Overview

Follow the week-by-week progress (or not) of making a baseball team and season work inside San Quentin, one of the most infamous state prisons in the country. See inside the thinking, emotions, and stresses that accompany each inmate's involvement in what is often the most important part of their entire incarceration. Understand why inmates will say and do almost anything to get a chance to play ball and how frustration and disappointment derails them. Find out what ""payback"" is, how power and authority work, why the sports teams are the only integrated groups, and how baseball entails the search for meaning. There are reasons that there were no other baseball programs in the world like the one in San Quentin. The treatment of the baseball program by the media normally focuses on the lives of the inmate players, and rightly so. But Kent Philpott's treatment of the subject reflects the difficulty of making the program function from the coach's perspective. Kent has provided a very realistic portrait of prison life through the prism of the baseball program with his day-to-day account of the 2010 baseball season. His is a tale of the difficulty of creating a successful prison program, not just because of the inherent problems of managing 25-30 men who happened to have anti-social behavior in their past and present lives but also dealing with a sometimes-hostile set of prison administrators. To expose the public to the humanity of people in prison is also a wonderful thing, and Kent Philpott not only spent many years in San Quentin helping to allow inmates to get through the day, but he was helping to expose the humanity of people in prison to the outside public. Three Strikes, You're Out! will educate many people outside about the realities and virtues of people inside to the ultimate benefit of both.

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9781946794291

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Kent Philpott is the Baptist street minister who devoted his extra service hours not only to developing the raw-talented but highly enthusiastic inmates at San Quentin State Prison into semi-pro level baseball players, but also simultaneously taught the general rules and laws of life, good behavior, and the meaning of acceptance of God's presence into one' life, though not in a blatantly religious manner. Warden after warden, officer after officer, inmate after inmate who came to observe Kent at work with many unfortunate, sad, often trembling men, were equally amazed how he taught, inspired, and often pleaded the more troubled into how to play a major love in his life-baseball. This book tells that story.-Don DeNevi, former Director of Education, San Quentin State Prison To expose the public to the humanity of people in prison is a wonderful thing, and Kent Philpott not only spent many years in San Quentin helping to allow inmates to get through the day, but he was helping to expose the humanity of people in prison to the outside public. Three Strikes, You're Out! will educate many people outside about the realities and virtues of people inside to the ultimate benefit of both. - Elliot Smith, Lawyer and San Quentin Baseball Coach For those of you who love baseball, it will come as no surprise that many of us have a book or two or three or four hidden inside of us waiting to be written. Because that's what it is, it's a love affair, especially with the conditions we played under. But working with Kent Philpott made those conditions bearable. With Kent and the other volunteers, along with the contributions of my brothers inside the walls of San Quentin, our team was able to escape San Quentin and be on a baseball field. That was the mercy that I am on my knees about in memory as I read Three Strikes, You're Out! - John Neblett, Actor and former inmate, San Quentin Prison The SQ Pirates were scheduled to play the San Francisco Oaks Semi-pro baseball team, and the Oaks were going to be short a couple of players, so Kent invited me to come down for a visit and play in this game. . . . Baseball has an old and true axiom. It states that the ball will find you. It didn't take long. In the first inning, the Pirates hit three hard ground balls in my direction. . . . Later, I lamented about some of my play, but Kent philosophized that baseball keeps us humble. This book brings back all those memories, both good and bad. - Bill Mauck, Author, Speaker, Best Friend

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