IT’S A LONG WAY FROM FLOOD STREET TO FENWAY…

Bruce Hurst grew up in St. George, Utah, with dreams of becoming a pro basketball player.  A Little League baseball coach saw potential in the tall, skinny lefty and taught him the proper mechanics of pitching.  By the time he was a senior at Dixie High School, major league baseball scouts from across the country were watching his every move.  In 1976, at the age of 18, he was the first draft pick of the Boston Red Sox.  Almost overnight he was plucked out of his comfortable hometown, and dropped smack in the middle of the harried life of pro baseball.

The journey from Flood Street to Fenway was a transition from boyhood to manhood.  Bruce was not an overnight sensation.  It took ten years, and the support of his wife, family, friends and church leaders, before he walked to the mound as the starting pitcher in five post-season games, winning two games in one of the most memorable World Series of our time.

This is a story for youngsters – from eight to 88.  It is the story of a unique athlete whose personal and religious commitments transcend the trivia of sports.  It is the story of slowly-gained, hard-won success – and how you don’t have to lose your roots in the process.