Description
Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the corn fields and hog yards, is a ball field with a bronze bust of a man named Merl Eberly, a baseball whisperer who specialized in second chances and lost causes. The statue used to be a gift from one in every of Merl’s original long-shot projects, a skinny kid from the ghetto in Los Angeles who would at some point change into a beloved Hall-of-Fame shortstop: Ozzie Smith.
The Baseball Whisperer traces the remarkable story of Merl Eberly and his Clarinda A’s baseball team, which he tended over the course of five decades, transforming them from a town team to a collegiate summer league powerhouse. In conjunction with Ozzie Smith, future manager Bud Black, and star player Von Hayes, Merl developed scores of major league players (six of that are currently playing). Within the process, Merl taught them to be men, insisting on hard work, integrity, and responsibility.
More than a book about ballplayers who landed Within the nation’s agricultural heartland, The Baseball Whisperer is the story of a coach who puts character and dedication first, and reminds us of the most efficient, purest type of baseball excellence.