Headnote: One of the thing I like about the Pandemic Baseball Book Club is that it’s a kind of “one stop shopping.” Instead of posting about various authors, projects, and events, all I’m doing here is cutting and pasting their weekly newsletter. Do take a moment to read the author Q&A. I find them particularly interesting as they discuss the arduous process of bringing their projects to press.
Looking forward to meeting some of the PBBC authors at the SABR Convention next week!
ASK AN AUTHOR
Rick Vaughn
100 Years of Baseball on St. Petersburg’s Waterfront: How the Game Helped Shape a City (Arcadia Publishing)
What’s your book about?
It’s a comprehensive history of how spring training baseball influenced the growth of St. Petersburg from a sleepy little village in the early 1900s to a sports media mecca every spring for eight decades. How Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and 191 other Hall of Famers elevated the waterfront to sacred ground for baseball fans. It describes how spring baseball in St. Petersburg became the spur for tourism, how it helped the city slip out of grip of the Great Depression, how it played a role in erasing Major League Baseball’s civil rights issues in the south long after Jackie broke the color barrier in 1947.
Why this book? Why now?
As PR director for two teams that trained there, I had always been fascinated with the history of baseball on the Al Lang site. When I realized that 2022 was the 100th anniversary of major league baseball’s first games there and how little had been written about it, I thought it was time to begin an awareness campaign that might lead to the city celebrating this important part of its own history. St. Petersburg city has begun a period of tremendous growth, and I believe there are many new baseball fans to the area who may not even be aware baseball was once played there. The ballpark still stands, but it has become a soccer pitch with no sign of its rich baseball history.
What’s one noteworthy thing you learned doing research?
Had Shoeless Joe Jackson not been indicted by a grand jury in 1920 for his role in the Black Sox scandal, he would have managed a winter league team of major leaguers in St. Petersburg that was scheduled to begin a few months after the indictments were handed down.
Who had the biggest influence on this book?
My friend Tim Kurkjian. He convinced me just how important this project was. Plus, he wrote the forward, which guaranteed there would be at least some insightful observations between the covers.
How long did the book take?
About ten months of researching and writing. I didn’t set out to write a book. It began as a research project that I was hoping to present to officials from the city of St. Petersburg to convince them to properly memorialize the grounds.
What’s the most memorable interview you conducted?
Steve Garvey recounted the story of when he served as a bat boy for Jackie Robinson’s last game in St. Petersburg. Bill White described what baseball was like in the deep South when he joined the Cardinals in the late 1950s, and how the players themselves made the decision to live under one roof. “Hey,” he told me. “We just wanted to win.”
Buy 100 Years of Baseball History on St. Petersburg’s Waterfront here.
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NOW UP AT PBBCLUB.COM
In Baseball Rebels Peter Dreier and Robert Elias examine the key social challenges—racism, sexism and homophobia—that shaped society and worked their way into baseball’s culture, economics, and politics. Icons like Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey have become part of American lore, but many key figures to challenge baseball establishment and societal status quos have been relatively lost to history. Sam Nahem opposed the racial divide in the U.S. military and organized an integrated military team that won a championship in 1945. Toni Stone was the first of three women to play for the Indianapolis Clowns in the previously all-male Negro Leagues. Dave Pallone was MLB’s first gay umpire. Baseball Rebels tells stories of baseball’s reformers and radicals who were influenced by, and in turn influenced, America’s broader political and social protest movements, making the game—and society—better along the way. Author Peter Dreier is here in conversation with E. Ethelbert Miller, author of the poetry anthologies When Your Wife Has Tommy John Surgery, and How I Found Love Behind the Catcher’s Mask.
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TWITTER, MAN
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WHAT ELSE WE’RE DOING
Dan Epstein (The Captain & Me) wrote about Lou Reed and Barry Manilow—not quite as a duet, but still—for The Forward.
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WHERE WE’LL BE
All times local unless otherwise noted.
We’re gearing up for the SABR Convention in Baltimore. It’s a big one, folks, celebrating 50 years of our favorite organization by baseball nerds, for baseball nerds. There is a ton of stuff on the agenda, with a number of events featuring PBBC authors.
Aug. 18
* Committee Meeting: Baseball Landmarks, featuring Mark Armour (Intentional Balk). 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
* Committee Meeting: Spring Training, featuring David Krell (1962). 11 a.m. to noon
* How to Do Baseball Research, with Bill Nowlin.. Bill Nowlin (“The Kid” Blasts a Winner, Working a “Perfect Game”) will be at the How to Do Baseball Research table in the Charles Ballroom to discuss research resources and answer questions on improving your research techniques. Noon to 1 p.m.
Aug. 19
* RP01: Angel on His Shoulder: The Life and Times of Moe Drabowsky, featuring David Krell (1962). 8 a.m. to 8:25 a.m.
* Committee Meeting: Games Project, featuring Bill Nowlin (“The Kid” Blasts a Winner, Working a “Perfect Game”). 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
* RP11: Even The Grounds: Cheating the Very Dimensions of the Game, featuring Mark Armour (Intentional Balk). 1:30 p.m. to 1:55 p.m.
* RP13: Sign Stealing Before the Astros: The Tangled Web of What Was Legal, featuring Daniel Levitt (Intentional Balk). 2 p.m. to 2:25 p.m.
Aug. 20
* RP28: The First Ball Four Saga: The Seattle Pilots’ Journey to Bankruptcy, featuring Andy McCue (Stumbling Around the Bases). 9:30 a.m. to 9:55 a.m.
* Research Committee Meeting: Asian Baseball, featuring Rob Fitts (Issei Baseball), as well as Adam Berenbak. 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
* RP31: Longer Game Lengths … How Much are Foul Balls to Blame?, featuring David Firstman (Hall of Name). 10:30 a.m. to 10:55 a.m.
* Committee Meeting: Business of Baseball, featuring Dan Levitt (Intentional Balk), as well as Mike Haupert. 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
* Flood v. Kuhn: Fifty Years Later, featuring Mark Armour (Intentional Balk), as well as Curt Flood’s widow, Judy Pace Flood, Brad Snyder and Shakeia Taylor. 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
There is, of course, much more to see and do, with tons of presentations and events that somehow involve people who aren’t even authors of this here club. Find the entire schedule here.
is available on Amazon.com,
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