David Ross: husband, father, World Series champion, and now, author.
The recently retired Ross will be teaming up with Sports Illustrated associate editor Don Yaeger to write a book that takes readers through his time in the game.
The book, titled “Teammate: My Life in Baseball” will hit the shelves on May 9, 2017.
In an interview with Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, Ross says he began jotting down personal notes during spring training of this past season which laid the groundwork for the book.
“I was taking some notes in spring training, keeping my own diary, just on the way people feel, things that stood out for me during the year,” Ross said. “A couple of people had said, ‘Hey, you should write a book.’”
Although he has played in a number of big, pressure-filled games over the course of his 15-year MLB career, Ross said the idea of writing a book was intimidating.
“It scared me to death, honestly, to think about telling my story,” he said. “Who’s interested in me, a backup catcher? Don (Yaeger) kind of convinced me. As we’ve gone over this, it’s been such a great little story for me this year. A backup catcher getting carried off the field in the World Series — that put the icing on the cake: ‘All right, this is pretty cool. I don’t know how I got to this point. But it’s pretty amazing.’”
Although Ross is the centerpiece, he stressed that a major reason behind writing the book was to express how much the people around him affected him throughout his career.
“I’m super humbled by all that, and all the nice things people say,” he said. “But I really believe it’s a product of all the wonderful people I’ve been around. I want to talk about how these guys affected my life in a positive way and helped me grow into the person and player and teammate that I am today.”
Thumbnail photo via David Richard/USA TODAY Sports Images
