Walking in Memphis

Just returned from Memphis and some great interviews, including those in Dr. Martin Luther Kings's inner circle, for SIXTY-EIGHT: THE YEAR OF THE PITCHER AND WHEN SPORTS SAVED AMERICA. Along the way, I swung down to Mississippi and have now visited all 50 states.

Jim Northrup RIP

Sorry to hear about the death of Tiger great Jim Northrup. Ironically, I was finishing up the section on Game Seven in the new book, SIXTY-EIGHT. Of course, that's when Northrup hits a two-run triple of Cardinals great Bob Gibson to give the Motor City the title. Northrup had a lot of nicknames, but my favorite was Sweet Lips because his teammates said he had an opinion about everything.

Preface for SIXTY-EIGHT

I think this new book will open something like this:

What if we could distill all that we know, what we truly believe, down to a few memorable moments, snippets of motion, short stories set in a particular time or year? When we’re discussing the year 1968 – a period of great upheaval, clamor and divisiveness -- that may be only true approach.

Rsearch on Sixty-Eight

The two teams that met in the 1968 World Series -- the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals -- were among the most racially diverse institutions in the land at the time. Willie "the Wonder" Horton was among them. The Tigers' outfielder grew up in the Detroit projects and tried to stop the riots in the Motor City in the summer of 1967.
I asked him recently how he was able to play at such a high level despite rioting and assassinations going throughout the country. He replied, "I didn't go away from home."
I said that was impossible. Ballclubs play have of their games on the road, sometimes spending weeks away from home.
Horton smiled and told me about how he went out of his way to make good friends in every American League city the Tigers visited. Good enough friends that he could have dinner with them, even bunk out on the couch in their homes.
"In that way, I was never away from home," he told me.
The year 1968 was a difficult time in our country's history. But how some of the top athletes of that time persevered can still be a lesson today.

Pitching's 'kinetic chain'

I discovered how troublesome this could be on my trip to Dr. James Andrews' bio-mechanics lab in researching High Heat. Stephen Strasburg, I feel your pain.