About this item
The rich, poignant tales of major league baseball's most hard-luck fraternity - the pitchers of its Almost-Perfect GamesFrom 1908 to 2015, there have been thirteen pitchers who have begun Major League Baseball games by retiring the first twenty-six opposing batters, but then, one out from completing a perfect game, somehow faltering (or having perfection stolen from them) . Three other pitchers did successfully retire twenty-seven batters in a row, but are still not credited with perfect games. While stories of pitching the perfect game have been told and retold, Almost Perfect looks at how baseball, at its core, is about heartbreak, and these sixteen men are closer to what baseball really is, and why we remain invested in the sport. Author Joe Cox visits this notion through a century of baseball and through these sixteen pitchers - recounting their games in thrilling fashion, telling the personal stories of the fascinating (and very human) baseball figures involved, and exploring the historical American and baseball backdrops of each flawed gem. From George "Hooks" Wiltse's nearly perfect game in 1908 to "Hard Luck" Harvey Haddix's 12-inning, 36-consecutive-outs performance on May 26, 1959 (the most astounding single-game pitching performance in baseball history) to Max Scherzer's near miss in 2015, Joe Cox's book captures the action, the humanity, and the history of the national pastime's greatest "almosts."
About the Author
Have been blessed to be a part of a growing number of books, and am always looking for the next story that I can share. I am a partner in the law firm of Cole, Loney & Cox, PLLC, in Bowling Green, KY. My wife and I have been married for nearly two decades, and we have two children, ages 10 and 8.I've got some fun stuff in the pipeline, with more details coming soon.My most recent book is "A Fine Team Man: Jackie Robinson and the Lives he Touched." It's a book that was inspired by Doris Kearns Goodwin's "A Team of Rivals" and the opportunity to take a fairly familiar story, but to see the hero afresh by looking at him in a relational context. The genius of Jackie Robinson was his capacity for changing people, and so looking at how he interacted with those closest to him while he changed the world was a reward and interesting field to study. I chose nine people and told the stories of each, then looked and how they interacted with Robinson and how he changed their lives. Some were obvious and fairly well chronicled (Branch Rickey) , some were obscure and surprising (Burt Shotton) , and at least one really brought me to the crux of what made a remarkable man truly exceptional (Dixie Walker) . If you love baseball, if you love biography, and/or if you love thinking about what makes exceptional people so special, I think you'll enjoy it. My previous book, "The Immaculate Inning", takes a closer look at thirty baseball feats or accomplishments-- half being single-game feats (unassisted triple plays, hitting four home runs in a game, the namesake feat, etc) , half being longer streaks or season-long events (hitting .400, winning 30 games in a season, etc) . The book provides the historical context for the feat, then examines a couple of interesting stories of particular players and their specific chase of baseball history. Was excited to have Jessica Mendoza of ESPN write the foreword, and think it'll be a fun read for anybody who loves baseball. The one before that, titled "Almost Perfect" and published by Lyons Press, is a look at the inside stories of 16 times in Major League Baseball history when a pitcher almost-- but not quite-- pitched a perfect game. Thirteen pitchers got the first 26 outs, and then lost the perfect game, while the other three set down 27 in a row, but still ended up not completing an official perfecto. I enjoyed tracking down the stories of how these pitchers (who range from Hall of Famers to guys that only hard-core fans might remember) dealt with their brush with perfection, and how the ability to handle adversity had already entered their life, or how they used the experience to handle it later. It's really a book about being human-- setting big goals, barely missing them, and then pressing on from there. I've been lucky to be part of a handful of other sports books with co-authors whose passion and talent helped me be fortunate enough to chronicle some in
