Hard to Grip

A Memoir of Youth, Baseball, and Chronic Illness

by Emil DeAndreis

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Pub Date Apr 01 2017 | Archive Date Sep 30 2017

Timothy Schaffner

Biographies & Memoirs | Sports

Description

After a record-breaking pitching career in college, Emil DeAndreis's life seemed set. He was twenty-three, in great shape, and had just been offered a contract to play professionally in Europe. Then his body fell apart. What started with elbow stiffness quickly progressed to swelling in his wrist. Soon, his fingers were too bloated to grip a baseball.

The diagnosis: Rheumatoid Arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disease that would shatter his childhood dream of ever playing in the Big Leagues.

Hard To Grip tells the story of a young man's body giving out when he needs it most. It chronicles an ascending sports career, the ups and downs of life in the NCAA, and the challenge of giving up baseball due to a dehumanizing condition. Emil takes the reader on an ironic and bittersweet journey of learning to grapple with a disease associated with the elderly, and older women in particular. From striking out future major league All Stars, to sitting in support groups; from breaking university records, to barely making it up the stairs, De Andreis unveils the disease with humor and fearless honesty through the eyes of an unlikely victim.

Advance Praise

"A vibrant depiction of a ballplayer who finds his way despite losing his ability to play the game he loves. Emil is a total gamer and a wonderful writer. Grab some time, and enjoy." - Mike Krukow (Emmy Award-winning commentator for the San Francisco Giants)

"Hard To Grip is the genuine article: A baseball story about a player and his traumatic, insane, hilarious and completely relatable love of the game-and how fragile that love is." - Dirk Hayhurst (Former MLB pitcher and author of the New York Times best seller, The Bullpen Gospels)

"Emil DeAndreis has written an honest and raw memoir about his life in and out of baseball. It is rare to read an account of a young man's struggle to cope with RA. This book is essential reading for anyone, man or woman, young or old, who has confronted any form of autoimmune disease, and for those who love someone who is fighting this battle." - Alida Brill (Co-author of Dancing At The River's Edge: A Patient And Her Doctor Negotiate Life With Chronic Illness)

"Hard To Grip is a quintessential baseball story: one of talent, success, disappointment and redemption. DeAndreis writes with honesty and humor about losing the sport that was once his identity, and his struggle to find a new one." - Justin St. Germain (Author of the memoir, Son Of A Gun)

"A vibrant depiction of a ballplayer who finds his way despite losing his ability to play the game he loves. Emil is a total gamer and a wonderful writer. Grab some time, and enjoy." - Mike Krukow...