Bengie Molina

The New York Times bestseller about Major League Baseball's Molina brothers and how they became Gold Glove, World Series-winning catchers: "A simply told, deeply moving story, quite unlike the usual baseball book" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). A baseball rules book. A tape measure. A lottery ticket. These were in the pocket of Bengie Molina's father when he died of a heart attack on the rutted Little League field in his Puerto Rican barrio. The items are powerful symbols in Molina's beautiful memoir about his father, who through baseball taught his three sons about loyalty, humility, courage, and the true meaning of success. Bengie and his two brothers--Jos and six-time All-Star Yadier--became famous catchers in the Major Leagues with World Series championships among them. Only the DiMaggio brothers can rival the Molinas as the most accomplished siblings in baseball history. Bengie was the least likely to reach the Majors. He was too slow, too sensitive, and too small. But craving his beloved father's respect, Bengie weathered failure after deflating failure until one day he was hoisting a World Series trophy in a Champagne-soaked clubhouse. All along he thought he was fulfilling his father's own failed dream of baseball glory--only to discover it had not been his father's dream at all. Written with the emotional power of sports classics such as Field of Dreams and Friday Night Lights, Molina is a love story between a formidable but flawed father and a son who, in unearthing answers about his father's life, comes to understand his own. "It's this year's baseball book most likely to be made into a terrific movie" (Chicago Tribune).

La inspiradora y verdadera historia del pobre obrero de factor a puertorrique o Benjam n Molina Santana, quien contra viento y marea cri a la mayor dinast a de b isbol de todos los tiempos. Los tres hijos de Molina--Bengie, Jos y Yadier--han ganado cada uno dos anillos de Serie Mundial, algo sin precedentes en ese deporte Uno de ellos, Bengie, narra su historia. Un libro de reglas del b isbol. Una cinta de medir. Un boleto de loter a. Esas cosas estaban en el bolsillo del padre de Bengie Molina cuando muri de un infarto cardiaco en el terreno surcado de Liga Infantil en su barrio de Puerto Rico. Ellas sirven como gu as tem ticas en la hermosa memoria de Molina sobre su padre, quien us tambi n el b isbol para ense arles a sus tres hijos los principios de lealtad, humildad, valent a y el verdadero significado del xito. Bengie y sus dos hermanos--Jos y Yadier, quien fue seleccionado seis veces para el juego Todos Estrellas--se convirtieron en famosos receptores en las Grandes Ligas y entre los tres han sido parte de seis equipos ganadores de Series Mundiales. Solamente los hermanos DiMaggio podr an compararse con los Molina como los m s logrados hermanos en la historia del b isbol. Bengie era el que menos posibilidades ten a de llegar a las mayores. Era demasiado lento, demasiado sensible y demasiado peque o. Pero vido de ganarse el respeto de su querido padre, Bengie soport fracaso tras fracaso hasta que un d a logr alzar un trofeo de Serie Mundial en una casa club empapada en champ n. Todo el tiempo pens que estaba realizando el sue o glorioso de b isbol de su padre, s lo para descubrir que no hab a sido ese el sue o de su padre. Escrito con el poder emocional de obras cl sicas sobre deportes, como Field of Dreams y Friday Night Lights, Molina es una historia de amor entre un formidable y a la vez imperfecto padre y un hijo que, al desenterrar respuestas sobre la vida de su padre, logra comprender las suyas propias.