Barry Zito used to pitch for the Oakland Athletics Baseball team. Until recently I lived in Oakland and was an avid fan of the A's. I met Barry several times. He was always incredibly friendly and a fan favourite. People cried when he opted to play for the San Francisco Giants. He signed a seven year contract for money that most of us only see when playing Monopoly. Then the unimaginable happened. Barry's pitching went south. He was no longer the reliable Cy Young award pitcher, the guy the team can count on for a win each time he comes up in the rotation. He never returned to his former self.
This book, Curveball, written by Barry and a ghost writer, attempts to tell us where all that failure took him. For fans like me who really liked him, it is very interesting. I find it hard sometimes to support 100% people who find religion and change their lives but Barry tells us his story with the same affable voice that I remember. And who is to judge what works. This has worked for him.
I suspect that only fans of baseball or those fellow beings who have found Christ as their answer will enjoy this book a lot but it will be others' loss. It is a good memoir of what happens with all that fame, money and pressure.
I wish Barry the best for the rest of his life.
Enjoy this book!

Barry Zito’s family was steeped in the occult from two generations back on his mother’s side. Barry’s father made it his mission to train Barry and manage his baseball career, which he did from the time Barry was a young boy. Barry’s dad taught him he could control everything with his mind. When his game was “on” Barry was full of confidence. When he was losing, Barry couldn’t figure out how to make his thoughts be in charge.
Berry fell into the same sins many ball players and others with an excess of money face. Because he was one of the highest paid pitchers in baseball, he felt he had to justify his outrageous salary with wins. This was a self-imposed pressure that only made his game worse.
Read Curveball to find out if Barry was able to pitch his way out of the slump, or if he got help of another kind.

Barry Zito was a star pitcher in the early 2000’s for the Oakland Athletics, winning a Cy Young award and was part of the excellent staff for the Athletics that allowed them to compete with teams from bigger markets at the start of the Moneyball era. His success in Oakland turned into a big payday for him when he signed a contract before the 2007 season with the San Francisco Giants, which at the time was the biggest contract awarded to a pitcher. He did not come close to the same success with the Giants that he did with the Athletics.

It is at his lowest point during that time with San Francisco, when he was left off the postseason roster during the Giants’ 2010 championship run, that this book starts and from there, Zito takes the reader inside not only his career, but his entire transformation – both when he was a high school and college pitcher when he was always following the advice of his father on the best course to take and also near the end of his career, when he, with the help from his wife and Giants team chaplain, to follow the advice of God and turn to his Christian faith to guide him on the best decisions to make.

The book really was not much different in structure or in types of reflection than other sports memoirs. Zito’s reflections on family, the role of his father in his career, his transgressions in excessive living life in the fast lane, and even his decision to reaffirm his faith and let that aspect of his life become more important and prominent. All of these aspects, as well as his discussions about his performance on the mound, are all present in other sports memoirs.

So what makes this one different? Readers will immediately realize how refreshingly honest Zito writes without embellishment or exaggeration. There wasn’t a single passage in which I felt that Zito was not being completely honest with his audience and hearing him describe some of his inner struggles with trying to please his father, just for starters. It went as far as him transferring from a four-year college (UC Santa Barbara) to a junior college because, according to Zito’s father, Barry had a better chance to be a first round draft choice playing at a junior college. When he still wasn’t a first round draft choice, he transferred to another four-year school and then was a first round pick for the Athletics. The role of his father is told completely and with nothing held back by Zito.

This information about his father and the completely unfiltered version is also present in every aspect of his baseball career and his devotion to his faith. There is a good balance in all of these aspects of his life up to the best story of the book which is near the end. Zito won two World Series rings with the Giants – 2010, when he was left off the postseason roster as mentioned earlier and in 2012, when he was pitching better and won a World Series game as the Giants swept the Detroit Tigers. He shares that of the two rings, the 2010 one is more meaningful to him. If this doesn’t make sense, once one reads this honest assessment of himself, it is easier to understand why he believes this.

Any fan of baseball, of honest memoirs, or just of a good read will want to read this one. Don’t expect anything amazing or provocative – just a truly honest reflection of a baseball career that reached both the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

I wish to thank Thomas Nelson – W Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Heart wrenching and brutally honest. Barry doesn't sugar coat anything in his life. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The life of a baseball superstar. While he may have loved the stroking of the ego back in his ball days, this memoir is anything but. It is refreshing to hear someone humbly admit that they weren't such a great person.

I have never read a memoir that has ever been so honest. While I cannot relate to the things he struggled with, I found myself sobbing through some of his own self reflections and realizations. How hard it must have been to type those words on paper. A self admitting dick (my words, not his) yet you find yourself rooting for him at the same time.

4.5/5 stars

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Growing up in Marin County just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, my father had no intention of driving me through the city to a cold and windy Candlestick Park… thus, I became an Oakland A’s fan. From Dave Kingman and Tony Phillips, Jose Canseco and Dave Stewart, Eric Byrnes and Eric Chavez… I have been a fan for 40 years and when the opportunity came up to read Barry Zito’s memoir, I was excited. He writing didn’t let me down. I found a book that is one part baseball story, one part spiritual journey, and one part look into a pivotal a father/ son relationship. It’s touching in its honesty and transparency.

Zito tells of growing up in Southern California and his initial bond with athletics and how this gift developed into throwing a baseball. He lives with the give and take of a father who orchestrated his young life around baseball. Coupled with social anxiety, financial instability, and the stress of living with a mother’s illness, Zito’s life was filled with strife, and baseball was always there for him to pour his focus into.

I’ve read many sports biographies over the years and there is a tendency for the authors to at times tell too much of the year-by-year details of the athlete’s career. Writing like this can take away from the overall message or themes that a writer is trying to focus on. Thankfully, this is not the case in Curveball. Zito focuses on his spiritual journey of ridding himself of his ego and the temptations of the ‘good life’ as his tries to ‘feed the monster’ of entitlement. It takes him until many years into his career to determine the true difference between hubris and confidence.

This journey is what makes this book such a worthwhile read. Chapters are filled with self reflection and important anecdotes that reveal how he made his departure from that need for fame and to really started to delineate what he can control from other’s expectations. The rock star off the field was routinely at odds with the athlete he was trying to be on the field.

Everyone has tried the quick fix and Zito uses this book to discuss that many times only changes that actually stick are ones learned through experience. This is a rare biography that gets to the heart of this matter. From one lefty to another: Kudos to you, Barry.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book by Barry Zito explaining his upbringing, his start to pitching and how he came to Christ over his 15 years in baseball. I really enjoyed his insight, his honesty and his humility in explaining how he felt during his career. He not only struggled with wins/losses but who he was and who he was becoming in Jesus.

Curveball: How I Discovered True Fulfillment After Chasing Fortune and Fame by Barry Zito was an enlightening book as prior to reading it, I only knew that Barry Zito was a really good pitcher. This was a reflection on how he made it big, then how he made it really big with a huge contract. From there, the pressure of his career got to me too much, and he talks about the crossroad(s) he found himself at, and the choices he then made to frame his life differently. This is a baseball book that is grounded in faith. I actually wish there was a bit more about his faith journey. However, this is still a great piece about what it's like to have the weight of a team/city/family/all the things on your shoulders, and how one guy navigated it all. I will also say the story of his family is particularly compelling, and it immediately drew me in. This was a good chance to hear a story about an athlete's career and life that isn't often told. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to see this September release.

My family always liked Zito as a pitcher for our local teams. His story and his eccentricities were interesting. His signature curveball made him unusual in a world of mostly fastball pitchers, and his pitching struggles were all too obvious.

That's why I was so delighted to hear about this book. It covers Zito's early life and his baseball career. He is unflinching in talking about his struggles and his excesses in his off-season life. I often found myself wondering if he would get out of the hole of his own making, even though I knew he did.

What I didn't know because his gentlemanly nature kept him from talking about it much, was what saved him and that's the key to this book.

While I wish it had been a bit better written, I loved the book. It's a wonderful insight into how hard it is to become a professional pitcher, the pressures the world puts on you as one, and how Faith and love can ground you in that crazy world.

The author wrote a great account of the personal journey they embarked on. The honest and detailed writing made it easy for the reader to feel invested in their journey.

I don't follow baseball, but have heard about Barry Zito & enjoy sports biographies. This was an interesting read about the career and what it takes to become a professional baseball player. It goes through the emotional ups and downs of a public figure, which people don't really think about. It was also a quick read and didn't detail every game of the season as some sports book do.

Memoirs are generally not my favorite genre, because it’s hard to find anyone (no matter how famous or accomplished) whose life merits 300+ pages. Still, I thought this book was worth a try anyway because I was fascinated by both Barry Zito’s baseball career and Barry Zito the person.

Unfortunately the same disappointing truth that plagues most memoirs also plagued this one. It’s not that Zito doesn’t have an interesting story. Or even a more interesting story than most. He does. But it still isn’t enough to warrant this much ink.

This would have been a GREAT long form article. I probably would have even liked it if it had been a shorter book. But alas, overindulgence of the author strikes again, as another editor allows a bloated book to go out into the world without separating its wheat from its chaff.

I followed Barry Zito when he was a player. I never knew all the things he went through until this book. Great book. I highly recommend it.

This is possibly the most forthright of autobiographies. Barry Zito loved quite a charmed life...until he no longer did! Girl's descent into "sports help was difficult to read; but as slowing down while passing an auto accident is difficult not to do, so reading the pain and humiliation Zito suffered for several years was difficult but captivating. Most importantly, Vito tells the take of his search for peace and meaning through New Age and Eastern mysticism until finding his way to " the way, the truth, and the life. ". Great story and we'll written, too.