Title/Author:
“John Cangelosi: The
Improbably Journey of the Undersized Kid from Nowhere to World Series Champion”
by John Cangelosi with K.P. Wee
Tags:
Baseball, memoir, professional,
White Sox, Marlins, Astros, Pirates
Publish date:
July 9, 2019
Length:
296 pages
Rating: to
3 of 5 stars (okay)
Review:
John Cangelosi had an up and down
baseball career. After being bypassed by many teams and scouts because of his
diminutive size, he was able to sign a contract with the Chicago White
Sox. After appearing in a few games for
the White Sox late in the 1985 season, he made the team in 1986 and started his
career by threatening to break several records. How his career and life faired
from there is captured in this memoir written with K.P. Wee.
The best way to describe reading
this book is that it was much like Cangelosi’s major league career. Both started out like gangbusters – for baseball,
Cangelosi’s start to the 1986 season was filled with promise as he was stealing
bases at a good clip and was threatening to break the American League record
for bases stolen by a rookie, which was 49 at that time. The book started the same way, as it was fun
to read about his early life and how he overcame the stigma that baseball scouts
usually have for shorter players (he was “generously” listed as 5’ 8” in
official records) and showed enough talent and heart that minor league coaches,
John Boles in particular, often campaigned for Cangelosi to have a spot waiting
for him on the major league roster.
Then, just when Cangelosi’s rookie
season was about to fully bloom, the White Sox suddenly decided to go in a
different direction with their outfielders and Cangelosi was relegated to duties
such as pinch hitting, pinch running and entering the game as a defensive
replacement. That made his quest to break
the AL rookie record for stolen bases tough, but he was able to accomplish that
late in the 1986 season. That year also
marked the only time he was a starting outfielder, as he was in 1987 not only
relegated back to a utility role, he spent time in the minor leagues as well. That
became his career pattern as he spent time with the Pirates, Mets, Astros and
Marlins organizations. Each time
Cangelosi credited a manager for giving him a chance with those organizations –
Jim Leyland in Pittsburgh and Florida, Bobby Valentine with the Mets, and Terry
Collins in Houston. While he was a member of the 1997 Marlins team that won the
World Series, he played sparingly in the Fall Classic, with most of the text in
the book about that series being about his strikeout in game 7.
If that sounds like his baseball
career had a lot of ups and downs after his rookie year, then that is the best
way to describe reading this book felt as well. When reading about his baseball career up to
the point where the White Sox decided to reduce his role, it felt exciting, like
the reader is going to go on a wonderful adventure with Cangelosi. After that,
however, reading the passages range from entertaining to being a chore. The latter mainly comes about because of two
characteristics.
One, there is a lot of skipping
around or missing chunks of information.
The best example of that is something already mentioned – when Cangelosi
reminisces about the 1997 World Series. While the reader will get a feeling
about how he and the team felt hosting the first World Series games held in the
Sunshine State (and how the media wasn’t too kind about the lack of a “fall”
feel) there is barely anything mentioned about the three games in Cleveland and
even little about the last two games in Miami, save for his at bat.
Two, there is a lot of repetition in
the book about various topics, most notably about thankful he was to coaches
and managers who gave him a chance in the minor or major leagues. While that was certainly a nice gesture to
thank these men, it seemed like nearly every chapter the reader would be reminded
how much Boles, Leyland and others meant to Cangelosi. I was actually talking to the book near the
end, saying “Okay, I get it – those guys were very supportive.”
As for the better aspects of the
last 2/3 of the book, I found some of the passages quite humorous and one that
even shows a side of umpire Angel Hernandez that current baseball fans would be
surprised to learn. Cangelosi has been
friends with Hernandez for a long time as Hernandez’s father started the league
where he played organized baseball as a youngster. Later, when Cangelosi started his baseball
school in Florida, Hernandez always comes to support the school and they
socialize together. As for the humor –
whether it comes from Cangelosi himself or he got it from another source, it is
sprinkled liberally throughout the book.
I will quote my favorite line, which came from Michael Farber in Sports Illustrated. When the Marlins signed Cangelosi as one of
the many free agents they acquired for a championship run, Farber noted that “they
paid $4.07 million for two outfielders, Jim Eisenreich and John Cangelosi, who
make a lovely pair of bench ornaments.”
While this book wasn’t quite what I
expected, it was a good illustration of the ups and downs of Cangelosi’s career
in his own words. Readers who remember
him, especially that rookie season in Chicago, would like this reflection on
his baseball career.
I wish to thank Riverdale Avenue
Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest
review.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
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