Saturday, August 17, 2013

Intentional Walk by Rob Rains

This book, subtitled “An Inside Look at the Faith that Drives the St. Louis Cardinals,” spends 16 chapters on individual players and their faith journeys. This book looks at the faith of individual players, not at the team as a whole. It touches on the effects players have on each other but gives you little sense of the collective impact on the organization, the media, or the public. Unfortunately, the chapters are written in such a way that the more you read, the more formulaic the chapters seem. Rather than integrating stories together, each chapter gives a snapshot of the player through two lenses—with regard to sports and to a walk with God--as a youngster, a young adult and then a St. Louis Cardinal. At times, it seems as if you are reading the same chapter repeatedly with changes in only minor details, such as names. This book would be interesting to a Cardinals fan who is curious about the faith journey of individual players. To anyone else, it will be too long and repetitious. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.