Just Tell Me I Can't

September 9, 2013
Whether you love baseball or don't know the infield from the outfield, this unusual memoirâtold in the third personâis nevertheless riveting. Pitcher Moyer entered the record books in 2012 at age 49 as the major league's oldest pitcher to win a game. Despite myriad disappointments and nasty injuries over the course of his career, he keeps coming backâand seems only to improve with age: he won more games in his forties than twenties. His success is largely attributed to his mental discipline, a quality he learned to hone from his mentor, the late Harvey Dorfman, who validated the role of sports psychology in baseball. In many ways, Moyer's story testifies to the importance of mental discipline in baseball. The story is made lucid with the help of co-author Platt, former editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, who lived with the Moyer family during the writing process. Together, the two cover the wins and the losses, plus the development of the Moyer Foundation's Camp Erin, the largest collection of child bereavement camps in the country. This is an appealing story of a sportsman with a good heart and a strong mind.

September 1, 2013
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Platt (Only the Strong Survive: The Odyssey of Allen Iverson, 2002, etc.) tells the story of how Moyer turned a below-average career into the stuff of legend, becoming, at 49, the oldest pitcher in Major League Baseball history to win a game. Released from the Texas Rangers in 1990 at the age of 28, Moyer's career might well have been over. Instead, he went on to pitch for six more big-league clubs, win a World Series with his hometown Philadelphia Phillies and rise to No. 35 on the all-time wins list with 269. With a sub-90 mph fastball even in his prime, Moyer's success is a slap in the face to the number-crunching statisticians manning professional baseball's front offices. As the book's title suggests, much of that success is credited to his never-say-die attitude and determination to prove doubters and naysayers--of whom there are many--wrong. Equally as much, if not more, is attributed to his mastery of the mental game, learned through his relationship with baseball psychology guru Harvey Dorfman. Though the book is presented as a memoir by Moyer, it is narrated entirely by Platt, who was there to witness the pitcher's struggles as he attempted to come back yet again following a 2011 injury that should have ended his career. There's more than enough drama in Moyer's unique story to overcome the book's slightly confusing chronology, and the subject comes across as one of professional sports' all-too-rare truly good guys. But the real value here is in the portrait of the mind of an elite pitcher, revealing the inner structures of the game in a way that will deepen even a casual fan's understanding and enjoyment. A fascinating look at one man's improbable athletic journey, offering insight into one of sport's most cerebral positions.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 15, 2013

When Larry Platt (Only the Strong Survive: The Odyssey of Allen Iverson) spoke with pitcher Jamie Moyer, baseball's oldest active player (he's currently 50!) about coauthoring a memoir, Moyer responded that he didn't just want some self-obsessed, career chronology. So the successful results here, narrated by Platt rather than Moyer, are more a journey discovering critical points of challenge in a player's life; they reveal the psychology behind a star player's ups and downs and what it takes to maintain competitive drive for 30 years. Moyer doesn't pretend he could have done this alone; his success story is as much about the stoic philosophy of psychologist Harvey Dorfman (The Mental Game of Baseball) as it is revealing of Moyer's own character. VERDICT Guided by Dorfman's maxims as chapter headings, sports journalist Platt places Moyer's life and career against the mind game of baseball, in the process achieving a rarity among sports memoirs: a non-ego-driven celebration of an all-star athlete. For all fans of the game and especially those interested in sports psychology.--BM

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013
Baseball pitcher Moyer started and won a game for the Colorado Rockies in 2012 at age 49, which made him the oldest player to do both of those things. But Moyer's performance was not an aberration; he'd been challenging and overcoming conventional baseball wisdom for decades. He never had much velocity on his fastball, but, despite lacking most pitchers' best tool, Moyer won 269 games in his career, thirty-fourth place on the all-time list. Remarkably, 213 of those wins came after Moyer was 33 years old. Most careers are winding down at 33; Moyer was just finding his groove. In this rich, entertaining, third-person memoir, Moyer attributes much of his success to sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman, a gruff, gravel-voiced mentor who pushed Moyer into a different, more assertive mental approach to the game. Because of both baseball's inherent ageism and that nonexistent fastball, Moyer spent much of his career in a constant battle to prove himself. Despite his amazing success, he was never a household name in baseball, but true fans will inhale his tale of smarts and perseverance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)