It took me quite awhile to discern that “W2W4,” a staple of ESPN The Magazine, means “what to watch for.” There. Now you know.
So this W2W4 regards Mort Zachter’s upcoming book Gil Hodges: The Man Behind the Miracle, to be will be published by the University of Nebraska Press. Hodges, the powerful Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman who later led the New York Mets to the first World Championship, was a particular favorite of Zachter as a boy growing up in Manhattan. He was passed over — again — in the latest vote by the Veterans Committee for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
You might remember Zachter as author of Dough, his memoir about learning that, impoverished appearances to the contrary, his family was loaded. His success with that book has delayed the Hodges project, originally slated for a 2009 release. According to Zachter, that will probably be put off until 2010.
But here’s a bit of a preview, even if it doesn’t make it into the published version. In this essay from MortZachter.con, he writes about the difficulties of visiting Hodges’ home town of Petersburg, Ind., on a research quest: “I wondered how the locals would take to a Jew mining for facts about their favorite son, a devout Catholic.”
Mort Zachter |
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is available on Amazon.com,
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