Library Journal? Great review

Wendel (fiction & nonfiction writing, Johns Hopkins Univ.; High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time) follows the tradition of homing in on a key year in both baseball and U.S. history. America was being torn apart in 1968, and baseball was under stress, too. The pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers had players at loggerheads with one another. Star players like Cardinal ace Bob Gibson were not immune to racial tension and prejudice. And yet, the ultimate story is one of triumph as these teams provided some respite and hope to a beleaguered country suffering from the effects of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Wendel has interviewed many of the key participants to bring this crucial year to life. Transcending baseball history alone, this is recommended for baseball fans and students of the era.—P.K., Library Journal

From David Maraniss

“The Summer of 68 captivated me from the get-go: I was 18 that summer, reeling from the chaos of an unforgettable year, awestruck by the ferocious beauty of Bob Gibson, rooting for Willie Horton and the Tigers from the city of my birth. Cheers to Tim Wendel for bringing it all back so vividly.”

--David Maraniss

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.

High Heat in PW10

Publisher's Weekly named High Heat one of its Top 10 sports titles for this spring. Here's the blurb from PW:
For the hard stuff, Tim Wendel's High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time might suffice. It's as much about hard science as putting mustard on the ball. David Maraniss calls it "brilliantly executed."
To the left is the new cover for the trade paperback edition, due out in March.

Publisher's Weekly item

Da Capo editor Jonathan Crowe acquired two sports books, one on baseball and the other on golf. Crowe took North American rights to Johns Hopkins professor Tim Wendel's Sixty-Eight: The Year of the Pitcher—When Baseball Saved America from Chris Park at Foundry Literary + Media. Wendel focuses on that eponymous season when, thanks to things like a bigger strike zone, pitchers began to dominate the game. The baseball season is then set against what Da Capo called "one of the most divisive and turbulent years in American history." Crowe also bought world rights to The Magnificent Masters.

New book coming along

I've been on the road a ton, researching SIXTY-EIGHT, a new book about sports in the year 1968. While the nation was being pulled apart back then, the sports world (baseball's Tigers and Cardinals, the rise of the American Football League, the Mexico City Olympics) was certainly memorable to watch and may have helped hold everything together.
I'm writing away -- about half way done with the working draft.

New book project

It is entitled SIXTY-EIGHT: WHEN BASEBALL SAVED AMERICA. Just agreed to a deal with Da Capo (the publisher of HIGH HEAT). It will be out in Spring 2011.
Of course, 1968 was the Year of the Pitcher, with amazing individual performances by Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, Luis Tiant, Don Drysdale, etc. But it was also the time of Mexico City Olympics, Lombardi's Packers, the rise of the American Football League, as well as national sorrow and upheaval (MLK and RFK assassinations, the Chicago riots). It's a large canvas and that has me excited and nervous. But I'm back with my good friend and editor Jonathan Crowe.
Any ideas or insights are always welcome.

Third printing

Da Capo announced that High Heat will go into a third printing this week. Thanks for the help and support, everybody.