When Life Grabs You by the Baseballs: Finding Happiness in Life's Changeups. This item is unavailable.When Life Grabs You by the Baseballs: Finding Happiness in Life's Changeups

When dreams collapse . . . Jon Peters had it all: record-breaking high school baseball pitcher, on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a beautiful girlfriend. He was going to play professional baseball. He was going to have everything he'd ever wanted. Until a shoulder injury and four surgeries changed his life. With dreams shattered, Jon struggled to find value and happiness. After years searching vainly to make sense of it all, alcohol, a suicide attempt, deep-seated anger, and a failed marriage made him feel even more desperate. When new dreams come . . . In the worst place of his life, he reached out and found help and hope. Trading in his old dreams for beautiful new ones birthed out of the ashes of his past, he’s at last found value, fulfillment, and purpose. Now in When Life Grabs You by the Baseballs, Jon shares the secrets he’s learned to living a happy life. His message is universal: no matter what dreams you've lost or what demons you’re battling, you too can find hope, redemption, and joy.

From the time Jon Peters was six years old he wanted to play baseball. That's pretty much all he did. And he got really good at it. His dream was to be the best pitcher in the world. In 1989, he became the United States' record holder for the most consecutive wins (fifty-three) by a high school pitcher, a record that still stands today. His high school career ended with a record of fifty-four wins and one loss, along with three consecutive Class 4A State Baseball Championships. Jon is the first high school baseball player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. He has also appeared on local and national media outlets such as CNN, Good Morning America, The Today Show, ESPN, People, The Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, and Dallas Morning News. Following high school, Jon attended Texas A&M University on a baseball scholarship. After enduring four arm surgeries and months of rehabilitation, he gave up his dream of pitching and became an undergraduate assistant coach at A&M. He assisted in directing the 1993 A&M team to the Southwest Conference Title and a berth in the College World Series. He has also coached at Blinn College and McMurry University. Jon has a B.S. (Texas A&M) and M.A. (Sam Houston) in kinesiology. Jon is now business development manager with an oil and gas firm in the Houston area. His relationship style of selling has enabled him to be at the top of the leader board. He also shares his story about succeeding in the "game of life" as a speaker and writer. Connect with Jon at JonPeters.org.

Ginger Kolbaba is an accomplished, award-winning author, editor, and speaker. She has written or contributed to more than 30 books, including the Gold Medallion-nominated Refined by Fire (which also received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly), the Golden Scroll-nominated and Readers' Favorite Bronze award-winning We All Come Home, and her novel series Secrets from Lulu's Café. She is a contributing editor for Focus on the Family magazine and is a columnist for Positive Note magazine. She has published more than 500 magazine and online articles. In the publishing industry for more than two decades (she started very young), Ginger is the former editor of Today's Christian Woman magazine, Marriage Partnership magazine, and the founding editor of Kyria.com, all award-winning resources of Christianity Today. She has spoken at national and international conferences, guest lectured on college campuses, and has appeared on national media outlets such as CNN Headline News (Nancy Grace), Court TV, Moody Midday Connection, and Family Life radio. She's been quoted in national news outlets such as Newsweek and Chicago Sun-Times. ​ ​​Ginger graduated summa cum laude with a BA in pre-law/American Studies and a double minor in theatre arts and Bible. After a five-year stint working as a professional actress/singer (and in three shows in which she tap danced), she left that field for the more solitary, but only slightly less neurotic, role of a writer/editor. One of her favorite things is to help others strengthen their skills, relationships, and joy. Another favorite: she still dons her tap shoes and shuffles over her hardwood floors . . . much to the dismay of her husband and dog.

John Smoltz, nicknamed "Smoltzie," is an American former baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1988 to 2009, all but the last year with the Atlanta Braves. An eight-time All-Star, Smoltz was part of a celebrated trio of starting pitchers, along with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, who propelled Atlanta to perennial pennant contention in the 1990s, highlighted by a championship in the 1995 World Series. He won the National League (NL) Cy Young Award in 1996 after posting a record of 24-8, equaling the most victories by an NL pitcher since 1972. Though predominantly known as a starter, Smoltz was converted to a reliever in 2001 after his recovery from Tommy John surgery, and spent four years as the team's closer before returning to a starting role. In 2002, he set the NL record with 55 saves and became only the second pitcher in history (joining Dennis Eckersley) to record both a 20-win season and a 50-save season. He is the only pitcher in major league history to record both 200 wins and 150 saves. Smoltz was one of the most prominent pitchers in playoff history, posting a record of 15-4 with a 2.67 earned run average (ERA) in 41 career postseason games, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1992 NL Championship Series; Andy Pettitte later broke his record for career postseason wins. Smoltz led the NL in wins, winning percentage, strikeouts and innings pitched twice each, and his NL total of 3,051 strikeouts ranked fifth in league history when he retired. He also holds the Braves franchise record for career strikeouts (3,011), and the record for the most career games pitched for the Braves (708) since the club's move to Atlanta in 1966; from 2004 to 2014, he held the franchise record for career saves. Smoltz left the Braves after 2008 and split his final season with the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. Since retiring as a player, he has served as a color commentator and analyst on television. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, his first year of eligibility.