Photos for new book

I've started to line up photos for the new book about the year 1968 in sports. Here's my favorite so far.

Manuscript Has Been Delivered

Relieved. Exhausted. Excited.
The pretty much sums up where my head is at after I turned in the manuscript for the new book, working title SIXTY-EIGHT: THE YEAR OF THE PITCHER AND WHEN SPORTS SAVED AMERICA. This will be out in Spring 2012 from Da Capo Books.
Of course, there is still much to do. I have a few remaining interviews to finish (with the space allotted for where that information goes), and there are photos to chase down and the whole editing process to now go through. But I believe this book has a lot going for it.
The whole idea of focusing on one of the major watershed years in our nation's history -- 1968 -- from a sports point of view was a lot of fun. Where else can you bring Denny McLain, Bob Gibson, Mickey Lolich, Bobby Kennedy, Vince Lombardi, Jim Ryun, Nolan Ryan and Tom Hayden into the same story?
I'll keep you posted as we begin the next phase of this project.

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.

Up in Michigan

I've returned from four days in the Detroit area. Caught up with family, attended the Knight-Wallace Fellowship reunion in Ann Arbor and had a great interview with ex-Detroit Tiger Willie "the Wonder" Horton. Research for the new book, working title SIXTY-EIGHT, rolls on.

Beginnings of the new book

Working my way through a lot of great research material from Cooperstown. Trying to tease out the threads for this new book, SIXTY-EIGHT. In search of narrative.

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.