St.Louis Cardinals have long been one of the most successful franchises in themajor leagues. They have won 11 World Series titles and some of the most famousplayers in the history of the game have worn the storied “Birds on the Bat”uniform.

While thaton-field success has been well documented, IntentionalWalk is the first book which goes beyond the story of what happens on thefield to take an in-depth look at the men inside the Cardinal uniforms, andexamine how their strong Christian faith is one of the driving forces behindtheir success.

Intentional Walk features the stories of AdamWainwright, David Freese, Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, JasonMotte and other members of the 2012 Cardinals, written as those players and therest of the team tried to repeat the 2011 world championship. The book talksabout how they became Christians and offers their testimony about what it meansfor them to have God play such a prominent role in their lives.

Playing forfirst-year manager Mike Matheny, a strong Christian as well, these men talkabout their success and failure, about the challenges that come from playingbaseball at the highest level, and how thankful and blessed they are to havethat God-given ability. In the end, however, what is far more important to themis their life-long relationship they have established with Jesus Christ.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Rob Rains is the author of 31 books, mostly on baseball and many about the St. Louis Cardinals. His list of biographies or autobiographies of Cardinals includes Tony La Russa, Albert Pujols, Mark McGwire, Jack Buck, Red Schoendienst, and Ozzie Smith. He is a lifetime member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a lifetime member of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He also is the cohost of a daily radio talk show in St. Louis and an adjunct professor at Webster University.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

INTENTIONAL WALK

An Inside Look at the Faith That Drives the St. Louis Cardinals

By ROB RAINS

Thomas Nelson

Copyright © 2013 Rob Rains
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8499-6458-9

Contents

Prologue...................................................................ix
One David Freese...........................................................1
Two Adam Wainwright........................................................13
Three Rip Rowan............................................................27
Four Lance Berkman.........................................................33
Five Matt Carpenter........................................................47
Six The Prospects: James Ramsey and Kolten Wong............................57
Seven Rick Horton..........................................................69
Eight Barret Browning......................................................81
Nine Kyle McClellan........................................................91
Ten Trevor Rosenthal.......................................................101
Eleven Skip Schumaker......................................................111
Twelve Mitchell Boggs......................................................123
Thirteen Jason Motte.......................................................133
Fourteen Matt Holliday.....................................................143
Fifteen Jake Westbrook.....................................................155
Sixteen Carlos Beltran.....................................................165
Seventeen The Postseason...................................................179
Eighteen Mike Matheny......................................................191
Acknowledgments............................................................205
About the Author...........................................................207

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

DAVID FREESE


The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside thestill waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness forhis name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fearno evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thouanointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and Iwill dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.—Psalm 23 KJV


The night before the Cardinals played their opening game of the2012 regular season on April 4, the first-ever game at MarlinsPark in Miami, a visiting reporter walked into a well-known restaurantto have dinner. It was not surprising to him that some ofthe Cardinals were there. What he was astounded by, however,was that a dozen of the players were there having dinner, together,at the same table.

Despite having covered baseball for about thirty years, thiswas not something the reporter was used to seeing, and it spokevolumes to him about the 2012 Cardinals, the closeness of theplayers, and the chemistry and the bond that connected this team.

David Freese was one of the players there that night, alongwith many of the team's veterans, including Matt Holliday, AdamWainwright, and Chris Carpenter.

"A lot of the veterans get together and they drag me along,"Freese has said. "It's a free meal."

Freese, of course, may never have to buy a meal in St. Louisagain after his heroics in the 2011 postseason, which includedhitting the walk-off home run in the eleventh inning of game six,perhaps one of the most dramatic moments in World Series history.

There was more involved on that April night, however, thanthe fact that Freese didn't have to pay for his steak and lobster—theteam's players try to get together for dinner at least once onevery road trip during the season, and as many players who wantto come are welcome.

"It's a great time for fellowship," Freese said. "The coolestthing about this group is our fellowship together. That's a bigword in our clubhouse. What I hear is that it is very unusual inbaseball, but what we have here with our spiritual faith is a goodthing. It keeps you grounded. It keeps you on the right path.

"You definitely can identify with what's important in theworld when you step in this clubhouse."

This is particularly important for Freese, who is aware of acouple of points in his life, both in baseball and outside the game,when he could have gone in a much different direction, had heallowed himself to continue down a bad path.

Continuing down the wrong road definitely would have ledFreese to a different place than Busch Stadium, in his hometownof St. Louis, where his performance during one magical Octobermade him a hometown hero as well as an overnight national andinternational celebrity.

Appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and othertelevision shows followed his selection as the MVP of both theNational League Championship Series against the MilwaukeeBrewers and the World Series against the Texas Rangers. Anybodyand everybody wanted a piece of Freese, who claims one of hismost chilling moments came in November 2011, when he was onthe field for the Missouri–Texas football game and received a prolongedstanding ovation from more than seventy thousand fans.

Freese knew then, and knows now, that none of it would havebeen possible had he not made a dramatic decision in December2009 to turn his life over to Christ. He had just been involved in asecond off-field incident, which was embarrassing to himself, hisfamily, and the Cardinals. After a heartfelt talk with his parents,he made an unannounced trip to the stadium to talk with generalmanager John Mozeliak, offering a sincere apology and a pledgethat it would not happen again.

Then the twenty-six-year-old Freese went home and walkedinto his bedroom. He was drained and exhausted. "I didn't havemuch left," Freese said.

He sat down and prayed.

"I really kind of surrendered myself," Freese recalled. "I said,'God, here I am. Do with me what You will. I'm Yours.' I look backat that now and realize that was a very big moment in my life."

At the time, Freese had only played seventeen games in themajor leagues with the Cardinals. He had not been a high bonusbaby, having been drafted in the ninth round by the San DiegoPadres out of South Alabama in June 2006. The Cardinals hadobtained him the previous winter, in Mozeliak's first trade as generalmanager, for outfielder Jim Edmonds.

The Cardinals believed Freese had a chance to become aregular third baseman in the majors, but only if he could straightenup his personal life and also avoid frequent injuries. It was shortlyafter making the decision to turn his life over to Christ that Freesejust "happened" to run into Matheny at a charity bowling eventin St. Louis, organized by former major leaguer Brian Boehringer.

"It was a great time to run into Mike Matheny," Freese said.Matheny at...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Thomas Nelson
Erscheinungsdatum
2013
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
084996458X
ISBN 13 
9780849964589
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
240
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Reckitt Benckiser Deutschland GmbH
consumerhealth_de@reckitt.com

Darwinstrasse 2-4
Heidelberg
69115
Deutschland