SCOTT CHRISTOPHER
Dream Big, Dream On!
A Great American Baseball Memoir.
A six-year-old boy, Scott, falls onto a pile of glass behind a little league home plate, spilling his own blood on the baseball field – severing all seven tendons, median nerve, and both the radial and ulnar arteries to his right throwing wrist.
Learn how Scott’s amazing story beats the odds as passion and purpose drive his success to become a professional baseball champion. Baseball, Art and Dreams is a true and inspiring story for everyone.
Scott’s comebacks include many milestones:
Despite a .000 batting average as a junior in high school, Scott was voted MVP his senior year, leading the team in hitting with a .371 average, runs scored, and stolen bases.
University of Maryland two-time MVP, team captain. All-Atlantic Coast Conference shortstop, 1976; Boze Berger Award, 1976; led ACC in stolen bases, 1976.
All-time Baltimore Orioles organization records for stolen base percentage in a season (29 or more sb’s): 41/42.977 in 1978 and 76/82.927 of his first 82 stolen base attempts.
Final season batting average ranked seventeenth .287 and ninth .289 (300 or more at bats) in the league during his first two pro baseball seasons. Co-Leader in Orioles organization for triples and leader in fewest number of strike outs per at bat: 1/15.38, 1979.
Led all of professional baseball, including the Major Leagues, in fielding percentage for outfielders, 104 or more games played, making one error, .995 in 1979.
Artistic projects and cultural exchanges in over 35 countries. Scott has likely created more art, in a range of mediums, than any professional athlete in history.
“Obviously, Scott Christopher was blessed with incredible talent. But the work, relentless positivity, and heart are the real revelations and the keys to his amazing career. I am so impressed by the writing, and I loved Scott’s passion to overcome adversity.”
—Dr. Michael Whiting, Thirty-four years in emergency medicine and lifelong baseball fan.
“Iron Man”
“….one of the fastest guys I ever played with . . . Scott was always in tune with his experiences on the baseball field. He understood the joys of life beyond most of us. He was a free spirit.”
–CAL RIPKEN JR., Three-Time Teammate, Major League Baseball Legend, Hall-of-Famer, World Champion, and the Greatest Shortstop in MLB History.
Photograph: From left, first row, Scott Christopher in baseball jersey #3; From far right, second row, Cal Ripken, Jr. in baseball jersey #18.
Foreword
written by Michael S. Malone
A Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Nominee
“It is not often that you are in attendance when a friend experiences a life-changing event. It is rarer still when you both are children – and you are still there six decades later to track the consequences of that moment.
. . .
Scott even as a young man, was wired differently. His approach to life was always slightly orthogonal to the rest of us. Perhaps that’s not surprising. His baseball aptitude no doubt partly derived from his father’s family tree, which includes the Hall of Fame manager Wilbert “Uncle Robbie” Robinson. But it is also crucial to know that Scott’s father was a famous photographer. The combination of the two, propelled by his own unbounded curiosity, helps explain how Scott was the most artistic of professional athletes —and how he was able to make such a stunning transition to successful photographer, artist, filmmaker, writer, and philanthropist . . . and now, author.
. . .
What I saw that spring afternoon sixty –three years ago was a tragedy. But it also was a miracle. It is a story that should give us hope.”
Praises
“Scottie was spectacular, playing 110% like always.”
[Coach Elton “Jack” Jackson quote according to Richard Darcey’s Washington Post Article, Jan. 27, 1977, Baseball Player Finds Hard Road Leads to his Life’s Goal]
“Scott had a real drive about him. He had some problems with his right hand. He was a good player, a kid who could overcome adversity and wanted to play.”
[Another Coach Elton “Jack” Jackson quote found in Thom Loverro’s Washington Times article, Injured hand didn’t keep Scott Christopher from a Life of Baseball and Art, April 10, 2014]
–Coach Elton “Jack” Jackson, U of Maryland, legendary coach, for thirty seasons, 1961–1990. Coach Jackson guided his teams to the most coaching victories in Maryland Baseball’s storied, 130-year history, notching 471 wins.
“If I named the top 25 players I managed, Scotty would be on that list. Christopher worked hard all the time. He was a good guy to have on the team. When someone was in trouble on the club, he was there to help them out.”
–Coach Jimmy “Skip” Williams, Four-Time Manager, 1983 Baltimore Orioles World Series Championship Coach, Canadian Baseball Hall-of-Fame, Forty years in Professional Baseball, 1947-1987.
“I have had to step back and let BAAD penetrate my deepest reaches after reading Red Threads this morning and turning the page to the 9th Inning. The At Bat of a lifetime as described in the 8th Inning is the “soul speech” that all who feel deeply long to write. It is Beowulf against Grendel, life against death, Hector against Achilles and as written by you, beautiful “soul stretching” prose. Then to punctuate it with Red Threads . . . only poetry comes close to describing the indescribable. Perfect.”
–Larry Bertram, English scholar, published writer and poet, award-winning college football quarterback and baseball infielder, Hampden-Sydney College.
A Great American Baseball Memoir.
“Dream Big, Dream On!”
© 2023 Soaring Press
