I Felt the Cheers is Curtis Pride's story. Curtis was born profoundly deaf, but his parents wanted him to fit in and be able to communicate with anyone, so he learned to lip read, and became oral. He went to a regular school and participated in all kinds of activities, especially sports. He received a scholarship to University and was drafted by the New York Mets. Curtis spent years in the minor leagues as well as parts of 11 seasons with various big league teams. Funny enough, he never wore a Mets Uniform. His first big league team and hit was in Montreal for the Expos (now the Washington Nationals). This is a sports memoir told from a different POV, that of a deaf player. When he retired from playing, he was hired as head baseball coach at Gallaudet, the world’s leading university for deaf and hard of hearing students, and was also named Major League Baseball’s Ambassador for Inclusion.

I have always been a baseball fan and spent years rooting for the Detroit Tigers, Montreal Expos and not the Toronto BlueJays. I can't believe I had not heard of Curtis Pride. I enjoyed listening to his story and learning about this inspirational man. He was lucky to have had parents that pushed him to do his best and went to bat for him when others wouldn't let him try things. I really liked that he persevered for years, playing in the minor leagues, being traded and moving all over Canada and the US. He says that he never regretted any of the moves, they all taught him something and he enjoyed playing ball wherever he went. He is truly an ambassador for people who have special needs, and are often up against prejudice and ignorance. So, why only 4 stars? I have only positive things to say about Curtis Pride's story and memories, but I found the writing was a bit rote. It was repetitious at times and I had to take breaks to keep paying attention. This is a life story that needed to be told and shared with deaf and hard of hearing people, as well as hearing. If nothing else, you will see what it took to reach his goals, perseverance, ability of everyone, and inspiration for those who are working on reaching their goals. The narration was okay, a simple reading of the story, and I switched to reading the ebook, whenever I was not doing another task.

It was SO REFRESHING to hear about the happy and healthy relationship he had with both of his parents and his sisters. The audio book I listened to after this one had a less than happy familial relationship, and to be honest, most people seem to have less than stellar parent/child relationships, so this was a HUGE plus for me. No unhappy family triggers, yay!

It was also refreshing that Mr. Pride seemed to down to earth, despite being an incredible athlete and doing things of which most people can only dream.

The only thing that surprised me was that he didn't seem to be big on a religious belief. Honestly, the whole tone was so positive, I was surprised that God didn't come up much to at all. From my slight experience with memoirs that have this positivity to them, they usually also have God mentioned in them as well. So that was a new experience for me.

All in all, this was very interesting and I did learn quite a bit about baseball and how above average Mr. Pride is with both his physical abilities and his intellect. He is an incredibly astute, yet humble, man. I respect what he has been able to achieve.

Also, the narrator did a very good job, I don't recall having to modify the volume much to be able to hear what was being said.

4, highly recommended if you enjoy memoirs, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Recorded Books for an ALC of this book to listen to and review.

I really enjoyed this book. I started watching baseball during the time that Curtis Pride played, but I am an Orioles fan, so didn't know his story. The audio was well done, I enjoyed the narrator. My only concern with that is it seems like maybe the narrator didn't follow baseball during that time period, there were a couple of mispronunciations on player names.

It was a great story, and I've find myself telling people about Curtis Pride since listening.

I'm very happy to have gotten the chance to experience this book and recommended it to anyone, baseball fans in particular!

I immensely enjoyed Curtis Pride’s memoir about his life. Pride is deaf and has a hearing aid in his left ear that detects loud noises but not speech. He “hears” via lip reading (and communicates verbally, although as an adult he has also learned ASL). Pride takes us through his childhood and his journey with baseball. I really enjoyed Pride’s story and you can tell how seriously he takes his role model status. I also really enjoyed learning more about the unpredictability of minor and Major League Baseball!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook I Felt the Cheers: The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride.