I mean, trade your closer? That’s how we won last year. And rightfully so, to be honest with you. It wasn’t something that was quickly forgotten. “When that happened last year, it just brought us down. “Everybody still asks me, 'Why did you trade Hader?'’’ All-Star reliever Devin Williams, who assumed the closer’s role, told USA TODAY Sports. While leading the NL Central by three games on the way to a fifth consecutive postseason? Really, we’re trading Josh Hader, our four-time All-Star closer, and three-time National League reliever of the year? PHOENIX – The Milwaukee Brewer players were stunned, completely blindsided by the news, leaving them so enraged they couldn’t see straight. Every page of it reads like a gift, and it has wisdom to offer readers of every age, free for the taking.Watch Video: Harold Reynolds explains why he loves MLB's new rules

By the end of The One and Only Bob, the review copy I was reading looked like an accordion. When I read, I like to turn down the corners of pages that contain phrases or scenes I particularly love. But just as crisis sometimes brings out the best of humanity, Applegate reveals that it does the same for animals.Īpplegate’s prose is full of moments of true beauty, philosophical musings and more than a bit of laugh-out-loud humor. The storm sends Bob’s world into a wet and terrifying tailspin. Julie takes Bob to visit his best friends, Ivan and Ruby, every week at the zoo, until one week, a fearsome hail storm spins into a tornado. Though he’s small in stature, Bob is not one to be belittled.

He doesn’t like the sound of the word and sometimes finds it demeaning. He’s honest, wise and hilarious, but in his own words, he “ain’t a saint.”ĪLSO IN BOOKPAGE: Katherine Applegate reveals her initial reaction when she found out she had won the Newbery Medal.Ī four-legged philosopher, Bob waxes eloquent about his life as a dog, sharing his desperate times, when he thrown out of a truck as a puppy and forced to live on the streets, to his sweeter times now that his human, Julie, cares for him. The star of this show is Bob, a scrappy mutt who longs to be more of a hero than he currently is. Applegate once again delivers excellence. The One and Only Bob is the long-awaited sequel to Applegate’s Newbery Medal-winner, The One and Only Ivan, a novel inspired by the story of a gorilla kept caged at a mall for 27 years. I fall into the former category, but Applegate had me at her glossary of canine terms, which features such entries as “Tug of war string: a long piece of fabric or leather (though never long enough) used to lead humans during walks.” Whether you’re a card-carrying member of the ASPCA living with two rescue dogs, four cats and seven goldfish, or you shudder at the idea of taking care of another creature, you’re going to love Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Bob.

Bob from the one and only bob