World Baseball Guy: The Overseas Adventures of an American Coach is a collection of 12 short stories detailing the chaotic lifestyle of an international baseball coach. The deeply, personal story of Marvin “Merv” Moore is a 2025 book fundraiser for the Bohol Coconuts Baseball and Softball Club.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
– Berlin, Germany (1993)
– Magglingen, Switzerland (1993)
– Kiev, Ukraine (1993)
– ​Amsterdam, Netherlands (1994)
– Barcelona, Spain (1994)
– ​Ljubljana, Slovenia (1994)
– ​Zagreb, Croatia (1996)
– Basel, Switzerland (1998)
– Vienna, Austria (1998)
​- Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (2019)
– Thimphu, Bhutan (2022-23)
​- Kathmandu, Nepal (2023-24)
​​Merv was one of the early trailblazers of American baseball coaches relocating overseas to teach the sport to European athletes. The native Texan played a vital role in elevating the game in Switzerland and transformed one of Europe’s weakest national teams into a legitimate B-Pool contender. However, while he was achieving success on the baseball diamond, his personal life was in turmoil.
Burdened with the guilt of not preventing the suicide of his best friend at the age of 19, Merv turned to drugs and alcohol to escape these haunting feelings. He was the one whom his friend called late at night to ramble incoherently until he fell asleep on the phone. He was the one who helped Stanley prepare a last will and testament without even considering death. He was the only one who might have saved his best friend’s life. But he dropped the ball.
From playing street baseball with kids at a Slovenian housing project in Ljubljana to having a nightmarish picnic with gymnasts in Ukraine to almost provoking a public riot in Croatia, come along for an extraordinary worldwide journey of struggle and personal growth.
Here is an excerpt from: Barcelona, Spain (1994)
Roy was supposed to be our starting pitcher. He had been the best pitcher in Switzerland during the early years of the sport and was ultra-confident against Swiss teams. But about 15 minutes before the game started, Roy came to me in the dugout. He said his back was hurting and he couldn’t pitch. He could still swing a bat, but could not throw. I was stunned. Decker walked by shaking his head. I could tell that several players were thinking the same thing. Roy was not really hurt, he was just scared.
World Baseball Guy: The Overseas Adventures of an American Coach is a powerful story about overcoming tragedy and dealing with one’s inner demons while navigating the challenges of living in a foreign country.
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