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Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball - Paperback
$21.55
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by George Gmelch (Author)
From the spark of ambition to play baseball professionally to the necessity of reinventing life after baseball, the anthropologist and former Minor Leaguer George Gmelch describes the lives of the men who work at America's national game.
Twenty-four years after his own final road trip as a minor leaguer, Gmelch went back on the road with ballplayers, this time with a pen and pad to record the details of life around the diamond. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews with Major and Minor League players, coaches, and managers, Gmelch explores players' experiences throughout their careers: being scouted, becoming a rookie, moving through or staying in the Minors, preparing mentally and physically to play day after day, coping with slumps and successes, and facing retirement. He examines the ballplayers' routines and rituals, describes their joys and frustrations, and investigates the roles of wives, fans, and groupies in their lives. Based on his own experience as a player in the 1960s, Gmelch charts the life cycle of the modern professional ballplayer and makes perceptive comparisons to a previous generation of players.
Author Biography
George Gmelch is a former first baseman in the Detroit Tigers farm system and a professor of anthropology at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He is the author of nine books, including Baseball without Borders: The International Pastime (Nebraska 2006) and In the Ballpark: The Working Lives of Baseball People (with J. J. Weiner), available in a Bison Books edition.
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Standard U.S. returns are accepted for eligible new, unopened items within 30 days of carrier delivery. Returns are by mail. Customers are responsible for standard return shipping, there is no restocking fee, and standard exchanges are not offered. Once an approved return is received and inspected, the refund is issued to the original payment method within 5 business days. Damaged, defective, or incorrect items are handled at no return-shipping cost to the customer.
Return eligibility is subject to the full policy. Opened, read, or unsealed books with broken seals or visible wear are final sale. Digital downloads, gift cards, and personalized products are non-refundable. Original shipping charges are not refunded for standard returns. Contact us within 7 days of delivery about damaged, defective, or incorrect items.
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