Big League Survivor
Book Reviews | Nov 15th, 2006
Author: Benny Agbayani with Shayne Fuj
Publisher: Watermark Publishing
Genre: Autobiography/Sports
Pages: 120
Retail Price: 9.99
Buy on Amazon.com link
I love Big Benny Agbayani but was this really necessary? It’s strange enough that he’s only in his third year in the majors and he’s compelled to write his autobiography.
But he’s not even an outstanding player. Granted, he started off as a powerful hitter and an exciting prospect, but, well, frankly, he’s a sub-.250 hitter who’s defensively-challenged and doesn’t even play regularly. Again, I like him and I’m glad he got through some obstacles to stay on the Mets, but he didn’t go through anything that thousands of other players didn’t go through. Working to get a spot in rotation, fearing being sent down to the minors, fearing being traded… Does Benny think he’s the only one? Two weeks ago, there was all this talk about Benny being on waivers and how nervous he was about possibly being traded, etc. But what the NY media glossed over was the fact that like 70% of all baseball players were on waivers.
While I’m a sucker for sports anecdotes, I’m disappointed by this attempt at a heroic survivor-styled story (when I saw the title I thought he had survived some horrible disease or an impoverished past or something). The Hawaiian Hammer is still cool, but I hope he spends more time practicing on the field than behind a word processor.
Bottom Line: Most unnecessary baseball bio ever.
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