The Baseball Whisperer

A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams

By: Michael Tackett

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the cornfields 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 was a gift from one of Merl's original long-shot projects, a skinny kid from the ghetto in Los Angeles who would one day become 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. Along with Ozzie Smith, future manager Bud Black, and star player Von Hayes, Merl developed scores of major league players (six of who are currently playing). In the process Merl taught them to be men, insisting on hard work, integrity, and responsibility.

More than a book about ballplayers who landed in 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 best, purest form of baseball excellence.

©2016 Michael Tackett (P)2016 Highbridge, a division of Recorded Books

Must Read for Real Baseball Fans

Awesome true story,and very well written.Truly inspirational and informative. I must now visit Eberly Field before I die.
I really am glad I read this important baseball story!

Great baseball book

Great story. Baseball fans will love it. Ozzie Smith vignettes are terrific. Hometown values and the purity of summer baseball were perfectly captured.

Baseball purest? Get in here!

Such a phenomenal book with engaging stories about the Eberly family, the town of Clarinda and many baseball names you've heard of and some, you have not. This book resonated with me on multiple levels. While the theme of the book is decidedly baseball oriented, The read offers much more!

Great book!

I played two years in Clarinda. I also played at Highland for Rick Eberly. I knew Merl, though I never knew him well. Clarinda is a great place where dreams come true, but the real story is the people. Clarinda has some of the best people in the world. I think Mr. Tackett did a good job of highlighting the people of Clarinda that have made the A’s what they are.

Fantastic

I coach little league, I could only hope to have an 1/8th of the impact Marie has had. What a great story of a great man that was a great coach with outstanding character.a

I wanted to live it but---

I love baseball. I see every baseball related movie. I try to read every baseball related book. I was looking forward to reading/listening to this one. But I was disappointed. The story, the summer ball and the small town life, AND the coach, there is a lovely story here. But it should be more of a long article in SI or something similar. It was not a book. It was endlessly repetitive, trying to hammer the virtues of Clorinda again and again. I loved to hear about it the first time, and perhaps the second time, but again and again and again?! Numerous times the writer will point something out and then will quote someone saying the same thing. The reader are not dummies. If we heard the quote, we would understand the point. I loved many of the characters, and they were used to illustrate points. But the writer would always repeat those points again and again. It could have been better!