A False Spring by Pat Jordan
Pat Jordan's Lost Seasons
In A False Spring, Pat Jordan traces the falling star of his once-promising
pitching career, illuminating along the way his equally difficult personal
struggles and quest for maturity. When the reader meets Jordan, he is a
hard-throwing pitcher with seemingly limitless potential, one of the first
“bonus babies” for the Milwaukee Braves organization. Jordan’s sojourn
through the lower levels of minor-league ball takes him through the small
towns of America: McCook, Waycross, Davenport, Eau Claire, and
Palatka. As the promised land of the majors recedes because of his
inconsistency and lack of control, the young man who had previously
known only glory and success is forced to face himself.
Personal Review: A False Spring by Pat Jordan
I first read excerpts from "A False Spring" about 30 years ago when they
appeared in three consecutive issues of Sports Illustrated. From the
moment I began reading that first installment, I was entranced. It is hard to
describe exactly why, but I am sure that the baseball action in the book

was not the reason. Instead, I remember Jordan's vivid portrayls of such
seemingly mundane things as a prarie thunderstorm, an afternoon fishing
in the swamplands of Florida and the glow of the instruments on his
dashboard. These depictions riveted me, I'm convinced, because they put
into words how I saw the world. As an 11 year-old, this was a unique and
novel experience for me.Jordan's portrayal of his own feelings of
dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, rage and finally resignation also
resonated with me. Most of the reading I had done up to that point
portrayed life's events in a linear fashion that was totally at odds with what
I had already experienced. I was fascinated that Jordan could take an
accessible subject matter and weave all of these other elements into it.
Mind you, all of this came to me from reading the three SI excerpts. I
never did read the book until, by chance, I was searching on this site and
came across a name I remembered. So, 30 years later, I got a copy and
tried to find out whether this book would have meaning for me anything like
what I experienced as an 11 year-old.Some pompous windbag spoke at
my college graduation ceremony about the test for what he called "clahsic
stahtus." According to this guy, any writing qualified for that status if one
could read the work at widely spaced intervals and still feel the same spark
as in the previous readings. He assumed, I guess, that peoples'
perceptions and interests change over the years and that only writing that
had a certain breadth would be able to appeal to a reader who had
undergone those changes."A False Spring" certainly passed the test. All
of the vivid descriptions -- the hand-me-down uniforms, the barracks-like
atmosphere of minor league spring training, the experience of pitching in
frozen northern outposts-- remained as vital and gripping as before, as did
Jordan's portrayal of the unravelling of his baseball career. With the
benefit of 30 years' experience, I was able to understand the author's
struggles in more than the visceral way I did as an 11 year-old. Further, I
got the strong sense -- confirmed in Jordan's later memoir, "A Nice
Tuesday" -- that Jordan himself had not figured out exactly why things had
gone so wrong for him. At times, reading this book was like watching
someone reliving some horrible nightmare. At other times, it was simply a
pleasant experience to read Jordan's description of day-to-day life in small
town America in the late 50s. Throughout, the book was just as gripping
as those SI excerpts that grabbed me 30 years ago.I have read that Pat
Jordan set about to create a persona in this book and that the portrayal of
that persona was calculated and not always accurate. Even so, this book
reveals enough of the real experiences of the man that it withstands the
test of time. I'm not so interested in absolute historical accuracy when I
come across a book that can hold my attention and bring me back for more
30 years after the first reading.
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