Baseball’s Opening Day is several months away, winter is approaching and the Hot Stove League is just heating up. It’s always a good time to talk about the grand old game, isn’t it?
Yeah, we could talk about the Red Sox giving up on Chris Sale, trading him to the Atlanta Braves for a bag of baseballs (more or less - the guy never played). Or who is going to pony up the coin to sign Juan Soto?
Instead, we talked about happier topics, the good old days of baseball and a couple of books I’ve written about the sport that occupied so much of my — and my son’s John’s life.
“Last Time Out” is the second edition of a book I wrote first in 2005 which came out in 2022, a couple of weeks after I’d retired from teaching. There are 44 chapters about the final games of some of the game’s greatest players and the very first game from my favorite player, my son, John with the St. Louis Cardinals.
My new baseball book is “Diamond Duels,” which is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be out in early March. It’s a deep dive into game’s most historic matchups - How did Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb do against the greatest pitcher of his era, Walter Johnson? What player hit the most lifetime home runs off one pitcher? We know Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Rod Carew and George Brett were terrific hitters, who got them out? Somebody did, they didn’t bat .700! How come Yankee Hall of Famer Whitey Ford only had 42 lifetime starts against the arch-rival Boston Red Sox — some seasons without a single Fenway start — and 72 lifetime starts against the Chicago White Sox?
Bruce McClure, the SABR (Society Of American Baseball Research) founder and chairperson for the Clyde Sukeforth Chapter for (ME/NH) was kind enough to invite me and did a wonderful job hosting the event.
With the holidays approaching, there may be a few folks out there who might have a baseball fan on their Xmas list. If you’re in the Tallahassee area, I know Barnes & Noble has several copies of “Last Time Out” available as does Books A Million and I think, Midtown Reader and Hearth and Soul, too. They’re both on Amazon, too.
If you’re interested in hearing a little bit of baseball chatter, about both books, here’s the program. Thanks to Bruce McClure and all my questioners from last night. Hope you enjoy it!