Pinch Hits and Page-Turners: The Story of Alabama Baseball's Book Club

When Crimson Tide shortstop Jim Jarvis traveled home to San Diego for winter break, little did he know that his brothers would introduce him to a book that would change not just his journey, but those of his teammates as well.

"Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it." —Napoleon Hill

Success is something that all people from all walks of life strive to attain. Whether that success be at an individual's job, home or even in a leisure activity, success in that endeavor is something that all strive for.

While success in all walks of life is something that everyone pursues, the achievement of that success varies from individual to individual. This is not just because of circumstances and effort towards their goals, but also to the varying degrees that people quantify as success.

Sports are a perfect example of varying degrees of success. In athletics, there can be success at both an individual and a team level. While a baseball player might have batted 4-for-4 in a game with two home runs and three RBI, the team still might have lost the game due to poor pitching. While that example shows success at an individual level, the success at the team level was lacking.

For Alabama baseball, it sought to change its mindset from that of a collection of individuals striving for personal success to a group of players all striving for the same goal. The source of the movement within the program? A shortstop, a book and a unified vision.

This is the story of Alabama baseball's Book Club.

Back during winter break last December, Alabama shortstop Jim Jarvis was in sunny San Diego visiting with his family. A junior for the Crimson Tide, Jarvis was enjoying a much-needed break following the fall practice season.

While at home with his family, it his two brothers that introduced him to a book that would alter the course of the 2022 baseball season for not just him, but his teammates as well.

“When I was home this Christmas, me and my two brothers — there’s this book called "Think and Grow Rich", and my brothers had both read it and really, really liked it," Jarvis said. "I was the last one and I hadn’t read it yet, and so before I — like, two weeks before I was going to come back to Alabama — we’d go in our garage a couple of times a week at night and read 10 pages and then talk about the 10 pages that we’d read about.

Jarvis immediately took a liking to the self-help guide.

"I thought the message of the book was really inspiring," Jarvis said. "Not just inspiring, but like motivating and eye-opening. It kind of shocked me and made me look at things differently.”

"Think and Grow Rich" is a book that was published in 1937 and penned by author Napoleon Hill. It first hit shelves during The Great Depression and was promoted as a self-improvement and personal development book. Since its publishing, it has sold more than 15 million copies.

But Jarvis didn't know any of that information when he first read its opening pages at the behest of his brothers. Instead, he just kept reading. Over the course of the break, Jarvis finished the first four chapters with his brothers before it was time to head back to Tuscaloosa, Ala. to rejoin his Crimson Tide teammates.

On the 30-hour car drive from San Diego back to Alabama, Jarvis began to think about how the book could help not just him, but his teammates as well.

"I was sitting in the car trying to figure out how I could get more people onboard with the message of the book,” Jarvis said. “I thought it was very important. I thought it could only help our program, and so I was trying to think of ways to bring that message to everyone, so I was thinking maybe we could do the same thing. Like, just read a couple of pages every couple of nights and then just talk about it.

"You just get people thinking about different things and figuring out ways that you can be a better teammate. Just have more positive energy and bring different things to bring to the table that’s not necessarily just performance.”

While the book centers around changing one's mindset to that of success and, in turn, helps aims people to have greater financial success, Jarvis picked up on messages from the book that could help him in terms of baseball as well. Upon returning to campus, he reached out to a pair of teammates — first baseman Drew Williamson, outfielder Tommy Seidl — and student manager Drew Guffey. With all three onboard, the foursome met and began to dive into the book.

It didn't take long for Book Club to skyrocket in attendees.

“The next Book Club we had, there was double the amount of people there,” Jarvis said. “There was 8-10 people. Like, Drew [Guffey] got his brother Brock to come and a couple of other people were interested, so they showed up. We did the same thing — read another 10 pages and then had a little discussion about it — and then the next time it doubled again.

"Like, it just kept kind of growing over time because every single time a new person would come in, they would leave going like ‘Wow, I really liked that’ and then they’d starting telling other people about it on the team and it just kept kind of growing naturally. We didn’t have to force it on anyone, which is perfect.”

Over time, Jarvis' venture in Book Club continued to grow. The group met twice a week during preseason, reading 10 pages every session and hosting an open discussion afterwards. After the start of the season, the sessions were downgraded to just once per week due to time constraints and a busy schedule, but even still, Book Club trudged onward.

Along with finding common ground with teammates and providing everyone with a means to express their personal goals as well as goals for the team, the group also helped players realize how they could channel their mindsets for the betterment of those around them.

“The book talks about stories where people were at a deficit but they kept their head down, kept working and just basically to say that any goal is reachable with the right mindset," Alabama relief pitcher Brock Guffey said. "It makes it a lot easier whenever things aren’t going your way in baseball to just have these thoughts in the back of your head that you learned in Book Club: keep a positive mindset and know that so long as you stick to your goal, things will turn your way sooner or later.”

Alabama Athletics

In Alabama baseball's opening game of the season against Xavier, the literal first pitch of the season by Crimson Tide starting pitcher Garrett McMillan was rocketed over the outfield wall for a home run. Down 1-0 early, Alabama didn't get discouraged and ultimately rallied back with four runs in the bottom of the ninth to win the game, 5-4.

Jarvis cited that game as an example of how Book Club had benefitted the team. When the solo home run came off of Xavier first baseman Luke Franzoni's bat, the energy in the dugout saw the shortcoming as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

With that collective mindset, it's pretty easy to see why Jarvis and his teammates believe that the premise behind Book Club is working.

Seidl said that while Book Club has been important in shaping the mindset and personality of the team, the discussions have also served as a way to both highlight successes in wins and learn from shortcomings in losses.

“The book itself is really just a starting point — a catalyst — for conversation,” Seidl said. “There are a lot of great quotes, a lot of great stories from the book we’re reading, but in reality the conversation that comes from it is what most guys benefit from. After games, the ability to come and debrief what we took from that game — win or lose — is what will help us in the long term get better and better every week.

“Obviously after wins there’s things that you did right that you want to continue to do, and after losses there’s some mistakes you made that you want to correct. But in reality, win or lose, there’s always things to improve upon and so it’s really talking about how we can grow and get better after every game win or lose.”

So far this season, Alabama baseball has started with a 15-11 record. While it might have more Ls in the loss column than it would certainly like to say, most of the Crimson Tide's losses have been close ones. Last weekend at Mississippi State, both of Alabama's losses to the defending national champions came in walk-off fashion; a sign of growth for a program that has experienced much adversity over the past decade.

With individual goals thrown aside, Jarvis, Guffey and Seidl all admit that the team's overall mentality and approach to the game is much more positive. Players now celebrate others' successes as well as strive for the common goal of one day playing in Omaha at the College World Series.

It's a lofty goal, to be sure. But at the same time, if the team is able to fully work together as a team and place itself as a group on a pedestal above individual gain, then who knows what it will be able to accomplish?

When the group finishes "Think and Grow Rich", Jarvis, Seidl and Guffey were all very adamant that it will not be the end of Book Club. Rather, it will simply be time for the group to shift to a new book so that they can continue to learn on how to accomplish their goal.

“Whatever Jim’s got for us, he’s the book guy,” Seidl chuckled. “He’s our leader when it comes to books so whatever he’s got, we trust his choice.”

And should the team succeed in achieving its goal? Well, it can all be pointed back to a Book Club of four people led by the Crimson Tide's junior shortstop.

“It’s such an inspiring thing to hear all the people talk about how much they like it because it doesn’t just affect how you go about baseball,” Jarvis said. “It affects, in my opinion, everyday life where you’re walking around campus appreciating what’s around you and just thinking about how many things that you have that are perfect."