Category Archives: Books

Q/A: Former Sun-Times sportswriter’s book being made into movie about epic high school winning streak

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Neil Hayes is living the dream of nearly every author. His book is being made into a movie.

In 2002, Hayes wrote, When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football’s Longest Winning Streak. The high school in Concord, Calif. had an epic 151-game winning streak that stretched over 13 years.

It took almost as long for the book to be made into a movie. But after many twists, turns, and seemingly roadblocks, the film actually just completed shooting in New Orleans. The cast includes Jim Caviezel as coach Bob Ladouceur, Laura Dern as his wife, and Michael Chiklis as De La Salle’s defensive coordinator.

Thomas Carter (Coach Carter) is the director, and Scott Marshall Smith adapted the screenplay from Hayes’ book. The film is slated for release in fall, 2014.

Hayes left his job at the Chicago Sun-Times so he could be a consultant during the filming of the movie. Here’s my Q/A with him about the entire experience.

You wrote this book in 2002. Did you ever dream it would be a movie?

I never dreamed this big. I just wanted to write something that fully explained the most unique football program and coach I have ever encountered. Big publishers wouldn’t touch it. They said it was too regional of a subject so I went with a local publisher. I was convinced this story would resonate. It’s very gratifying to know my instincts were correct.

As far as the movie goes, it has taken 10 years and two different producers to get to this point. I never allowed myself to believe it would happen until it actually did.

How much input did you have on the script?

Although I didn’t write the script, I was included from the very beginning and felt my voice was heard and that I impacted the script throughout the process.

What has it been like to be in New Orleans to watch the film get made? What have you learned about making a movie?

Surreal. That’s the only way to describe watching actors such as Jim Caviezel, Laura Dern and Michael Chiklis play characters I know so well.

As far as the actual making of the movie, it’s as grueling as it is rewarding. We are working a minimum of 12 hours a day while switching back and forth from day shoots to all-nighters. You film all these short scenes, from three or four different angles, and not even in chronological order. Then it all gets pieced together in post-production. It’s an amazing creative process to watch unfold.

How much interaction have you had with the actors?

Tons. I spent a lot of time with Jim early in the process to help him understand his character. Chiklis is from Boston and is a huge Bruins fan, which has made the Stanley Cup Finals interesting. Laura’s one of the most approachable people you could meet and is a bright light whenever she walks on set. The young actors playing football players are terrific guys and terrific actors who have been a blast to be around.

Why did you decide to leave the Sun-Times?

Being on set during the making of a movie based on my book is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

Short version: What made the DeLaSalle story so special? Why has this story resonated through the years?

Here’s the quote from Bob Ladouceur that convinced me this story had to be told.

“Kids respect true humility and that you stand for something more than winning. They’ll fight for you and your program if you stand for more than that. It boils down to what you believe in as a person, and I’m talking about how life should be lived and how people should be treated. Kids see all that. It’s a whole package of things that has nothing to do with standing in front of a team with a piece of chalk. You can know who to block and what play to call, but it has no meaning unless the kids know who you are. Our kids aren’t fighting for wins. They’re fighting for a belief in what we stand for.”

 

 

Sunday books: The USGA’s Great Moments of the U.S. Open

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Another chapter in the U.S. Open will get written today. Or tomorrow, if there’s a playoff.

To read about the entire history of the great tournament, check out the United States Golf Association’s new book, Great Moments of the U.S. Open.

Terrific pictures, and of course, many great stories.

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Here’s the write-up from the USGA.

Written by Robert Williams, director of the USGA Museum, and Michael Trostel, the Museum’s senior curator and historian, the book celebrates the accomplishments of U.S. Open champions, shares their inspirational stories and chronicles the extraordinary circumstances that each faced. Rand Jerris, senior managing director of public services for the USGA,served as supervising editor, and among the contributors are Mike Davis, executive director of the USGA, and John Mummert, manager of creative services and senior staff photographer for the USGA.

Complete with a foreword by four-time U.S. Open champion Jack Nicklaus, “Great Moments of the U.S. Open” draws together heroes, past and present, who persevered under the most demanding conditions to become America’s national champions.

Release of the book coincides with the 100th anniversary of amateur Francis Ouimet’s shocking victory over top British professionals at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., and the return of the U.S. Open in June to Merion Golf Club, site of Ben Hogan’s 1950 comeback from a near fatal car accident.

From Horace Rawlins’ improbable victory in the inaugural U.S. Open in 1895, to Nicklaus’ narrow defeat of Arnold Palmer in 1962 for his first professional win, to Tiger Woods’ breathtaking triumph on a broken leg to capture the 2008 U.S. Open, “Great Moments of the U.S. Open” uses the USGA Museum’s collection of stunning archival images and artifacts to bring to life some of the most memorable U.S. Open victories.

“The U.S. Open has long been celebrated as the game’s premier championship,” said Jerris. “Its history is full of unforgettable moments – spectacular shots, amazing comebacks and legendary champions who have inspired generations of golf fans. As some of the stories in the book demonstrate, the U.S. Open has also been marked by incredible stories of courage and determination that have been all but forgotten with time, but that deserve to be remembered among the most inspirational moments in golf history.”

“Great Moments of the U.S. Open” features 27 stories that provide readers a unique and authoritative view on America’s most prestigious golf championship.

“The U.S. Open helped to solidify golf’s standing in America and has expanded the game’s reach around the globe,” said Trostel. “This book celebrates some of the defining moments and iconic champions in the U.S. Open’s rich history. While the championship has evolved dramatically since its origin in 1895, the critical ingredients remain the same. It is golf’s most complete test, played on the country’s greatest courses and is open to all who have the skill, passion and determination to compete.”

Published by Firefly Books, “Great Moments of the U.S. Open,” is a 216-page celebration of one of the world’s premier sporting events, making it a must-have for golf fans and sports history enthusiasts. The book is currently available for purchase at www.usga.org/publicationsstore.

 

Sunday books: Red Smith, the Babe Ruth of sportswriters; new book of columns

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My upcoming book on Babe Ruth’s Called Shot homer (due out next spring) includes several passages from Red Smith.

Smith was at Wrigley Field for that famous game in 1932. He only was a young reporter for the St. Louis Star on that day and wasn’t much of a presence given a press box that included Grantland Rice, Ring Lardner and Damon Runyon.

However, Smith became a giant in the business. He wrote brilliant columns about Ruth, Rice and others. It was an honor to feature some of those excerpts in my book. Not that I didn’t already know it, but reading his columns again reconfirmed just how good he was.

Smith truly was a Babe Ruth among sportswriters. A new book, American Pasttimes: The Very Best of Red Smith, celebrates his work.

Edited by Daniel Okrent, the book features his classic columns. They truly are classics.

Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post writes:

As Smith’s son Terence, himself a distinguished journalist, says in a brief, affectionate afterword to this collection, his father was a columnist pure and simple, a master of the 800-word “plinth,” as he was amused to call his column, with no pretensions or desires to be otherwise. Born in Green Bay, Wis., in 1905, he did a prolonged journalistic apprenticeship before finally reaching the New York Herald Tribune in 1945, where he stayed until the paper’s demise in 1967 (by then it had been folded into what was called the World-Journal-Tribune), after which he floundered around until being taken in by the New York Times in 1971, where, as Okrent correctly writes, “he was, immediately and obviously, the best writer in the paper.” His last column for the Gray Lady was published on Jan. 11, 1982, and four days later he died.

Smith’s son wrote about his father in the Columbia Journalism Review:

Once he got into it, he relished writing sports and thought it was as good a vehicle as any to shed some light on the human condition. “I never felt any prodding need to solve the problems of the world,” he said in an interview years later. “I feel that keeping the public informed in any area is a perfectly worthwhile way to spend your life. Sports constitute a valid part of our culture, our civilization, and keeping the public informed, and, if possible, a little entertained about sports is not an entirely useless thing.”

 

 

Sunday’s books: Q/A with Robert Weintraub, author of ‘Victory Season’; Baseball after WWII in 1946

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Some baseball seasons stand out more than others. It’s hard to beat the significance of 1946.

In an excellent new book, The Victory Season, Robert Weintraub (author of House that Ruth Built) looks at the country struggling to regain some normalcy after the end of World War II. For baseball, it marked the return of its stars, many of whom came back as changed men after seeing action in combat.

The 1946 season had no shortage of storylines with Ted Williams and Stan Musial ultimately leading their teams to the World Series. Meanwhile, a young kid named Jackie Robinson played that season for Brooklyn’s top farm team in Montreal, setting the stage for what would take place in 1947.

Here is my Q/A with Weintraub:

How did you come up with the idea for this book?

Combining WWII and baseball seemed like a natural–two great tastes that go great together, at least in terms of books.  More intriguing than MLB during the war was what became of the players when they left for the service, and even more so, what happened when they came back.

What was the impact of the War on players returning to the game?

It differed from person to person, of course, but in the main they certainly got some perspective (a dreaded cliche but in this case it’s true).  Bob Feller said he felt little pressure pitching in Yankee Stadium after being fighting across the Pacific on a battleship for several years.  Warren Spahn was a pitcher who was his own worst enemy before the war, but after “sleeping in tank treads” he realized baseball meant little in the greater scheme of things, relaxed mightily, and went on to a Hall of Fame career.  On the other hand, there were players like Joe DiMaggio who mainly spent the war tabulating how much money they were losing out on.

The Mexican League made a serious bid to lure players, including Musial. How serious was the threat to MLB?

The Mexican League in and of itself was not much of a threat, because playing conditions were so poor.  But the threat of an outsider exposing the game’s inherent indentured servitude was a major scare to the owners.  A secret report issued in 1946 essentially admitted that the Reserve Clause, the part of the standard player contract that bound player to team, would never hold up in court if seriously challenged, as the Mexicans threatened to do.  In large part the Mexican threat prodded ownership to make some concessions to the players, though they managed to keep the Reserve Clause in place and their grip on the levers of power firm for another couple of generations.

Obviously, there was no shortage of storylines. What stood out for you?

Certainly the incredible story of the European Theater of Operations “World Series,” a baseball tournament played by American servicemen in the conquered spiritual home of Nazism, the Hitler Youth Stadium in Nuremburg, Germany.  Even more amazing than the spectacle of 50,000 American soldiers watching baseball being played right where Hitler used to scream out his hate was the fact that the winning team, a unit based in France, actually featured Negro League players.  It was an out of town preview of Jackie Robinson’s coming debut, and a successful one at that.

How much was the country aware of what was going on with Robinson in Montreal?

He was heavily covered at first, then sort of forgotten about as the country turned its attention to the big leagues, then covered heavily once again as the Montreal Royals won the minor league championship and everyone wondered if Jackie would get called up to Brooklyn to put them over the top in the pennant race.  Obviously once he cracked the majors the following season he was thrust into the nation’s consciousness more thoroughly.

What struck you about Williams and Musial? They were strikingly different personalities.

No question–Ted was essentially an artist, and thus tempestuous and short with anything that kept him from his canvas.  Stan was personable, chatty with strangers, and a beloved teammate.  The interesting thing I found was that at the time, Musial was considered the greater all-around player–perhaps not the hitter Williams was, but better in every other phase of the game.  But after they retired, Williams gained currency from his war service (Korea as well as WWII) and his bluff, Marlboro Man appeal.  As greatness on the field was increasingly tied, in the public and literary mind, at least, to an irascible if not downright angry personality, Williams’ flaws were recast as necessities to his brilliance.

Musial was great, but since he wasn’t nearly as tortured, it was easy to overlook him.  Plus, the deification of the military and veterans helped Ted mightily.  Williams was an ace pilot–Musial drove a water taxi at Pearl Harbor during the war.  As I put it in the book, Williams was Chuck Yeager; Musial merely Chuck Taylor.

Looking back, how important was that season in the history of baseball?

Very important–you had the first playoff series to decide a pennant, Country Slaughter’s “Mad Dash” to cap one of the game’s most dramatic World series ever, plus Robinson’s debut, the Mexican threat, the first glimmering of labor strife, and pretty much everything that would come to define baseball–and sports in general–getting its post-war beginnings.  An alternative title to the book was “Baseball Year Zero”–because everything that had come before, pre-war, was pretty much left aside as modernity hit the game.

Anything else?

I would only add that a very interesting part of the story is the difficulty the US had in adjusting to the immediate post-war environment.  The influx of millions of servicemen and women made life in America very difficult in 1946.  Labor strife abounded, there were massive shortages in housing, transport, and basic goods, a large black market thrived, and the threat of both a renewed depression and another war, this time with the Soviets, loomed over most people’s daily lives.  Baseball proved to be a great outlet for millions of people who craved a return to normalcy but were denied it that summer.

Sunday books: Striking portraits of old Comiskey Park; must buy for White Sox fans

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I truly can say I grew up at old Comiskey Park.

My father gave me my introduction to baseball there in the late 60s. A North Side Sox fan, my friends and I took the train to the South Side to watch games in the 70s, a time when that really wasn’t done.

Then as a vendor during my college years, I logged countless miles walking up and down the stairs trying to sell my stuff.

My professional career was kicked started as the Sox beat writer for the Chicago Tribune from 1986-88. Finally, it came full circle when my father and I attended Comiskey Park’s finale in 1990.

So naturally a new book, Portraits From The Park, really hits home for me. It also will for fellow Sox fans who still have fond memories of the old place.

Published by Columbia College Press, the book features vintage photos by Thomas W. Harney. Beginning in 1973, Harney, whose family had deep roots as long-time Sox fans, began to take pictures at old Comiskey. He continued to the day it closed on Sept. 30, 1990.

However, you won’t see baseball action photos or player portraits in the book. This is about the people who gave Comiskey its soul: The fans. They rocked the place on hot summer nights. As Harry Caray would say in ’70s, “Listen to the crowd.”

The shots are phenomenal. They underscore the passion and grit that defined Sox fans compared to the wine and cheese Cubs fans. At least back then.

The photos also provide wonderful perspectives that will remind veteran Sox fans of the views from the old park: The picnic area in left field; the faraway centerfield bleachers; the old upperdeck that hung over the field; walking in from 35th and Shields. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Harney’s work is presented in black-and-white. That’s as it should be. It allows the shadows to be highlighted in a way that would be ruined by color.

The photos also show the rough edges of old Comiskey Park. Paint was peeling and the seats looked old and worn out. Alas, it wasn’t a museum piece like Wrigley Field, and it was time to say farewell in 1990.

Yet Harney’s photos will remind Sox fans of what they once were like and what they once had at old Comiskey Park. It was a special place. It was our place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday books: Frank Lane, baseball’s manic trader; ‘Most colorful GM of all time’

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Frank Lane, one of the most colorful characters in baseball history, has largely been forgotten. Bob Vanderberg, though, didn’t forget.

My former Chicago Tribune colleague and fellow loyal White Sox fan, nails the twists and turns of his eventful career in a new biography, Frantic Frank Lane: Baseball’s Ultimate Wheeler-Dealer.

Beginning with the White Sox in the 50s, Lane earned a reputation for trading anyone and everyone. While GM of the Cardinals, he even tried to deal Stan Musial to Philadelphia for Robin Roberts. August Busch didn’t allow it to go through.

In a Q/A, Vanderberg discusses Lane and makes the case why he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Why a book on Frank Lane? Sound like quite a character.

I kept waiting for one to be done—it never was, so I decided to do it (I had a couple hours of tape from a 1978 interview with him, so I had a  start).  I talked with Jimmy Piersall a few times about playing against the White Sox in  the ’50s, and he always admired their style of play. Well, Lane was the guy who got the players that enabled them to play that style—Minnie Minoso, Nellie Fox, Chico Carrasquel, Jim Rivera, etc.  Jimmy called him the most colorful baseball GM/owner of all time—“nobody close to him. Steinbrenner couldn’t carry his jock.”

He was always in the middle of the biggest trade talks.  He loved the spotlight.  Very quotable. (although you had to clean up the quotes….!)  And he didn’t mind if he was quoted incorrectly. He told me:  “I’d never give a damn if I was misquoted—the worst thing that could happen was if they didn’t  quote me.”

How much of his reputation was built on the volume of his trades as opposed to the quality of his trades?

The usual response you get is that Lane was a compulsive dealer who just HAD to make a trade.

As Joe Garagiola said: “Not only was he not afraid to make a deal, he was afraid NOT to make a deal.” His boss in Milwaukee, Bud Selig, said: “I used to kid Frank that he thought he got paid by the number of deals he made.”

But I believe the quality of his trades—especially the ones that built the White Sox into sudden contenders—is what established his reputation.  I mean, a veteran backup catcher, Aaron Robinson, 33, for a kid lefty, Billy Pierce, 21; another backup catcher, Joe Tipton, for a 22-year-old second baseman, Nelson Fox…. sending two minor-leaguers and $25 grand to the Dodgers for one of Branch Rickey’s less-valued shortstop prospects, the Venezuelan flash, Chico Carrasquel; a three-team deal in which Lane gave up little and gained Orestes “Minnie” Minoso, the 1951 Rookie of the Year…..  and the list goes on…

What were his best trades and worst trades?

Best ones, I’ve always thought, were Tipton for Fox; Aaron Robinson and 10,000 bucks for Pierce; the Minoso deal; as Cleveland GM, traded aging Larry Doby to Detroit (March 1959) for Tito Francona, who went on to hit .363 that season with 20 homers in a pennant bid that fell just short; and as Angels superscout and acting GM in December 1977, traded Bobby Bonds, young OF Thad Bosley and 18-yr-old pitcher Richard Dotson to White Sox for catcher Brian Downing (who became one of that franchise’s all-time stars) and young pitchers Dave Frost and Chris Knapp, who became key starting pitchers in the Angels’ drive to the AL West title in 1979.

Worst?  In spring training 1960, he traded Norm Cash (one of his original signees out of college) to the Tigers  for a minor-league infielders named Steve Demeter, who had one big-league hit; Rocky Colavito, hero of Cleveland’s younger set and 1959 AL home run champ dealt to Detroit day before 1960 season began for AL batting champ Harvey Kuenn. Lane hated to this day by many Clevelanders;  twice sold the amazing knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm, once from St Louis to Cleveland and once from Cleveland to Baltimore; Cardinals CF and 1955 Rookie of the Year Bill VIrdon to the Pirates in May 1956 for CF Bobby DelGreco, a dandy glove man but a .230 hitter at best;  Roger Maris, 1B Preston Ward and LHP Dick Tomanek from Cleveland to Kansas City for 1B Vic Power and SS Woodie Held. Maris, then riding the Tribe bench, turned into the Yankees’ 61-homer man in 1961.

How would Lane have been in today’s climate with free agency and big-money salaries?

Piersall, who played for him, said, “No, he couldn’t operate today. He wouldn’t have the patience.”  But Selig and author Roger Kahn, who know him well, were certain he’d have been able to change with the times. This guy, remember, had a great mind.  He was constantly coming up with new ideas.  A mind that can do that would be able to handle anything.  Look, he was head of several  MLB committees, one of which studied expansion in the early ’50s (he predicted two 10-team leagues by 1961 and, soon after, two 12-team leagues, with 6-team divisions)….. he led the fight for making batting helmets/liners compulsory;  he said baseball had to have one set of “Major League” umpires, not one for the AL and another for the NL  (it finally came to pass in 2000); and he carried the flag for adoption of the “designated pinch hitter”  rule as early as 1967—-and then, five years after the rule was adopted, he argued that it was no longer needed and it should be gotten rid of…

He would enjoy being in the spotlight, battling the other clubs in the off-season for the top available stars—as he had back in 1953 for All-Star 1B and two-time batting champ Ferris Fain (seemingly headed to the Yankees until Lane got him in a huge trade with the A’s ) and in 1954 with All-Star 3B and former batting  champ George Kell (acquired from the Red Sox for a player and $125,000).

Is there anyone comparable to him today in any sports, not just baseball?

Only guy I can think of would be Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavs owner who is fairly flamboyant and probably a bit goofy. I’m racking my steadily shrinking brain, but I can’t think of anyone.

Make the case for him being inducted into the Hall despite not being a GM for any pennant winner?

You always hear the phrase “in the best interests of baseball.”  Just about everything Frank Lane did was in the best interests of baseball.  When he was your team’s GM, you could be assured that he was keeping your team in the headlines and, most of the time, in contention. His trades always kept the pot boiling.

Here’s Bud Selig’s take on Frank:  “I think Frank does belong in the Hall of Fame. His impact on our sport  and on so many franchises was really critical, and he was one of those individuals who, when you met, you would never forget. He was a remarkable human being.”

Q/A with Mike Greenberg on his unlikely book: How did guy who sits next to Golic capture perspective of women?

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Here’s a sentence I never thought I would write: If you are looking for a nice Mother’s Day gift, consider buying Mike Greenberg’s new book, All You Could Ask For.

No offense, but while reading the book, there were many times I checked the cover to make sure the author’s name wasn’t Michele Greenberg. You see, the ESPN radio host wrote a book about the intimate details of three women suffering from breast cancer.

I know “Greeny” is an enlightened guy, but the idea of him coming out with a women’s book still seems as unlikely as Martha Stewart writing on the greatest hockey fights of all time.

Yet Greenberg pulled it off. He wrote an entertaining book that has received favorable reviews.

Typical is this contribution from a reader named Amy on a review page:

I loved this book from beginning to end. I’m still flabbergasted by the fact that this was written by a man, one that is in fact a sports fanatic.
I believe that not many men out write chicklit books because of the difficulty they would have in developing genuine female characters. Well, Mike Greenberg has definitely proved us wrong. He not only beautifully managed to create just one, but three realistic and extremely relatable female characters. Mike clearly understands the women’s psyche.

Again, it’ll make a nice Mother’s Day gift. Perhaps even for Father’s Day too.

And the best part: All the proceeds of the book go to the V Foundation in memory of Heidi Armitage, a close friend of Greenberg and his wife Stacy, who died of cancer in 2009. Heidi was the inspiration for the book.

Here’s my Q/A with Greenberg:

So what’s next? You starring in an opera?

My father would love that. He loves the opera.

Seriously, what gave you the inspiration to write about three women?

At Heidi’s funeral, her husband, Adam, was reading these letters about Heidi from women I never met. It didn’t seem right to me. My wife, Stacy, said she became active in a support group during her last few months. She died never having met these women.

The next day, I was sitting at the kitchen table. It was as if I got struck by a bolt of lightning. I said, ‘I’m going to write a novel about three women.’

Forget the women aspect. Your two previous books were non-fiction. What made you think you could do a novel?

This is actually my third novel. It’s just that the other two weren’t published. The second novel is about the seedy underbelly of sports. I was really disappointed when everyone passed on it.

Again, forget the women’s aspect. What made you think you could pull this off?

About a month in, I literally woke up in a cold sweat. ‘What the hell am I doing? I’m going to make a fool out of myself.’ I sent what I had written to my literary agent. I told him, ‘Tell me I’m crazy for doing this.’ The next day, he said, ‘I think you’ve got this. Keep going.’

OK now the women’s perspective. How does a male sports radio talk show host know so much about women? Were you afraid women wouldn’t take it seriously?

Absolutely. My father was a lawyer. Whenever we would go to a movie, all he would do is complain that the courtroom scenes were dreadful. I knew if the book was not authentic, people would never lose themselves in the characters.

I don’t know how to explain it, but I got a lot of help from my wife, my agent’s wife, and my yoga instructor. So I had women in their 20s, 40s, and 60s. I kept sending them stuff and told them to tell me what I was getting wrong. For instance, they said no 28-year old would use the word, ‘blouse.’

Ultimately, I don’t think men and women are that different. This is a book about big topics: Power, friendship, mortality. In that way, I don’t think there is much delineation between the two genders.

What has struck you about the reaction?

I did two previous books tours where the people who came out were sports fans. They only wanted to talk about sports. ”

This book tour is totally different. For this one, I make it clear to people, “Just because I wrote it, please don’t think it’s a sports book.”

There were women who came out wearing these T-shirts. One said: “Sure, they are fake; The real ones tried to kill me.” Another said, “FU-BC.”

Not one said, “I have cancer, pity me.”

Heidi has been gone for three years. That part isn’t as current anymore. So to go out and meet these women (who have battled cancer), it’s been a great experience. It really hits home for me.

The best part is the money we’re raising. We’re close to making our first donation. It’s going to be a lot of money.

 Now that you have written a successful women’s novel, can we expect another?

I’m working on a book that has a first-person male character. It comes closer to my own sensibility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday books: Reliving the summer of ’73; Reggie A’s, Yogi’s Mets, and new owner of Yankees

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It’s funny how things work. I would be hard-pressed to remember much about a baseball season from two or three years ago, but I can recite chapter and verse about the summer of ’73.

I was 13 that year and was totally immersed in baseball. The games and statistics left an indelible mark in my mind.

They all came back in clear focus in Matthew Silverman’s fascinating new book, Swinging ’73. If Dick Allen hadn’t broken his leg in June of that year, Silverman might have been writing about my White Sox.

Instead, the book is about a memorable season that featured the end of Willie Mays’ career with the Mets and introduction of a new Yankees owner–fellow by the name of Steinbrenner. Another owner, Charlie Finley, was at his peak, showing equal measures of brilliance and cruelty.

The season ended in a tremendous World Series, which saw the great Oakland A’s defeat the surprising New York Mets.

I highly recommend this book. Here is my Q/A with Silverman.

How did you get the idea for the book?

I’ve always felt that 1973 was a crucial year that is often forgotten. Swinging ’73 afforded me the chance to look at multiple teams. Since they are a pennant winner, and one of the most unlikely ones ever, the Mets figure prominently, which would appeal to readers who have been very supportive on my past projects on the team. I also got to take an in-depth look at the A’s and Yankees, plus events outside of sports that year.

Talk about how that season was framed by the end of Willie Mays career and the beginning of George Steinbrenner’s run with the Yankees?

Willie Mays was 42 and running on fumes, but he still came through with big hits in Game 5 of the NLCS and Game 2 of the World Series. Yet he really couldn’t play the oufield any more and I don’t know if he would have been much better off in the AL as an inaugural DH. He announced his retirement as the Mets were making a stunning run from last place to division champ in one month. George Steinbrenner said he would do one thing and did the opposite–that became old hat but it was new and confounding to New York in ’73. He got under the skin of everyone on the Yankees–in the field and front office–and made illegal Nixon campaign contributions to boot.

What struck you about that Oakland A’s team?

They were a money team. They’d always found a way to win. They may not have all gotten along with themselves, their manager, or certainly not their owner, but when it came time to put it all on the line, they couldn’t be beaten.

I had forgotten about what happened to Mike Andrews during the World Series. Did that episode sum up the ruthlessness of Charlie Finley?

Charlie Finley did a lot of good things for the A’s and for baseball, but he had the ability to just make people nuts. He got it in his mind that something had to be done his way, and he wouldn’t be talked out of it. Mike Andrews made two key errors that cost the A’s Game 2 of the World Series. His manager, Dick Williams, made a mistake by putting him in the field, but Finley insisted Andrews sign a form after the game saying he was injured to get him off the team. It totally overshadowed an exciting World Series and led to the best manager in the game to quit minutes after winning a second straight championship. That decision, orange baseballs, and naming a mule after himself are the three things people most remember about him.

Who were your favorite characters from that year?

Tug McGraw and his “Ya Gotta Believe” mantra makes him the poster boy of ’73. Catfish Hunter was an ice-water-in-his-veins pitcher who also had a great sense of humor and actually had a really good relationship with Charlie Finley–for a while. Reggie Jackson was MVP of the league and the World Series, but everything had to be about him–it was great theater that he (and Catfish) spent most of their careers with Finley and Steinbrenner. Fritz Peterson is remembered for his wife swap in spring training of 1973, but before that he was the Yankees’ practical joker who helped keep the locker room loose–that changed after the swap, and his arm also started to wear down.

The first DH Ron Blomberg was–and still is–a character who has gotten more out of a bases-loaded walk in a blowout loss than most ballplayers could out of a bases-loaded hit in the World Series. There are a lot of minor characters who were fun to probe into a little deeper: George “The Stork” Theodore, Buzz Capra, Pedro Borbon, Darold Knowles, Duke Sims, and many others.

Anything else you’d like to add?

For Swinging ’73 I talked to many ballplayers, broadcasters, and writers who were there, and tried to create as much immediacy I could for events of four decades ago. It was a time worth remembering and exploring: the end of Vietnam, the middle of Watergate, and the beginning of the oil embargo. There was the Atkins Diet, Wounded Knee, the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, Secretariat, New York’s financial crisis, Elvis in Hawaii, Dark Side of the Moon, Keith Moon… The proverb, “may you live in interesting teams,” certainly applies to ’73.

 

Sunday books: A most memorable Bird: Mark Fidrych

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Mark Fidrych was relevant for only a year. But his brief flight was so memorable, it made him one of baseball’s most beloved characters.

A new book by Doug Wilson, The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych, examines 1976, when the Detroit pitcher flew higher than everyone else. And then what happened when injuries quickly grounded his career.

In a review in the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth writes:

This is such an easy sell. Go to a publishing house, pitching them a story on how you’ll reconstruct  the life of one of the most beloved big-leaguers in the last half century, a guy who always had a grin on his face and a mop of curly blond hair, talked to baseballs on the mound, shook hands with teammates after they made great plays, got on his knees to smooth over the dirt to his liking, and was linked to a beloved Sesame Street character.

How do you not buy into that?

However, there was more to Fidrych:

It was also not fair to label him a “flake,” as one writer pointed out then, because that was too easy an adjective.”Fidgety Fidrych” was what this writer called him. Go back to his childhood, and may would have described him as “a little wild, a little eccentric, definitely extroverted, and a fun-loving guy.” These days, someone like him might be labeled with ADD.

His Tigers teammates immediately took to him as he entered the rotation. Although, there’s still the quote attributed to teammate Bill Freehan: “This kid is from Boston? Shouldn’t he be more sophisticated?”

And finally:

Wilson spends only four paragraphs at the end of Chapter 9 to explain Fidrych’s accidental death in 2009 (the fourth year anniversary was April 13).

Maybe it’s fitting. It’s not something we even want to think about.

As Tigers manager Jim Leyland said about Fidrych in 2009: “You can talk about Ty Cobb or anyone else, but for one year, he was the biggest impact star in the history of the Tigers. For that one year, he was bigger than anybody in the history of the game.”

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A reminder: If you love baseball books, check out Hoffarth’s 30 books in 30 days series on his site.

Sunday books: Who’s Who’s in Baseball is a rite of spring

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I was in Walgreen’s the other day and saw the book on the magazine rack. I had to buy it.

I figure I probably purchased my first Who’s Who in Baseball in 1970 or 1971. Now it is an annual rite of spring for me.

Much like it was during 70s, and much earlier than that, Who’s Who hasn’t changed. I am thankful for that.

While I enjoy the advances in new statistics, there’s something refreshing, if not comforting, about the simplicity of Who’s Who.

You won’t find stats like WAR or even in on-base percentage in Who’s Who. Rather, it’s still the basics: Batting average, HRs, RBIs, and the other staples that have been around forever.

Each player has a thumbnail picture and personal information like date of birth, height and weight. There isn’t a bio about the player. Instead, the stats tell the story and the arc of a player’s career.

When I get the issue, I’ll look for my favorites and the big names. The collection of Albert Pujols’ numbers are awesome, especially with the myriad of asterisks that denote league leader.

You can see how all the 200-hit seasons added up to 3,304 hits for Derek Jeter. You look at Paul Konerko’s body of work–422 homers coming into the season–and you realize he might be the most underrated player in baseball.

When Roy Halladay was good, he was very good, earning two Cy Young awards. Andy Pettitte’s line in postseason (19-11) is truly impressive.

However, most of the time, I will open the book to a random page. Wow, LaTroy Hawkins has 18 seasons in the big league. Page 132, and there’s Juan Pierre, who had 2,141 going into the season. Page 216, and you can see that Chris Carpenter, who may be done, had an impressive career.

In essence, these are mini baseball cards. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy the book so much.

It takes me back to a time when baseball, not to mention my life, was a simpler endeavor. A time when I loved baseball for the pure joy of the game. Perhaps Who’s Who reminds of that 12-year-old who used to count down the days to the White Sox season opener.

This is the 98th season for Who’s Who, a remarkable record in its right. I looked forward to buying the 100th edition and more.