Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game

The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game

Brown, Tim
Kratz, Erik

Paperback

AthletesBaseball & Softball

Publisher Price: $21.99

PREORDER - Expected ship date July 7, 2026

ISBN10: 1538726564
ISBN13: 9781538726563
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: Jul 7 2026
Pages: 304
Language: English
This fascinating book reminds us of the beauty of baseball and chronicles the unsung men of baseball who serve the job, the hardships they face, and their love for a game that would not always love them back―told partly through the experiences of an MLB veteran. (Jim Abott, former major league pitcher).

In baseball there are superstars, stars, and everyday players--and then there are the rest. The Tao of the Backup Catcher is about them, the backup catchers, who exist near the bottom of the roster and the end of the bench and between the numbers in a sport--and a society--increasingly driven by cold, hard analytics. The Tao of the Backup Catcher is a story of grown men who once dreamed of stardom and generational wealth. Instead, they were handed a broom and a deeper understanding of who wins and why, who stands tall and who folds, and who will invest their own lives in catching bullpens and the back ends of doubleheaders.

Backup catchers survive in part because every team needs one. They are necessary, once or twice a week. They are sports' big brothers, psychologists, priests, witch doctors, player coaches, father figures and drinking buddies, all wrapped in a suit of today's polycarbonate armor and yesterday's dirt. They come with a singular goal: to win baseball games. They play for the greater good. After that, they play for themselves.

A reverie on loving the grind and the little things baseball can teach us, The Tao of the Backup Catcher profiles Erik Kratz, Josh Paul, AJ Ellis, Bobby Wilson, Drew Butera, Matt Treanor, and John Flaherty to name a few.

This isn't just a story about baseball. It's about life and the beauty of knowing and accepting who you are. ―Jeff Passan

1 different editions

Also available

Also from

Brown, Tim

View All

Also in

Athletes

View All