Jacob Kornhauser - The Cup of Coffee Club: 11 Players and Their Brush with Baseball History

The Cup of Coffee Club

11 Players and Their Brush with
Baseball History

Jacob Kornhauser

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kornhauser, Jacob, 1994 author.

Title: The cup of coffee club : 11 players and their brush with baseball history / Jacob Kornhauser.

Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Most baseball players will never reach the major leagues. While many that do stay there for a long time, there are a select few that played in just one major league game. Cup of Coffee Club tells the stories of eleven of these players and their struggles to reach the major leagues, as well as their struggles to get back Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019038836 (print) | LCCN 2019038837 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538130810 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538130827 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Baseball playersUnited StatesBiography. | Minor league baseballUnited States. | Major League Baseball (Organization)

Classification: LCC GV865.A1 K68 2020 (print) | LCC GV865.A1 (ebook) | DDC 796.357092/273dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038836

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038837

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

This is a collection of singular performances, yet to understand these performances by the singular event would be a narrow understanding. How each fared at the plate, how many Ks each recorded, who got a hit or who notched a goose eggthats not the point here. In the Cup of Coffee Club, the game itself is the head of a pin; if you look at it head-on, youre not seeing most of the thing, just one point on it. Therein lies the life of these stories: though these men are tied together in a peculiar class of ballplayers, they are also tied together in a much more meaningful way.

The accounts in this book may seem to start and end in very different ways at first glance. Some are groomed for the game while others fall in love with it organically. Some remain with baseball for decades after their one game, while others find success in realms far from a baseball diamond. In every case, however, one thing is the same: the dream.

To some, the relationship of some of these men to the game they love may seem one sided. In youth, they give it a lifetime of toil, and of sacrifice. They allow it to define them. They become competitors. And in the days after baseball, they give it endless moments of reflection and, in some cases, regret. In return, they each get one single game. This transaction could appear lopsided, but not to someone who has the dream.

This book contains statistics; but in baseballas in lifethe stats dont tell the whole story. Thus, this is not a two-dollar program, peddled by a barker outside Wrigley Field on a Sunday afternoon in June. It is not a book of 11 box scores; etched on these pages is the story of 11 dreamers, and the entire lives that form around a baseball dream.

The most intriguing aspect of this collection is its protagonists themselves. Some have names youve heard. Some have watched relatives and siblings emblazon their names in baseball legend. Others have gone on to greatness in other areas of the game. None of the players chose to play just a single game, and each valiantly clung to the dream of succeeding in the game, but ultimately these are stories of reality. That being said, these are all still stories of success. The circumstances around the protagonists exit from baseball do not involve a lot of choice, but the stories told here show how every complete narrative reveals itself as a series of choices. The men who inspired this work decided to be ballplayers, and each subsequent decision that would define their lives comes as a consequence of that one vital choice. This is a group of men who, for better or worse, lived the dream. This is the Cup of Coffee Club.

Dylan Kornhauser, editor

As an MLB career does, making a book like this work requires the faith and hard work of a lot of individual work outside of the writers vision and execution. First of all, a huge thank-you to every single player who made themselves available to me and opened up about their big-league career. For many, this was not an easy topic and they trusted me to tell their stories. For that, I will always be appreciative. Thank you also to the many other experts I talked to, who provided amazing background information to help the story come to life.

The person who provided me the most guidance throughout this entire process was Ken Samelson. He was a fantastic mentor as I went through the publishing process, and he went out of his way to help me even though he had nothing to personally gain from my success. I will forever be indebted to Ken for helping me get my first book published. Rick Wolff, similarly, did not have any personal reason to help me but did. He has more experience in the publishing world than anyone Ive met, and he was willing to impart that wisdom to me, because he believed in a young author and the vision for a baseball book.

My family and loved ones were vital to the success of this book as well. Dylan, my younger brother and editor, helped this story come to life. Hes made my words sound better and the themes pop, and the book as a whole has improved tremendously under his watchful eye. It has always been a dream of ours to work on a writing project together and this is just the first of many. Both of my parents, Ari and Angela, have always been supportive of my writing, and without that support early on, I would not have had the confidence to take on a writing project of this magnitude.

Of course, I must thank my beautiful girlfriend, Khaki, who has been by my side since the idea for this book popped into my head at her apartment one fateful day in 2017. Her love and support mean the world to me and helped give me the strength to keep writing even when months passed without any interviews being set up. My friend Corey Miller also deserves a lot of credit for having to listen to me bounce random ideas off him. He might be a die-hard baseball fan, but I bombarded him with so many ideas, Im sure he got tired of it at some point. Nevertheless, he has been there from start to finish to provide his insight on the project, and I am very thankful for that.

A few of my mentors deserve mention here as well. John Anderson, a fellow University of Missouri alum, has taken me under his wing over the past couple years and I couldnt be more appreciative. Having someone as successful as him at ESPN pay attention to and care about what Im doing professionally has given me the confidence to continue taking on projects like this in the future. I have a deep gratitude for the tutelage of Tim Kurkjian as well. He was one of my childhood writing idols; I read just about every word he wrote about baseball growing up. To be able to meet him and have him now periodically critique my work is a dream come true.