New Book Chronicles ex-Brewer’s Rise from Pizza Guy to MLB Outfielder

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Photo: Jim Rushford - Facebook

Jim Rushford - Tucson Toros 2008

Jim Rushford with the Tucson Toros c. 2008

While 48 other players appeared in at least one game as a Brewer during the 2002 season, none of them had a story quite like Jim Rushford. By the time the 28-year-old outfielder made his MLB debut that September he was a veteran of four independent league seasons across three leagues and had been delivering pizzas to make ends meet while he chased his dreams. Rushford celebrated the 20th anniversary of that MLB callup this year and his new book, “The Pizza Guy Delivers,” is an autobiography chronicling his baseball journey across 15 years and 13 leagues.

The book came out this month, and we recently talked to Rushford about the experience of writing a memoir, his baseball memories and his attachment to the game today.

What made you decide to write a book, and what made now the time to tell your story?

Well, the book idea was in my head when I was still playing. When I made it out of independent ball and into affiliated baseball, I knew there was a story there and I would have people telling me I should write a book. And then once I made it to the major leagues it seemed like it was something that would be a done deal and definitely something I should do. But I put it off for, I don’t know, a decade or more, partly because I guess along the way I heard so many great stories that people had, and thought, “Well, why is my story any more special?”

But it wasn’t until a few years back, more recently, Andrew Martin, he’s billed as “The Baseball Historian,” he sent me a bunch of questions and asked if I’d answer them. I did, and then he said, “would you like to write a book?” and I said, “well, yeah, I’m interested.” And it was kind of his questioning and my answers to his questions that got me brainstorming and writing. Once I got going it just really took off and I decided to make a complete autobiography out of it.

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Photo: Jim Rushford - Facebook

Jim Rushford - Ottawa Lynx 2007

Jim Rushford with the Ottawa Lynx in 2007

What are you hoping people will take away from reading it?

Mostly just not to give up on your dreams. Raw determination is the most important ingredient to reach your goals. Consistent effort, day in and day out, adds up even when you feel like you might not be making any progress. You’re taking baby steps, and over time it adds up to a huge amount. You can get to where you’re going eventually if you just keep plugging away.

Your baseball journey took you all over the place, including 16 teams in a bunch of leagues. What’s the weirdest place you ever played?

All the winter balls were interesting, whether you play in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico. I don’t want to call it “weird,” but you have to get used to a whole different country and culture, different ways of doing things, obviously they’re speaking Spanish around you. In the Dominican some of the infrastructure’s not as nice, so you have to “rough it” a little bit, get used to a different level of accommodations. Sometimes the lights would go out in the middle of the game, things like that.

And then just a funny tidbit, but in Duluth (where Rushford played in the Northern League in 2000) they had really funny dugouts. The stadium was built just after World War II, it was pretty old, and the dugouts almost seemed like you were in an Army trench on the frontline or something. You had to crawl in and out and like roll under the roof so you wouldn’t hit your head.

Then in Dubois County (Rushford’s first professional stop in 1996, part of the now-defunct Heartland League), we didn’t have a locker room, so we’d have to change in the tiny tunnel. That was a cool stadium because that’s where A League of Their Own was filmed. The Rockford Peaches, this was southern Indiana but that’s where the Rockford Peaches’ stadium was supposed to be for the movie. It had a cool old school baseball feel to it, you felt like you were playing decades earlier the way it was designed and built. But there were no locker rooms, so we just changed in a little tunnel before the game.

Across all those years in baseball you’ve had a ton of teammates. Who are some of the players you have the most stories about? The guy who was the most out there?

One of the funnier guys was Izzy Alcantara. He’s the guy who was known for donkey kicking the catcher after he got nailed by a pitch, but he was also a prolific home run hitter in AAA for a long time and played in the big leagues too (Alcantara was also a 2002 Brewer). He was just so animated, when he’d hit home runs and point up to the sky when he touched home plate, and in the clubhouse he’d be dancing to salsa music before the games. He was always making you laugh.

Some other guys, “Big Papa” Anthony Lewis from my Duluth team, he was the consummate professional. He kind of showed me the ropes when I was coming up, because he was a veteran player. He set an example, took me under his wing and helped me out. So he was basically my mentor coming up, and he had a big effect on me.

This summer your son Milo (an 18th round pick by the Royals) made his professional debut. What’s been the biggest difference between his baseball experience and yours?

Well, I’d say early on I probably did a lot more at a younger age, but he caught up and passed me up and by the time he got to high school he was much better than I ever was at that age. I guess the biggest difference was just that for me going from being an amateur, whether it was high school or college to being a pro player was many years and a long, winding road, and for him he’s just going right into it. He’s getting to have the best of everything at a younger age and develop quicker. That’s part of the reason I encouraged him to sign, because I know how hard it was to just get a chance. So he worked really hard and did a lot, and when he got his chance I was like, “well, you’d better take it” because you never know if these are going to come up again.

Aside from working with Milo, are you still involved in the game at all?

I am. I keep track of the high school kids because I’m kind of invested in a bunch of them because I’ve coached them for a long time. I try to both coach them and help them get to colleges so they can continue playing. A bunch of guys from Milo’s team last year are now playing college baseball, and I had a hand in helping them get to the next step where some of them might have just not even considered it if I didn’t encourage them and manage them and guide them with what they needed to do to land that college scholarship.

So I stay involved that way, and I also keep abreast of what’s going on with Milo’s career so he can make good decisions, and I keep track, because I wouldn’t mind working in baseball again in some capacity.

“The Pizza Guy Delivers: The baseball memoirs of Jim Rushford – “From pizza delivery driver, to independent league long shot, to a cup of coffee in the Show” is available now in hardcover, paperback and Kindle formats. Rushford is also active on Twitter at @jim_rushford.