On his way to writing the classic A FALSE SPRING, Pat Jordan wrote a series of essays for Sports Illustrated that was anthologized in THE SUITORS OF SPRING, a fascinating collection of character studies of pitchers great and not-so-great, along with a scout, a career minor league catcher, and legendary pitching coach Johnny Sain. The work is not autobiographical, but its profound insights into the essence of success and failure would not have been possible had Jordan not experienced his own meteoric rise and fall as a pitcher.
DIAMOND CLASSICS: ESSAYS ON 100 OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BASEBALL BOOKS EVER describes the book in this way: “A precursor of the astonishing masterpiece A FALSE SPRING (published two years later), THE SUITORS OF SPRING displays already in full bloom Jordan’s ability to penetrate beneath the surface of people and events to grasp the more significant inner realities which he articulates in some of the most precise and beautiful prose ever devoted to baseball.”
