Baseball Book Preview

As we used to say around Rogers Park in Brighton, "I'm pretty stoked." I got a galley proof of the book I worked on this Summer and it looks great.

The book is "Change Up: An Oral History of 8 Key Events That Shaped Modern Baseball" by Larry Burke and Peter Thomas Fornatale with Jim Baker. Basically, it's an exploration of the changing dynamics in baseball since the 1960's in the words of the people that were involved in those changes. The 8 key events outlined are as follows: Expansion (told by way of "the 1962 Mets"), "The Latino Wave", "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton, "The Birth of the Players Union", "The Designated Hitter", "The First African American Manager", "Cal Ripken's Streak", and "Ichiro Comes to America".

My job included interviewing former players like Dennis Eckersley, Luis Tiant, Rico Carty, et al. In addition to the players I interviewed executives Bud Selig, Fay Vincent, and Lou Gorman. They were all extremely cooperative. It takes talking to these people to understand just how much the love the game of baseball.

Look for the release in early March and a release party at Thom's.