Beyond the Last Inning: Life and Careers After Playing Professional Baseball

For former ballplayers, a career transition can be more complex than a mere job switch. Imagine excelling at something since you were a child that becomes your job and reaching great professional heights as a young adult--then, often within just a few years, realizing that everything you've worked for is over and likely not on your terms. What follows is not only the need to find a new profession but also to forge a new identity.

Through 49 first-person stories of major and minor leaguers, this book gives readers a greater understanding of the challenges faced by players when they hang up their spikes.

Zak Ford is a chapter leader with the Society for American Baseball Research and serves on the advisory committee of the Pacific Coast League Historical Society. He lives in Cameron Park, California.