Day 6 of 30 baseball book reviews for 2018: Bending belief by the Benhams

The book: “Miracle in Shreveport: A Memoir of Baseball, Fatherhood, and the Stadium that Launched a Dream”
The author: David Benham and Jason Benham
(also available as a tandem at twitter.com/BenhamBrothers)
How to find it: Thomas Nelson Books, 208 pages, $19.99, released March 27.
The links: At Amazon.com, at the publishers website.

A review in 90-feet or less: Sometimes, stories that seem too good to be true really can be.
Pray on it … things happen.
By the time you make it to page 141 of this one, and run into the biblical passage from Philippians 4:6-7 that reads, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Chris Jesus,” it will all make more sense.
David and Jason Benham, twin brothers from Garland, Tex., are sons of a preacher who had this notion that someday, if they prayed hard enough,  they would play a game together at the Fair Grounds Field in Shreveport La., a place between their home and frequent family trips to Atlanta. They have a pretty excellent adventure to tell.

The journey includes a mention of them in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces In The Crowd” in May, 1990 (above), as well as a large Sunday takeout of them in the Dallas Morning News as they progress from young star all-around athletes toward playing together at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and then get drafted by the Red Sox and Orioles, respectively.
Their constant prayers are answered by the St. Louis Cardinals’ Double-A Arkansas Travelers team that, by fluke and necessity, signs them to play together to finish off the 2000 season.

And what happened after that?
They launched a successful real estate business once they were both out of the game in 2002, got a reality show on HGTV that ended before it even aired curiously because of a backlash to their religious beliefs — they’ve been referred to as “Religious Right Culture Warriors” — and now live on the same block in Charlotte, N.C.
It’s all there on their website (www.benhambrothers.com) and in two other books they wrote, “Whatever the Cost, Facing Your Fears, Dying to Your Dreams and Living Powerfully” in 2015, and “Living Among Lions: How to Thrive like Daniel in Today’s Babylon” in 2016, both for Thomas Nelson Books.

How it goes down in the scorebook: An prayerful inning-ending twin killing.