Have you ever wondered about R.A. Dickey, a retired baseball player? You should read Wherever I Wind Up. It is by R.A. Dickey. In the book R.A Dickey goes through the journey of being a baseball player. He grew up poor going to 2 dollar baseball games. As his life moves on his parents end up splitting up. As an adult he knows that he will not get a job because he is not smart enough. After college he got drafted to a major league baseball team. He then goes through a journey of going up and down from the majors to the minors. He travels as a free agent going from team to team. He starts as a Twin and then goes to the Marlins and then the Twins and ends up on the Mets. While he travels failing in baseball his wife Anne lives in Nashville with his three kids. They keep separating farther apart both in their relationship and distance. He is a knuckleball pitcher. In the beginning of his career his coaches told him that he would have to be an almost always knuckleball pitcher to stay in the majors. He has trouble with his pitching when he moved to the Marlins but good things might be ahead on the Twins. The book takes place in Florida, Arizona, Minnesota, New York and Nashville. He is always moving. There are other places where the book takes place but these are the main places.
Three ways that I would describe R.A. as is depressed, nervous and resilient. He is depressed because he misses his wife and feels like she might leave him. Being away all the time brought their relationship down and that caused him to become depressed. They are close to being divorced but they still love each other. R.A is nervous because he believes that he will never stay in the big leagues. He is nervous that the knuckleball will not work and the decision that he made will never pay off. Lastly, R.A. is resilient because he will sometimes not pitch his knuckleball even though the coach tells him to. He still mixes in a lot of curveballs and fastballs. This is why R.A is an interesting person.
My three favorite parts of the book are when R.A gets stuck in the Mississippi River, when he goes up to the majors for the first time and when R.A and one of the major league teammates went out together. The time when R.A got stuck in the Mississippi River was one of my favorite parts. This was because I liked how he used words to paint a picture. In his life he is sinking and in the river he is literally sinking so it is a metaphor. Another one of my favorite parts was when R.A first made it to the majors. This was one of my favorite parts because I liked how he felt so proud. He was proud because his sacrifices paid off. He was happy because he could get a chance to make good money. Another one of my favorite parts was when a baseball player on R.A’s team bought him clothes. He was getting clothes because he did not have enough money before to get them. This was one of my favorite parts because I loved how humble the other baseball player was.
I really enjoyed reading the book because I liked the story behind it. I liked how he faced so many obstacles and overcame all of them with a positive attitude. I loved the fact that it was the player who wrote the book because it gave a real addition to the content. I would recommend this book because it is really interesting to read behind the scenes access of a baseball player. His life story makes the book something to definitely read. There are some sad parts of the book and there are some mildly inappropriate parts and if you do not like this it is not a book that you would enjoy. Two books that remind me of this book are Who Was Jackie Robinson and Who Was Babe Ruth. They remind me of this book because they are narratives of baseball players lives just like this. I would give this book 5 stars.
