While traveling to view a potential prospect in the early part of 1948, Arthur Murphy, manager of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers, finds himself distracted by memories of his mom’s pot roast while on a rural road in Indiana, distracting him from the animal that has strolled onto the road. The story, while somewhat familiar in the broad sense, is made special by Mickey’s condition, which I learned only after reading the book and going back to the press notes is revealed as autism and Asperger’s syndrome. It is this dream that that Frank Nappi uses as the framework for The Legend of Mickey Tussler, the fictional story of a 17-year-old with a cannon for an arm but mental challenges that in late 1940s parlance leave him labeled as “a retard.” That dream of finding that diamond in the rough, or being a player that is found on your family’s farm is one that has become part of baseball lore – it’s almost as integrated into the game as the 7th inning stretch and booing the umpire. The prospect of discovering that next great player is often cited by scouts as what keeps them going after thousands of miles on the road, watching games in cities big and small, hoping that in one of them they’ll find that player who will eventually end up on a plaque in Cooperstown. Just one – and who knows who or when it will be or what team that young player will first suit up for. A while back, Kevin Goldstein of told me that on average, one future Hall of Famer debuts every year in Major League Baseball.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |