Redbirds: From Vietnam to the Ballpark - Paperback

by Gary Harlan (Author)

"Gary Harlan has written a book that accomplishes a lot of difficult tasks, crossing different genres and making it a must-read for people who like baseball, history, and the human interest aspect of watching individuals overcome mental challenges."--Rob Rains, editor of STLSportsPage.com, a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, and the author of 33 books mostly about the Cardinals.
"I was totally immersed in the narrative. Congratulations on writing a compelling story full of history, philosophy, human relations, and baseball. It was a great read."--J. Terry Johnson, Author of Cardinal Fever and other fine works.

When Jordan Langston married Darlene, he did not tell her about his military service, that he was a Marine Vietnam veteran with three Purple Hearts. He chose to bury those painful memories. Inevitably, they resurface, and when they do, Jordan becomes increasingly isolated. When he discovers Darlene is having an affair with her co-worker, Jordan is forced to confront the person he has become-someone with an open mind but a closed heart. He resigns from his position as a philosophy professor at a California university, gives up on his marriage, and seriously contemplates giving up on living. He moves back to the family farm in Arkansas with his two German Shepherds.

Redbirds is the story of how a broken war veteran comes to realize the healing power of relationships. He reunites with his best friend, Lincoln Jacobs, a pioneer in the nationwide distribution of homegrown marijuana. He also reunites with Nicole, his former girlfriend who is now a widow raising a twelve-year-old boy in need of a stepfather.

His widowed grandmother, Lucinda Langston, is the person most responsible for helping Jordan find happiness. She and her husband Orville raised Jordan after his parents were killed in a car crash. Orville was fond of telling people, "Cindi brought me to Jesus, and I brought her to the St. Louis Cardinals."

It was during the Prohibition era when 18-year-old Lucinda met Orville Langston, a door-to-door Bible salesman who had neither knowledge of, nor interest in, the contents of the Bible. That was just a front for his bootlegging operation. To win Lucinda's hand in marriage, Orville reinvented himself. He became a cattle farmer.

The day after they were married, Orville introduced Lucinda to his World War One buddy, the hall-of-fame pitcher, Grover Cleveland Alexander. Lucinda became friends with the entire 1926 Cardinal ballclub and their general manager, Branch Rickey. Thus began a lifelong passion for the Cardinals.

Thanks to Lucinda's influence, Jordan finds meaning in the ordinary pleasures of life, such as listening to Jack Buck's radio broadcasts of St. Louis Cardinal ballgames.