Ohtani Is Writing His Own Story
I began reading the audiobook of WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL on Tuesday — it’s a four-day process (at least), so I’ll wait until the end of the week to give you a full recounting of the experience, but so far, I can say three things.
Friends were right; it’s a surprisingly draining thing to do. Even now, I can’t quite explain it, but I came home utterly exhausted, even though all I did was sit in a chair and read my book out loud.
The audiobook director, Kim, asked me not to talk when I got home so to protect my voice … and I have to say this proved oddly satisfying. People called, I couldn’t pick up. Our daughter would ask if she could do something, and I just sat there quietly, shrugging, sorry, not allowed to talk. I can totally see the appeal of becoming a Buddhist monk.
I think you’re REALLY going to like this book. I say that even though I’ve already spotted about 500 sections that made me think, “Oh, I should have done that differently.” Pal Mike Schur says that by the end of his audio reading, he HATED his book, and I totally get that vibe.
But at the same time, I’ve been reading about these wonderful baseball moments again, and I think, “Oh, man, I can’t wait for people to read this!” A couple of weeks ago, I got a beautiful email from another sports author — I’ll let him reveal himself, if he chooses — and in it, he said that he had started a reviewer’s edition of the book and then didn’t want to read anymore because, “If I read the book, at some point I’ll have finished it. Then I won’t be able to enjoy it anymore.” That made me so overjoyed because that’s EXACTLY what I’m hoping will be the reaction; that this book will make you so happy you will want it to never end. That’s a big ask, sure, but that’s how I have felt about my favorite books.
Anyway, I read about a little less than a quarter of the book on Tuesday — as I mentioned before, several chapters will be read by the impossibly talented and wonderful Ellen Adair, so I skipped over those. And I left off just before a chapter about … Shohei Ohtani.
And before I head back for some more reading, I want to say just a little something about Shohei.