Position to Win

Book excerpt: Dewayne Staats marks his 40th year as a Major League Baseball broadcaster with POSITION TO WIN, a book that chronicles his amazing journey through America's pastime - a fascinating career working alongside some of baseball's all-time great announcers and calling some of the memorable moments of the game. Many Tampa Bay Rays fans may only know Staats as a Fox Sports/Sun Sports fixture, and the only television play-by-play man in the 18-season history of the Tampa Bay franchise. But in Position to Win: A Look at Baseball and Life from the Best Seat in the House. Staats reflects on his vast experiences in the booth that include: Being a partner with three Hall of Fame announcers: Gene Elston with the Houston Astros, Harry Caray with Chicago Superstation WGN covering the Cubs and Tony Kubek with the MSG Network doing the games of the New York Yankees, as well as working as a national baseball broadcaster for ESPN. Calling nine no-hitters (among them Nolan Ryan's record-breaking fifth and one of the game's most dramatic - thrown by New York's inspirational, one-armed star Jim Abbott). A total of nearly 6,000 MLB broadcasts, with the unique distinction of being the announcer to make the call the first two of the three times in major league history a player has homered for his 3,000th hit (Wade Boggs in 1999 and Derek Jeter in 2011). Dewayne has collaborated with veteran Florida-based author and national award-winning journalist Dave Scheiber (co-author of "Covert" and "Surviving the Shadows"). The result is a lively book that will appeal to anyone who loves baseball or enjoys an engaging success story with a message: How hard work, preparation and persistence helped position him to achieve a childhood dream and rise to the top of his profession. It's a universal lesson that can apply to everyone, no matter what a person's passion or pursuit in life may be.