Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim AbbottMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It seems like baseball biographies, and I’ve read quite a few of them, tend to two types. They are about either the superstar telling of their “difficult” journey to greatness, or they are about the characters, usually the bad boys, that grow a small but dedicated legion of fans and who want to tell the “untold, behind the scenes” story of pro ball. This isn’t one of those. This felt like two stories combined. The first, the underlying story throughout the book, is about a kid with a disability who grows up to be a surprisingly good pitcher, in some ways despite the disability, in some ways because of it. This is a story of growth and reflection, one the author does a wonderful job conveying.
The other story here is about an event – the pitching of a no hitter that the author accomplished mid-career. This is told in a series of chapters spread throughout the book told an inning or so per chapter. It felt like a story about being struck by lightning. You get the build-up and the immediate impact, then as the book continues in time past the no-hitter, it is much more reflective. During and right after this rare event, the author, like anyone, feels this could be not just a career highlight but the first of many great things. The author shares that kind of feeling in writing about that no-hitter. But afterwards, as the author talks about his career in baseball in total, he does put that event in perspective as a true career highlight, one that most pitchers will not achieve.
I enjoyed both of these stories combined here by the author. I found “Imperfect”, while not perfect, came pretty close to the kind of thoughtful and personally relatable story that happened to be about a professional baseball pitcher that worked with and around his disability.
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