Books by Rob Rains

Catch up with all the greatest Cardinals players off the field newly updated!

Tony La Russa, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, is truly one of the most iconic figures in baseball today. Players and fans love him or hate him, so it's surprising that although the 2009 season will mark his 30th anniversary in a major league dugout, nobody really knows m...uch about him or his life. In this first full and authorized biography of La Russa, author Rob Rains goes behind the scenes to learn the influences behind La Russa's intensity and uncompromising focus, why winning every game possible is so important to him, and why he often puts the game ahead of his private and personal life. Combining new interviews with past and current players, managers, and executives--including LaRussa himself--with intensive research through newspapers, magazines, and other archive material, Rains reconstructs La Russa's life from his days as a young boy growing up in Tampa, where he spoke Spanish before he spoke English, to his current standing as the third-winningest manager in baseball history. La Russa made his ascent to major league managing in 1979 at the age of 34, taking over Bill Veeck's Chicago White Sox after managing only 184 games in the minor leagues, spread over two seasons. He has been in a major league dugout ever since, except for 13 days in 1986 between when he was fired by the White Sox and hired by the Oakland A's. This biography delves into both baseball and private subjects with the goal of delivering to the reader an accurate and unbiased portrayal of La Russa.
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While there are 30 teams in Major League Baseball, all striving to reach the World Series every year, there are very few which realistically go into any season with the actual possibility of getting there. The St. Louis Cardinals, however, have enjoyed that success with different... managers, different players and different people performing key roles in the organization. Written by veteran sportswriter and Cardinals insider Rob Rains - the author of 31 books, including 17 on the Cardinals - Taking Flight will answer two basic questions - what makes the Cardinals different from other organizations, and why are they so successful? Rains will examine the organization's minor league and scouting departments to determine how those departments interact during the course of a season and illustrating how all decisions are made with a common goal in mind - the success of the major league team. Perhaps the most important man in the history of the organization was George Kissell. Hired by Branch Rickey in 1940, Kissell would spend the next 69 years in the organization, 60 of them as a coach, instructor, and caretaker of the team's farm system. Among the future managers who came under Kissell's tutelage were Sparky Anderson, Joe Torre, Tony La Russa and the Cardinals' current manager, Mike Matheny. Kissell's imprint is still everywhere on the Cardinals' organization, nearly five years after his death. So too is the work of longtime coach and catching instructor Dave Ricketts, the man who first trained Matheny and later, Yadier Molina. It is the men such as Kissell and Ricketts, who worked for years without fame or notoriety, who helped mold the Cardinals into the franchise it is today. They are not alone --
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Presents a collection of testimonies from such St. Louis Cardinals as David Freese, Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, and Mike Matheny, about how religion has influenced their lives inside and outside of baseball.

This little paperback offers insight, wisdom, and humor tailored especially for fans of the St. Louis Cardinals.