John Cangelosi

John Cangelosi: The Improbable Baseball Journey of the Undersized Kid from Nowhere to World Series Champion


A born and bred New Yorker, John Cangelosi’s claim to fame was as a super-quick base stealer with a tremendous work ethic. He played on that 1997 Florida Marlins team that surprised everyone by wining the World Series. In this biography, he teams up with noted sports writer K. P. Wee to share his stories of growing up in Brooklyn and what it took to become an MLB player. This is an inside look at a real everyman of baseball, full of stories about stealing bases against legendary pitchers and catchers, and how it felt to celebrate the first championship in Marlins history.


“[Cangelosi] put forth the effort in the way he played, and he got back to the big leagues. You salute guys like that. And that’s why with the younger players, you just tell them, ‘Hey, look. You wanna try to get to the big leagues? Do what he does. Show up, and play hard every night.”

—Terry Collins, former Buffalo Bisons manager and Houston Astros manager 


“If you have that blue-collar work ethic and not give up on your dreams, anything can happen. That’s what happened for me in those years in the 1990s.” 

—John Cangelosi