Review of “The Chicken Runs at Midnight”

After seeing the 2023 finalists for the Casey Award for the best baseball book, I decided to read more of these award winning books and finalist for not only 2023 but past years as well. Looking at past years’ finalists, this tile of a 2019 finalist caught my eye. I then read the synopsis - and then immediately checked out a copy. Wow, what a book! Here is my review.  

Title/Author:

“The Chicken Runs at Midnight: A Daughter’s Message From Heaven That Changed a Father’s Heart and Won the World Series” by Tom Friend

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review: It’s very hard to categorize this book because it touches so many areas. Is it a baseball book? Yes, there’s much about the sport and one man’s quest to reach the major leagues, but it is so much more than that.  Is it a spiritual book? Yes, but it doesn’t really have that characteristic until the last third or so.  Is it a book on family life and relationships? Yes, that’s important to the story but again, not a complete description. Yet, this wonderful book by Tom Friend will appeal to anyone who enjoys reading about these topics.  Field’s writing about the following topics is a joy to behold and will keep the reader glued to the book.

Let’s start with the baseball. Rich Donnelly grew up in the town of Steubenville, Pennsylvania as a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates. While he dreamed of playing for his beloved Pirates, he wasn’t the best athlete in his family - that honor belonged to his brother Jerome Jr. or Romey. Romey was also Rich’s hero, 14 years his senior and continually monitored by their father Jerome. Wanting to ensure that Romey would become a major league pitcher, Jerome Sr. was basically a helicopter parent in that he set strict rules for Romey about practice, social time, eating, dating - you name it, it was monitored by the father. While Romey did end up in professional baseball, he failed to make the major leagues and tragically died not long after giving up the game. 

Enter Rich, who was already doing pretty well for himself as a catcher. Jerome Sr. then shifted his focus to Rich who also ended up playing college and professional baseball. Like Romey, Rich had struggles in the minors and also married a woman soon after finally having the freedom to do so. He and his wife Peggy had four children - Richard Jr. or Bubba, Tim, Mike and Amy. It is the daughter, Amy, who spoke the phrase making up the title of the book - and it was just a spontaneous remark when she asked her dad what he told players when cupping his mouth while being the third base coach. This was in the 1992 NLCS when Rich was the third base coach for the Pirates. He may not have made his boyhood team as a player, but he was just as thrilled to wear their uniform as a coach. 

But the road there was filled with many issues. Rich inherited his father’s type A personality and while that may work on a baseball diamond, it certainly caused issues with his family. He pushed the three boys hard when they showed promise in baseball and basketball. But Amy…we’ll, Amy was her own person and always tried to show her father how she was important too. Not to mention her talents were on display as well. She would gather kids in the family garage and hold classrooms lessons, complete with homework and forms for parents to sign. She also became an athlete, excelling in basketball. But Rich never saw this - thanks to falling for the vices that often plagued baseball players on the road - drinking and women - Rich and his wife Peggy eventually divorced and Amy was left despondent over not being able to please her father. 

Even more so, as Freind wonderfully describes, Rich is also,left with so many lingering doubts - about how good a father he was to his daughter, to his faith and his overall life. But news about Amy and a devastating diagnosis of brain cancer left Rich in shock and the story of how he got back into Amy’s life, how special she was and the time they together in the Pittsburgh playoff drive - capped off by “The Chicken Runs at Midnight” comment is one that is some heartwarming that one would think that wine Amy passed away the following spring, that would be the end of the story. 

But Rich, following manager Jim Leylamd to Miami and being the third base coach for the Florida Marlins in the 1997 World Series, there was one more miracle from Amy thanks to Marlin Craig Counsell, who was nicknamed the Chicken and the time that the Marlins won game 7. Not wanting to give away any more of the story than already told, just know that if a reader got this far without tearing up or at least feeling some emotion, they are sure to do so when this occurs. 

This book was a finalist for a 2019 Casey Award and once one read it, they will understand why. Not a typical baseball story even though there are many typical baseball plays and personalities in the book, this is one that is sure to captivate a reader. Even this lengthy review cannot do justice to the complete story of Rich and Amy Donnelly. 

Link:https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Runs-Midnight-Daughters-Message/dp/0310352061/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= 

Review of "John Cangelosi"

Memoirs are written by people of all levels of fame, and this one was written by a baseball player who had a great start to his baseball career, but in the end wound up becoming a valuable utility player instead of a star. That didn't discourage him from writing his memoir.  Here is my review of "John Cangelosi"

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)                                                                                                                                

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/John-Cangelosi-Improbable-Baseball-Undersized-ebook/dp/B07V5FRPR5/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/john-cangelosi-john-cangelosi/1132430689?ean=2940163178308