Forty Thousand to One
What if I told you that a decade ago, one of the greatest baseball prospects of his era was hitting home runs off Hall of Famers while hiding Parkinson’s disease? What if I told you this is not the most amazing part of Petrick’s story? When he signed a big-league contract, baseball executives and scouts uniformly predicted he would be the Rockies starting catcher for a decade. ‘Think Buster Posey with speed,’ says Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle, who managed Petrick in Colorado. ‘He could have been one of the best catchers ever.’ When he was called to the majors, Petrick didn’t disappoint, hitting .323 over his first two seasons, with 11 homers off the likes of Randy Johnson. What no one knew at the time was that after his rookie season, Petrick was told he had Parkinson’s, the same diagnosis his father received just seven months before. Four years later, Petrick quietly disappeared from the game. A man destined for fame and fortune was instead receiving disability as his wife went back to work full-time, leaving Petrick as primary caregiver for their infant daughter. With his physical capacity growing more diminished by the day, Petrick resolved to undergo a radical surgery to improve the life of his family. Petrick’s soul-stirring journey, which he first recounted on his wildly popular blog called Faith In The Game and now in 40,000 to One, has earned him worldwide acclaim as an author and speaker, with some citing his book as one of the greatest sports biographies of all time. Says legendary baseball writer Steve Wulf of ESPN: ‘Ben could’ve become the best catcher in baseball, and maybe one of the best in history, until Young-Onset Parkinson’s robbed him of his physical abilities. But clearly he lost one gift only to find another.’ Baseball America calls 40,000 to One ‘An inspiration for all,’ and beloved columnist and author Sharon Randall says, ‘Ben writes with a kind of honesty and grace that both breaks your heart and makes it soar. He makes me want to not just be a better writer, but a better person. Never maudlin and truly inspiring, Ben and his book are a treasure.’ World Series MVP Scott Brosius calls 40,000 to One ‘a must-read. Powerful, inspiring and challenging on every level,’ while Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd calls it ‘A courageous and brilliantly told book.’ Petrick’s celebrated work has managed to transcend the sports genre, with no less than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer saying, ‘There are moments in this book that take your breath away. What the world will know once they’ve read 40,000 to One is that Ben’s baseball success was prologue to what he was really meant to do in life: reveal a better way to those of us whose lives spin wildly at times.’ 40,000 to One marks the arrival of an astonishingly bold and riveting author whose story seems destined to touch the hearts of millions, much as crossovers from the sports genre like Mitch Albom’s ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’ and Arthur Ashe’s ‘Days of Grace’ have in the past. With priceless wisdom on every page, Ben Petrick’s 40,000 to One is a debut work that demands to be read, passed on and celebrated.
