ONE LAST STRIKE Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season

Longtime manager Tony La Russa gives the listener an insider perspective on baseball. While he touches on his past experiences with several teams, he focuses on his experiences leading the St. Louis Cardinals to victory in the 2011 World Series. La Russa narrates the book's beginning and end, while Scott Sowers does the bulk of the narration. Sowers's voice is slightly higher than La Russa's, and he draws on an emotional energy that the manager's face often belies. The stone-faced La Russa rarely smiles, but his insights show how much goes on in a manager's mind: Can the pitcher go another inning? Does one of my players wants to quit? How do I motivate these guys? Sowers relies on an excited tone--though he uses a wonderful drawl for a bench-coach confidante. There's no dirty laundry--just a decent account from a manager's vantage. M.B. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2013]