Extra Innings: Fred Claire's Journey to City of Hope and Finding a World Championship Team - Hardcover

Tim Madigan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1645430839 ISBN 13: 9781645430834

Publisher: Mascot Books, 2020

Synopsis

Fred Claire served 30 years as an executive with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was the team’s Executive Vice President and general manager from 1987 until 1998. During his tenure, Claire earned a reputation for his integrity and for his fighting spirit that built what ultimately led to the team's last World Series championship in 1988. His drive and determination in the face of opposition and doubt from all sides became a defining trait not just of his time with the Dodgers, but of who he is as an individual. In the spring of 2015, Fred would again tap into his fighting spirit after being diagnosed with skin cancer that later migrated to his jaw. Again, the odds were against his survival, but Fred was determined. This time, he found his championship team at City of Hope National Medical center in Duarte, California. Equipped with cutting-edge technology, frontline research, and staffed by top oncologists, City of Hope was the perfect home base for Claire's treatment. Extra Innings highlights how both the landmark career of Fred Claire and the remarkable rise of City of Hope exhibit mutual endurance and give promise to those facing cancer diagnoses.

About this title

About the Author

n a journalism career spanning more than three decades, Tim has written for the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Politico, Reader's Digest, and for thirty years the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Tim's books include the critically acclaimed The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921; and a novel of the Greatest Generation and the aftermath of World War II, Every Common Sight. His most recent book, Of the First Class: A History of the Kimbell Art Museum, is a behind the scenes account of how the world-renowned Fort Worth cultural institution came to be. It was a 1995 assignment for the Star-Telegram that led to Tim's interview with Fred Rogers, the icon of children's television, and a close friendship between the two men that lasted until Rogers' death in 2003. Tim's memoir, I'm Proud of You: My Friendship With Fred Rogers, is an intimate account of Rogers' human greatness, and a testament to the healing power of friendship. That transformative relationship and Tim's own experiences as a seeking and healing human being remain at the heart of his work. More than a decade after it was first published, I'm Proud of You continues to inspire readers around the globe, and Tim continues to speak of Mister Rogers and matters of the heart to varied audiences around the nation.

“Extra Innings is a must-read that chronicles Fred Claire’s incredible career in baseball. Readers will be most inspired by his greatest accomplishment, confronting a deadly foe—cancer—with the aid of City of Hope National Medical Center. As a cancer survivor myself and a former major league player and manager, this story hits home in so many ways.”

- Dave Roberts, Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers

From the Back Cover

Fred Claire was a longtime marketing executive with the team, widely admired for his character, work ethic, and ingenuity. But he was a former sportswriter with no experience in player trades and roster construction. Yet, just a year later, the Dodger team Claire built shocked the baseball world by winning the 1988 World Series.

But his greatest challenge would come long after he left the game. In 2016, skin cancer that began on Claire's lip had spread to his jaw. With his life on the line, the former baseball executive found his way to City of Hope National Medical Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Duarte.

While Extra Innings recalls Claire's remarkable baseball career, it also recounts the miraculous story of his cancer fight at City of Hope. Readers will be inspired by Claire's unflinching decency and fortitude"€"and by the cutting-edge science and compassion that make City of Hope unique in the annals of American medicine.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mascot Books
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1645430839
• ISBN 13: 9781645430834
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240