Before a recent game, with the music blaring inside Oakland’s clubhouse, A’s pitcher Liam Hendriks reached into his locker and grabbed two of his favorite things.
A ball and glove?
Not quite. As his teammates thumbed their smart phones or played cards on a nearby table, Hendriks picked up his noise-cancelling headphones and a hardback copy of “Morning Star” by Pierce Brown, a 2016 science fiction novel that’s the third in Brown’s Red Rising trilogy.
“I like to immerse myself in books,” Hendriks said. “I get lost in a universe. I can read a book, and everything else disappears.