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The Saga of Sudden Sam: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Sam McDowell
The candid autobiography of all-star pitcher “Sudden Sam” McDowell, whose alcohol-fueled life quickly and famously spiraled out of control, and his ultimate redemption as a counselor for other athletes suffering from addiction. Sam McDowell seemed to have it all. Considered by many to be the next Sandy Koufax when he signed with the Cleveland Indians, Sam boasted one of the fastest arms in major league baseball. But on the inside, he was playing in an alcoholic fog, beset by addiction, depression, narcissism, and thoughts of suicide. The Saga of Sudden The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Sam McDowell is the captivatingly honest autobiography of the six-time American League all-star pitcher and self-admitted “worst drunk in baseball.” Sam holds nothing back, sharing the pressures he felt as a young baseball phenom, his frustrations over a lack of coaching to help develop his talent, the pitfalls of his dangerous alcoholic lifestyle, and his attempted suicide. When “Sudden Sam” finally hit rock bottom, certain he had been defeated by alcoholism, he instead found hope, rehabilitation, and sobriety. After extensive education and training, he emerged as the first successful counselor in major league baseball. Sam helped to turn around the lives of players who, just like him, had fallen into the abyss of addiction or faced psychological and emotional problems that were destroying their careers. With details of his own severe battles with depression and addiction told alongside the struggles of players who came to him for help, The Saga of Sudden Sam offers special insight into the longstanding addiction issues that plague Major League Baseball. It also provides understanding and hope to anyone struggling with addiction and shows that recovery is attainable.
- GenresBaseballAutobiography
200 pages, Hardcover
Published March 9, 2022
11 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 13, 2022
"Sudden" Sam McDowell was a pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 60s and 70s. His potential seemed limitless, even drawing conclusions to future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. However, an addiction to alcohol got in the way and he eventually drank himself out of the game. This book tells the story of his life and his recovery, including what he's doing as he approaches his 80th birthday.
Honestly, I was a little bit disappointed in this book. McDowell tells his story, which is interesting. but it takes on the tone of a counselor in that it's very clinical. Which made it drag at times. It was also pretty repetitive and the story was all over the place. He would talk about something happening in one year, then suddenly move back in time to tell another story. A little more of a chronological telling would have been beneficial to this reader.
He's very honest about his addiction, his extra marital affairs, and how his children felt about their alcoholic father. He has done a lot of good as a substance abuse counselor for many players and MLB teams, which is to be commended, as well as his decades of sobriety. I also liked him telling his opinions on the modern game and what he feels needs to change. Its a worthwhile read.
My thanks to Rowman and Littlefield, authors Sam McDowell and Marty Gitlin, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.
Honestly, I was a little bit disappointed in this book. McDowell tells his story, which is interesting. but it takes on the tone of a counselor in that it's very clinical. Which made it drag at times. It was also pretty repetitive and the story was all over the place. He would talk about something happening in one year, then suddenly move back in time to tell another story. A little more of a chronological telling would have been beneficial to this reader.
He's very honest about his addiction, his extra marital affairs, and how his children felt about their alcoholic father. He has done a lot of good as a substance abuse counselor for many players and MLB teams, which is to be commended, as well as his decades of sobriety. I also liked him telling his opinions on the modern game and what he feels needs to change. Its a worthwhile read.
My thanks to Rowman and Littlefield, authors Sam McDowell and Marty Gitlin, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.
April 22, 2022
An incredibly open and honest assessment of his life and struggles. An Indian's player with whom I grew up cheering and about whom I knew the stories about his bar room brawls. I also was familiar with his recovery, sobriety and work with active & retired baseball players. But in his autobiography, Sam McDowell shares the difficult truths about his growing up, his relationship failings with his 1st wife and children, his out-of-control behavior and is failure to reach his full potential in the major leagues. The real beauty and inspiration in his story comes from his brutal honesty about himself as well as the effort and work he put in to change his life, to turn it around, reconcile with his family and focus on helping others. This is a great read on many levels.
And, kudos to my former South Euclid Little League teammate, Marty Gitlin as co-authoring this book with Sam. Tremendous job, Marty.
And, kudos to my former South Euclid Little League teammate, Marty Gitlin as co-authoring this book with Sam. Tremendous job, Marty.
August 4, 2025
"He did not boast the same level of talent that I'd had. Frankly ... few have in the history of high school baseball."
In those lines, McDowell is talking about his son, Tim, who briefly pitched for the Pirates' minor league system, and even if true, what an effed-up thing to say about your own kid, but the words do very much encapsulate McDowell's self-inflated, blowhard personality that's on display in these pages. Meanwhile, the bad writing and sheer repetition might be enough to drive you to drink, if you care about such things. In the first half of the book alone (covering his rise and fall as "Sudden Sam" even though a more apt nickname would've been "Sodden Sam"), it seems like McDowell is expressing in 50 different ways the same sentiments, whether it's that he's had an "alcoholic personality" since childhood that prevented him from ever experiencing joy or that he went about his life both on and off the field "robotically" or that he was never prepared mentally or emotionally for adulthood or that he was simply immature and narcissistic. The narcissism is something that definitely has not left him because his frequent references to "my vast talents" are also extremely repetitive, as are his regular referrals to himself in the third person. The "redemption" section of the book follows his recovery from being "the worst drunk in baseball" and his subsequent career as an addiction counselor, which is as dreary as it sounds.
He contradicts himself throughout the book. For example, he regularly notes his parents were deficient in showing love and attention but also several times makes clear it was his father who worked with him "tirelessly" on his pitching mechanics despite having multiple jobs. Late in the book, he bemoans the state of baseball today and why it suffers by comparison to yesteryear, when families "once talked about baseball in the home constantly," adding, "Parents and kids knew every player on the home team and discussed strategy." But earlier in the book he's already (repetitively) insisted that, despite being "the most sought-after prospect in America," he himself didn't follow professional baseball at all, much less its individual players. At another point he notes that because the spotlight is on the individual, "baseball provides no opportunity for blame," but that assertion comes across as pretty rich because by then he's already spent more than 100 pages placing blame first on his parents for not giving him emotional support and then on the teammates of all four major league teams on which he played for not giving him run support and then on most of his coaches "who handcuffed me and prevented me from learning the science of pitching." In fact, he throws blame at every turn, and it gets old quick.
Early on in the book, he mentions his appearance in 1960 on the then-popular national game show To Tell the Truth, which you can watch in full on YouTube. Those 15 minutes or so are more fun and entertaining than any part of this autobiography.
First lines:
"I was gripped by a sense of hopelessness. So I gripped my chrome-plated .38-caliber revolver."
This book is plagued by typos, missing words, and general screwups and seems not to have been proofread; also, the text is tiny--basically in the font you usually find in footnotes--but here are just a few of the annoying errors that left me scratching my head:
Page 20: "She attended a public school but I met through her two neighbors with whom I played sports."
Page 23: "She was not about to allow anyone else dictate the process of recruiting her seventeen-year-old son."
Page 27: "When we arrived at our Daytona Beach, I noticed many beautiful woman hanging out in the lobby." [Forgot the word "hotel" after "Beach," and then of course made "women" singular, for some reason.]
Page 39: "I was a merely a child playing a game."
Page 58: In the same paragraph in which he boasts of having "never been convicted of a crime," he writes, "Both the public and I were fortunate that my three DUIs did not result in accidents that caused injury or even fatalities." [Lucky public!]
Page 60: "Pitchers are best served with a short memory, and I did from pitch to pitch." [Did what?]
Page 96: "When Carol left me again, this time for good, and moved into a Monroeville apartment. I was in no position or state of mind to fight for anything so I gave her all our furniture." [First period doesn't work.]
Page 101: "Should we talk avoid talking about our son's alcoholism?"
Page 123: "I would also explain the effect of alcohol from a more technical standpoint ... as well as its effect the brain."
Page 126: "All but 4 of the 175 ballplayers I counseled during the late 1980s and early 1998s actively worked to recover...." [Pretty sure he meant "early 1990s."]
And so on. The cumulative effect makes this book seem a shoddy, rushed production.
November 18, 2022
They say that you should never meet your heroes, and maybe you shouldn't read their autobiographies, either.
When I attended my very first Cleveland Indians game at about the age of 12, Sudden Sam McDowell was pitching. I can still remember the loud "pop" as his amazing fastball hit Ray Fosse's mitt. We won the game, 2-1, and I was immediately, forever, hopelessly, a Cleveland baseball fan.
What I didn't know about one of my favorite players is that he was a serious drunk during his playing days. And not a very good husband or father to boot. My fond childhood memories will never be the same.
Sam does redeem himself after baseball. He gets treatment and eventually becomes a counselor. He repairs his relationship with his kids, has a good marriage with his third wife, helps a lot of people, and has apparently put his demons to rest.
My main issue with the book (hence 3 stars) is that the writing style is somewhat awkward and clinical. Sam even refers to himself in the third person a few times. It's as if he's holding the reader at arm's length. I sometimes felt as if I were reading a case study in a textbook rather than a personal account of someone's life.
When I attended my very first Cleveland Indians game at about the age of 12, Sudden Sam McDowell was pitching. I can still remember the loud "pop" as his amazing fastball hit Ray Fosse's mitt. We won the game, 2-1, and I was immediately, forever, hopelessly, a Cleveland baseball fan.
What I didn't know about one of my favorite players is that he was a serious drunk during his playing days. And not a very good husband or father to boot. My fond childhood memories will never be the same.
Sam does redeem himself after baseball. He gets treatment and eventually becomes a counselor. He repairs his relationship with his kids, has a good marriage with his third wife, helps a lot of people, and has apparently put his demons to rest.
My main issue with the book (hence 3 stars) is that the writing style is somewhat awkward and clinical. Sam even refers to himself in the third person a few times. It's as if he's holding the reader at arm's length. I sometimes felt as if I were reading a case study in a textbook rather than a personal account of someone's life.
March 28, 2023
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: REALIZING & ADMITTING YOU HAVE A PROBLEM IS HARDER THAN STRIKING OUT MICKEY MANTLE
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“Sudden Sam” McDowell was a Major League pitcher from 1961-1975… but before I throw in a few of his athletic accolades… let me let you know what the true purpose of this book is… and though there wouldn’t be a story being told and sold here in a book… without his tarnished baseball statistics… it’s McDowell’s dedication to self-destruction and the near ending of his life… and after decades of addiction and depression… he finally turned his life around… and amazingly became like a star reliever coming in to save many other lives that had fallen into the bottomless pit of addiction. His star reliever role in the game of life… far outshines anything he accomplished or destroyed during his destructive… demeaning… alcoholic (not drenched… that isn’t an apt enough description) tsunami of a career.
To be frank… when the story starts and Sam… in describing his lifelong bouts with depression and in hind sight alcoholic tendencies (literally A-Z… and the most use of the word “narcissism” than I’ve ever read in my ENTIRE life… and I’m not talking about in one book… I’m talking about more than the use of the word in the thousand plus books I’ve read in the last twenty years put together!) and when he makes the statement “WHAT WE WOULD SEE WOULD BE A JOYLESS BOY. I NEVER FELT LOVED. MY ACHIEVEMENTS WENT UNPRAISED BUT I COULD NOT RECOGNIZE THAT MY PARENTS REFUSED TO PRAISE ME.”
When I read that… I immediately said… “Oh… here we go again… another guy who blames everything on his parents”… and I almost wanted to stop reading the book… because there are millions of people in the world with bad parents who turned out fine and never became raging suicidal alcoholics! … And then…
Sam continually went into detail about how many great things his parents did for him… and other people. Not only how his Father used his engineering mentality to do all types of things around the house… and design Sam’s pitching mechanics… and his Mother making sure they valued education and got good grades… but “THEY NOT ONLY BROUGHT UP SIX KIDS BUT TOOK IN MY GRANDFATHER AND UNCLE TO LIVE WITH US.” That turned the corner for me in continuing on in this book… because I found the rare person/author who was telling the good and the bad of all concerned from his heart!
The author shares chapter and verse of his drunken destruction while being in the Major Leagues… and at times thinking he could beat the human/baseball system by getting blind drunk for only a couple of days during each pitching rotation… and not drinking for the two days leading to and including his day on the mound. Obviously a fool’s errand plan that had absolutely no chance of success. (If the word success could be so sullied in that damaged addicts mind). When his playing career imploded… imploded like a mushroom cloud in Hiroshima… stints in rehab led to Sam dedicating his life to recovery… including college classes… independent educational conferences by experts in the field… insatiable reading of any book on or near the subject. He not only started his own recovery business… but got hired to council individual players… teams and professional sports leagues. And in an almost biblical full circle became a major part of Major League Baseball’s B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team) for MORE THAN FORTY YEARS! The amount of players and individuals he helped are more important (ask him and I’m sure he’ll agree!) than how many strikeout victims he had in his career.
I believe it is one-hundred-per-cent-true… that you cannot find one family that hasn’t somehow been touched by addiction… so I recommend this book more strongly if you’re looking for an education on the ravages of addiction than a baseball tale.
P.S. I promised a brief note or two about “Sudden Sam’s” baseball achievements… so here’s a brief few: Pitched in the Big Leagues 1961-1975 (previously noted)… 6 All Star selections… 5 times led the league in strikeouts… 141 wins… speed of fastball estimated to be in the company of Sandy Koufax… Bob Feller… Walter Johnson.
P.S.S. Number of saves/assists of a better life for addicts… UNKNOWN… BECAUSE ANONYMITY IS A PLEDGE ALL SHOULD LIVE BY!
P.S.S.S. The reviewer has to make sure the author gets credit for one reference to the former high-ranking-Yankee-employee… **GEORGE COSTANZA**
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Sudden Sam” McDowell was a Major League pitcher from 1961-1975… but before I throw in a few of his athletic accolades… let me let you know what the true purpose of this book is… and though there wouldn’t be a story being told and sold here in a book… without his tarnished baseball statistics… it’s McDowell’s dedication to self-destruction and the near ending of his life… and after decades of addiction and depression… he finally turned his life around… and amazingly became like a star reliever coming in to save many other lives that had fallen into the bottomless pit of addiction. His star reliever role in the game of life… far outshines anything he accomplished or destroyed during his destructive… demeaning… alcoholic (not drenched… that isn’t an apt enough description) tsunami of a career.
To be frank… when the story starts and Sam… in describing his lifelong bouts with depression and in hind sight alcoholic tendencies (literally A-Z… and the most use of the word “narcissism” than I’ve ever read in my ENTIRE life… and I’m not talking about in one book… I’m talking about more than the use of the word in the thousand plus books I’ve read in the last twenty years put together!) and when he makes the statement “WHAT WE WOULD SEE WOULD BE A JOYLESS BOY. I NEVER FELT LOVED. MY ACHIEVEMENTS WENT UNPRAISED BUT I COULD NOT RECOGNIZE THAT MY PARENTS REFUSED TO PRAISE ME.”
When I read that… I immediately said… “Oh… here we go again… another guy who blames everything on his parents”… and I almost wanted to stop reading the book… because there are millions of people in the world with bad parents who turned out fine and never became raging suicidal alcoholics! … And then…
Sam continually went into detail about how many great things his parents did for him… and other people. Not only how his Father used his engineering mentality to do all types of things around the house… and design Sam’s pitching mechanics… and his Mother making sure they valued education and got good grades… but “THEY NOT ONLY BROUGHT UP SIX KIDS BUT TOOK IN MY GRANDFATHER AND UNCLE TO LIVE WITH US.” That turned the corner for me in continuing on in this book… because I found the rare person/author who was telling the good and the bad of all concerned from his heart!
The author shares chapter and verse of his drunken destruction while being in the Major Leagues… and at times thinking he could beat the human/baseball system by getting blind drunk for only a couple of days during each pitching rotation… and not drinking for the two days leading to and including his day on the mound. Obviously a fool’s errand plan that had absolutely no chance of success. (If the word success could be so sullied in that damaged addicts mind). When his playing career imploded… imploded like a mushroom cloud in Hiroshima… stints in rehab led to Sam dedicating his life to recovery… including college classes… independent educational conferences by experts in the field… insatiable reading of any book on or near the subject. He not only started his own recovery business… but got hired to council individual players… teams and professional sports leagues. And in an almost biblical full circle became a major part of Major League Baseball’s B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team) for MORE THAN FORTY YEARS! The amount of players and individuals he helped are more important (ask him and I’m sure he’ll agree!) than how many strikeout victims he had in his career.
I believe it is one-hundred-per-cent-true… that you cannot find one family that hasn’t somehow been touched by addiction… so I recommend this book more strongly if you’re looking for an education on the ravages of addiction than a baseball tale.
P.S. I promised a brief note or two about “Sudden Sam’s” baseball achievements… so here’s a brief few: Pitched in the Big Leagues 1961-1975 (previously noted)… 6 All Star selections… 5 times led the league in strikeouts… 141 wins… speed of fastball estimated to be in the company of Sandy Koufax… Bob Feller… Walter Johnson.
P.S.S. Number of saves/assists of a better life for addicts… UNKNOWN… BECAUSE ANONYMITY IS A PLEDGE ALL SHOULD LIVE BY!
P.S.S.S. The reviewer has to make sure the author gets credit for one reference to the former high-ranking-Yankee-employee… **GEORGE COSTANZA**
January 19, 2025
Sam McDowell was a fearsome pitcher for Cleveland in the American League in the 1960s, a six-time All-Star, and what we now recognize to have been a 40-plus WAR pitcher, a remarkable statistical achievement indeed. However, alcoholism derailed his career and nearly ended his life. "The Saga of Sudden Sam" is the author looking back on his career 60 years after his rookie season. The first half is a shockingly candid look at what alcohol did to him -- the book opens with a suicide attempt -- and the second half is about his recovery, including his decades-long second career as an alcohol addiction counselor, in service to various Major League Baseball teams (he was awarded a World Series ring with Toronto in 1993) and to the Baseball Assistance Team. McDowell was a student of psychology and the book goes much deeper into the technicalities of disease and recovery than most other books I've read in the very wide field of baseball/addiction/recovery memoirs. This may be unique in the field in its focus on science rather than religion. The prose is dense at times -- McDowell's co-author doesn't necessarily have a light touch -- but the stories are riveting, and McDowell reveals that he was an inspiration for Ted Danson's character on "Cheers". The book is a fairly easy read at 163 pages, though the print is small, which is unfortunate because most readers who remember McDowell as an active player are surely of an age where they'd prefer large print. The baseball anecdotes are lively -- McDowell settles some grudges against managers that he's still carrying 60 years later -- and the obligatory "get off my lawn" chapter criticizing the modern game, at least brings receipts, and is better than similar material in almost every other baseball autobiography ever written.
April 19, 2022
Subtitled: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Sam McDowell
I believe I’ve written before about how I started following baseball back in 1971. I also began buying baseball cards that same season. One of my favorite players was Sam McDowell, a pitcher with the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians). Nicknamed ‘Sudden Sam’ because of how quickly his pitches arrived at home plate, I liked him because he was left-handed like me, and he had a great stats on his card, winning 20 games and striking out more than 300 batters during the 1970 season. His career was also basically over by age 30 due to injuries and alcoholism.
The Saga of Sudden Sam tells about McDowell’s baseball career, but that’s only the start of the story. Within a few years of his final season in the major leagues, he sought treatment for his alcoholism and emerged committed to doing all he could to help other players who might be going through the same struggles. Learning all he could about addiction, its causes, and treatments, he obtained certification as an Employee Assistance Professional and began counseling baseball players (and eventually athletes in other sports), eventually working through MLB’s Baseball Assistance Team (BAT) while also entering into deals with several teams to counsel their players at both the major- and minor-league levels.
I gave The Saga of Sudden Sam five stars on Goodreads. I would have like to see more details about his years in baseball, but his life after baseball was both admirable and inspiring.
I believe I’ve written before about how I started following baseball back in 1971. I also began buying baseball cards that same season. One of my favorite players was Sam McDowell, a pitcher with the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians). Nicknamed ‘Sudden Sam’ because of how quickly his pitches arrived at home plate, I liked him because he was left-handed like me, and he had a great stats on his card, winning 20 games and striking out more than 300 batters during the 1970 season. His career was also basically over by age 30 due to injuries and alcoholism.
The Saga of Sudden Sam tells about McDowell’s baseball career, but that’s only the start of the story. Within a few years of his final season in the major leagues, he sought treatment for his alcoholism and emerged committed to doing all he could to help other players who might be going through the same struggles. Learning all he could about addiction, its causes, and treatments, he obtained certification as an Employee Assistance Professional and began counseling baseball players (and eventually athletes in other sports), eventually working through MLB’s Baseball Assistance Team (BAT) while also entering into deals with several teams to counsel their players at both the major- and minor-league levels.
I gave The Saga of Sudden Sam five stars on Goodreads. I would have like to see more details about his years in baseball, but his life after baseball was both admirable and inspiring.
April 28, 2023
Being a life long Cleveland baseball fan and wanting to know more about Sam McDowell I thought I was going to love this book. For sure Sam’s story is compelling and his struggle to overcome his addiction and how he came to help so many others his remarkable. But this book for me was doomed by bad writing. Whether it’s the co- writer or Sam to blame I couldn’t say but one or both of them needed a more heavy handed editor and at least one fact checker. I mean I know my baseball history pretty well from the 60s through the 80s but I’m not a baseball scholar and yet I found 2 stories that either couldn’t have happened or sam is totally misremembering how and when they occurred. Yet I was able to confirm the mistakes with only one quick search on Baseball Reference. Which kind of spoils a lot of the rest of the book because what else is wrong or misrepresented.
The first third of the book is extremely repetitive with phrases like “a boy among men” used seemingly on every page, along with telling how he didn’t like it when a manager called his pitches - it’s made clear MULTIPLE times how much he disliked that. He jumps back and forth between seasons at random especially in his early seasons and sometimes in the same paragraph.
The first third of the book is extremely repetitive with phrases like “a boy among men” used seemingly on every page, along with telling how he didn’t like it when a manager called his pitches - it’s made clear MULTIPLE times how much he disliked that. He jumps back and forth between seasons at random especially in his early seasons and sometimes in the same paragraph.
May 25, 2022
It’s rare that sports stars, if famous enough to publish an autobiography, wait until their late 70’s to do so. Sam McDowell is a rare man in more ways than one so it’s no surprise that his book, published at aged 79, is a cut above the average autobiography.
McDowell was the most recruited high school baseball player in America in 1959 – a shoe-in for no.1 draft pick if the draft had existed yet! He became a 6 time All-Star pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and was widely regarded as one of the best in the game. McDowell’s rise is a fascinating story in itself – the struggles of the high school phenom to learn how to play against the very best, the need to learn the art of pitching when his fastball alone couldn’t guarantee a win, the challenge of overcoming lack of faith and trust from his coaches.
Sam however might have been an all-star pitcher but he was also an all-world drinker – an alcoholic who eventually could no longer behave appropriately in his professional or personal life. As his life derailed he went deeper into his alcoholism and came close to ending it all.
As the book’s title, and the fact he’s still here to tell his story, suggests, this is ultimately a story of redemption as McDowell sought help, stayed sober, rebuilt his life, reconnected with his kids and trained as an addiction counselor to help other baseball players in need of help.
What makes the book stand out is McDowell’s ability to use what he has learned as an addiction expert to reflect and explain who he was as a younger man. It can be a bit jarring to read just how honestly and clinically McDowell writes about his past failings and feelings (or lack thereof) – to a degree I haven’t seen outside of Andre Agassi’s book Open. Unlike Agassi who paints his father as the villain in his tale, McDowell has forgiven his parents shortcomings despite their lack of affection and instead focused on the simple reality that alcoholism is a disease. Until his recovery however, he had no concept of what it meant to be happy, or how to be satisfied other than through a desperate need for attention.
The book is a fascinating insight into baseball during the 60s and 70s, the job of pitching in the major leagues, and the perils of alcoholism and addiction in a sporting environment. It can be a difficult read at times, but as title tells us, don’t worry it ends with redemption!
McDowell was the most recruited high school baseball player in America in 1959 – a shoe-in for no.1 draft pick if the draft had existed yet! He became a 6 time All-Star pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and was widely regarded as one of the best in the game. McDowell’s rise is a fascinating story in itself – the struggles of the high school phenom to learn how to play against the very best, the need to learn the art of pitching when his fastball alone couldn’t guarantee a win, the challenge of overcoming lack of faith and trust from his coaches.
Sam however might have been an all-star pitcher but he was also an all-world drinker – an alcoholic who eventually could no longer behave appropriately in his professional or personal life. As his life derailed he went deeper into his alcoholism and came close to ending it all.
As the book’s title, and the fact he’s still here to tell his story, suggests, this is ultimately a story of redemption as McDowell sought help, stayed sober, rebuilt his life, reconnected with his kids and trained as an addiction counselor to help other baseball players in need of help.
What makes the book stand out is McDowell’s ability to use what he has learned as an addiction expert to reflect and explain who he was as a younger man. It can be a bit jarring to read just how honestly and clinically McDowell writes about his past failings and feelings (or lack thereof) – to a degree I haven’t seen outside of Andre Agassi’s book Open. Unlike Agassi who paints his father as the villain in his tale, McDowell has forgiven his parents shortcomings despite their lack of affection and instead focused on the simple reality that alcoholism is a disease. Until his recovery however, he had no concept of what it meant to be happy, or how to be satisfied other than through a desperate need for attention.
The book is a fascinating insight into baseball during the 60s and 70s, the job of pitching in the major leagues, and the perils of alcoholism and addiction in a sporting environment. It can be a difficult read at times, but as title tells us, don’t worry it ends with redemption!
May 27, 2025
I had the pleasure of meeting Sam McDowell earlier this year at a collectibles show, where I purchased the book. I appreciated the candor with which he tells his story, and I admire him for turning his life around and helping countless others to overcome addiction. I liked reading his story. My nitpicks are that there was a lot of
repetition and sometimes the narrative’s chronology jumped around a lot. But overall an inspiring story.
repetition and sometimes the narrative’s chronology jumped around a lot. But overall an inspiring story.
December 23, 2022
Sudden Sam was one of my favorites when I was a kid. I did not know at the time of his struggle with alcohol. He was part of a powerhouse rotation and it’s sad that he could have been so much more. I was not expecting so much focus in this book on his addiction and recovery but that was a major part of his life. It was an interesting read but I found it repetitive at times.
May 20, 2022
Great book story about the Sam McDowell's baseball career and how it was affected by his alcoholism and when he retired he got into alcohol counseling. Sam Malone of Cheers was based on the pitcher's life
May 17, 2022
Very good book about a man who admits his failings and worked hard to overcome them. He then went on to help countless numbers of people. He was also one of the best MLB pitchers of his time.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews