State Library of Kansas  :  Kansas Center for the Book  :  Letters About Literature  :  Past Winners

2009 Winner: Jordan Schaper (Level 3)

Book Title: My Prison Without Bars

Book Author: Pete Rose

Dear Mr. Pete Rose,

In your auto-biography, My Prison Without Bars, I learned several things not only about the game of baseball, but a new way to live. Your book has inspired me not only to always give one-hundred percent effort on the baseball field, but off as well. And I truly believe that without the guidance of your book, I not only wouldn’t have made my high-school team, but I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.

Because you mentioned several times in your book that the only way you were ever successful in life was because your father always made you give all that you could give, I attempted to model my everyday life off of that idea. For a baseball example, I was a pretty scrawny second baseman who was good with the glove, but could barely lift the ball out of the infield. I was honestly about to give up baseball all together because I didn’t think there’d be any way I could ever play high-school ball. Well in eighth grade I saw this book at a Borders book store on the discount stack (no offense). I was already a huge fan of yours, so I decided to shell out my mowing money to buy the book. As soon as I got home I started to read more than I had ever read in a 24 hour period. Now in my life, I have never sat down and read a book all the way through because of ADD and I can’t keep focused, but this was the only exception. As soon as I finished reading your book, I immediately got a friend of mine to pitch to me. We were out there for four hours just pitching and hitting, and eventually, I gradually started to hit the ball harder and harder. We went out every day after school until the winter of ninth grade, from 4:30-6:30 pitching and hitting.

Your book also opened up my eyes to the real world and how things really go on. You didn’t fluff it up and only tell the good things that happened; you laid it all on the line. I had thought that with money, all the problems in the world would suddenly just disappear, but Mr. Rose, your book showed me the truth. With success in life comes temptations, and with ADD that is not always such a good mix. Obviously I’d love to have the kind of success that you’re had, but you have shown me what exactly to do and not to do. I now know that when, or even if, I’m ever successful in life, I have to think of others and not just myself.

So with this short little letter about how you have become not just a hero, but my “non-family” role model, and I truly mean that. With that, I’d like to thank you for taking time to write your book and giving hope to at least one little, scrawny second baseman.

Sincerely,

Jordan Schaper

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