Читать книгу Rage. The Legend of "Baseball Bill" Denehy онлайн

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I didn’t play college basketball, despite my size and talent, because I wanted to go to St. Bonaventure University to play both basketball and baseball. But during my senior year, St. Bonaventure announced it was dropping baseball from its curriculum.

I had had dreams of playing college basketball, but after St. Bonaventure dropped baseball, I decided to concentrate on becoming a professional baseball player. Sounds silly, but that’s how kids think sometimes. Baseball was starting to be fun, and after going from wild and inconsistent to domineering on the pitcher’s mound, I wanted to see what the pros had to offer.

After the money offers to play baseball started to come in, I thought, Why am I going to go to school? To get a job? I can start a job right now and start making some money.

When baseball season rolled around my senior year, I approached the game with more maturity. For reasons I will never understand, I abandoned the easy three-quarter motion Bots Nekola had taught me. Maybe it was too easy. Maybe I felt I wasn’t working hard enough. Maybe I was self-destructive. I can’t honestly say why. But I returned to my overpowering overhand fastball, and my senior year I was a force to be reckoned with.