PSA for the PBBC, July 8, 2021

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.

By the way, here are “Bookshelf Conversations” I’ve had with some of the authors associated with the PBBC:

Visit the PBBC for the latest batch of authors with new books coming out this year.

BIG WEEK AT THE ALL-STAR GAME
In conjunction with this weekend’s All-Star festivities at Coors Field, Denver’s stalwart indie bookshop The Tattered Cover is hosting a slate of baseball book events featuring a panoply of PBBC authors.

Headlining the festivities (at least from the narrow perspective of this here club) is a PBBC-sponsored panel called Telling Baseball People’s Stories, which will focus on the art of biography, particularly as it pertains to living subjects. Convened by moderator Jason Turbow, panelists include Dave Jordan (Cobra), Joan Ryan (Molina), Mitchell Nathanson (Bouton) and Dan Epstein (The Captain & Me).

It’s gonna happen on Friday, July 9, at 4 p.m. EST, and we’d love for you to come along for the ride. It’s just one of like a zillion compelling discussions being held this week. Tattered Cover has gone all out in pulling this thig together.

Today, at 7 p.m. EST, you can see Emily Nemens join a panel on baseball fiction. (Other participants include Chad Harbaugh, Steve Wulf and Tim Wiles.)

On Thursday, July 8, at 5 p.m. EST, Eric Nusbaum joins a discussion about ballparks and their communities. (Other participants include Timothy Malcolm and Tim Neverett.)

Also on Thursday, at 7 p.m. EST, Andrew Maraniss joins his father, David Maraniss, in a talk about fathers, sons and sportswriting. (Moderated by Steve Wulf.)

On Friday, July 9, at 4 p.m. EST, Luke Epplin joins a panel discussing African American contributions to baseball. (Other participants include Cam Perron, Howard Bryant, Paul Dickson and Ron Rappaport.)

On Saturday and Sunday, the Tattered Cover will host in-person panels about the current state of baseball, from Spider Tack to the three true outcomes. Club participants include John Shea, Tyler Kepner, Jared Diamond and Dan Schlossberg. If you’re in Denver, you won’t want to miss it.

These are just the events featuring PBBC members. There’s plenty more. To register for any of the discussions, head over to the Tattered Cover website.

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MORE GREAT BOOKS STILL ON THE TABLE
We’re about to wrap up our Rowman & Littlefield book giveaway, having awarded the sixth of seven titles—Beyond Baseball’s Color Barrier—today. (Congrats, @Xcoach98.) If you haven’t entered, it’s not too late to win the grand prize: all seven of R&L’s 2021 releases. Entry details can be found at the pinned tweet at @pandemicbaseba1.

Given that we used the cover of The Best Little Baseball Town in the World to illustrate said pinned tweet, now seems like a good time to check in with its author, Gaylon White. Carry on.

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ASK AN AUTHOR
Gaylon White
The Best Little Baseball Town in the World: The Crowley Millers and Minor League Baseball in the 1950s (Rowman & Littlefield, April 21, 2021)

What’s your book about?
It’s the story of the Crowley Millers, a minor league team that put the town of Crowley, Louisiana, on the baseball map in the 1950s. It reads more like a novel than a nonfiction baseball book, with a twin killing (actual murder, not a double play), a masterful con job, a game-fixing scandal, a deadly lightning strike and a hurricane that put the Millers and the entire Evangeline League out of business. The book even has a recipe for the biscuits served at Crowley’s bus station, which were well-known from Houston to New Orleans.

Why this book? Why now?
With the downsizing of baseball’s minor leagues from 160 teams to 120, and the elimination of entire leagues representing small-town America, the book paints a vivid picture of how the minors dramatically shrank during the 1950s—from 59 leagues and 447 teams in 1949 to 21 leagues and 156 teams in 1959, suffering through the emergence of TV, air conditioning and Little League baseball. Today, it’s MLB ignoring the tradition and heritage of the minor leagues, and paying little attention to the bonds therein that create and connect fans.

What’s a noteworthy thing you learned?
Although the Crowley Millers played their last game in 1957, they are still fondly remembered. The team’s ballpark has twice been restored, in 1998 and 2021, to keep alive the legacy of pro baseball in Crowley.

What surprised you?
That team’s story took so many twists and turns—from Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees playing an exhibition game in Crowley (he praised the town for its “grit”), to the destruction of Miller Stadium by Hurricane Audrey in 1957, to the restoration of the ballpark in 1998 that led to 10 reunions of Miller players and their families. The reunions started as two-day events and ended up lasting a week.

Who had the biggest influence on this book?
Richard Pizzolatto, who as a kid was a member of the Crowley Millers Knothole Gang, went on to become a high school baseball and football coach and eventually headed the city’s recreation department. Coach Pizz, as he’s known in Crowley, took a dilapidated Miller Stadium and returned it to its former glory, topping 100,000 in attendance for three straight years and earning the distinction as “The Best Little Baseball Town in the World.” Coach Pizz provided newspaper articles, photos and contact information for the players still living.

How long did the book take?
I first stepped foot in Crowley in April 2013, which is when I started interviewing players and culling through newspaper articles that helped me reconstruct the history of the Millers. At first I envisioned the story of Conklyn Meriwether, the team’s Jekyll-and-Hyde slugger, as a chapter in another book. That changed when fascinating stories about Crowley kept piling up.

What’s the most memorable interview you conducted?
A series of interviews with Ed Keim, “the voice of the Millers,” who did play-by-play for KSIG, Crowley’s radio station. Keim was behind the microphone on the night in 1951 when Millers centerfielder Andy Strong was killed by lightning during a game in Alexandria, LA. “Lightning has hit this ballpark!” Keim announced to shocked listeners back home. Keim relived the game for me, connecting it with an incident that happened to him during World War II, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

What are some lessons you learned along the way?
The main lesson is one I’ve always followed: trust your research and let the story take you where it needs to go. I never envisioned the story of baseball in Crowley to turn out as it did. Even when I thought I had turned over every rock looking for information, I usually discovered more. For example, the last game the Millers played was called off after five innings because of dense, heavy smoke from a fire at a rice warehouse near the ballpark. They won the game, of course.

How did this process differ from your other books?
I knew less about the region, the league and the players than those in the other books I’ve written. Fortunately, Coach Pizz is a great storyteller and his memory is amazing. Plus, he’s a character. He’s nearly 85 and has arranged to be buried at a cemetery located behind the left-field fence at Miller Stadium. His tombstone lists his birth year, but offers no room for marking the year he dies, whenever that may be. He wants people to think he’s still around and guarding his beloved ballpark.

Did the pandemic affect your work?
The manuscript was submitted in April 2020 so the pandemic’s greatest impact was on production end, as the publisher, Rowman and Littlefield, shut out its manufacturing facility for several months.

To hear a sound bites and interviews, check out Gaylon’s website.

Buy The Best Little Baseball Town in the World here.

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NOW UP AT PBBCLUB.COM
Fifty years ago, Vida Blue, a 21-year old fireballing lefthander from Mansfield, LA, ravaged the major leagues, becoming the youngest player to win the MVP or Cy Young Award, let alone both at the same time. Frank Guridy and award-winning sportswriter and cultural critic Howard Bryant use Blue’s 1971 season to launch into a larger discussion about the state of Black players in the sport, past and present. Bryant and Guridy offer reflections on Blue’s career, the memorable 1971 All-Star Game, the labor struggles that eventually led to the overturning of the reserve clause and, yes, why Rickey Henderson matters to the story.

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WHAT ELSE WE’RE DOING
Dan Epstein has been writing for If These Walls Could Rock, a show exploring iconic and legendary music venues, which premieres TONIGHT on AXS TV.

Robert Whiting gave a talk about his book, Tokyo Junkie, at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

Luke Epplin wrote an op-ed about Larry Doby for The Washington Post.

Eric Nusbaum came out with his latest for Sports Stories, about a gay, German tennis star, and what that meant during WWII.

Frank Guridy and Lincoln Mitchell joined the Say It Ain’t Contagious crew to discuss the disappointing way the Dodgers and Major League Baseball have responded to harassment and domestic violence issues, from Mickey Callaway to Trevor Bauer.

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WHERE WE’VE BEEN
Luke Epplin went on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight podcast to speak with Buster Olney about Our Team, and kept it together even though he was geeking out in a fanboy kind of way. He also did a spot on WGN radio, and was a guest for the Hall of Fame’s Virtual Author Series.

David Krell joined Justin McGuire on a bonus episode of the By the Book Podcast, along with Bruce Markusen, to discuss the M*A*S*H episode, “A War for All Seasons,” focused on the 1951 NL pennant race (but if you wanna hear it, you have to become a patron).

Gaylon White was on the San Francisco Giants July 4th pregame show with Marty Lurie.

Lincoln Mitchell and Jason Turbow finally met in person and realized that their proximity at Oracle Park is not conducive to the Giants winning ballgames.

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WHERE WE’LL BE
On Monday, July 19, David Krell will discuss his book, 1962, with the Springfield (N.J.) Library. 7 p.m. EST.

On July 27, Mark Healey will talk about Gotham Baseball as part of The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Virtual Author Series. 2 p.m. EST.

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GET SHOPPING
Look at that cute little baby! Okay, there’s no baby. But imagine that cute little baby in such an adorable onesie. Because you like baseball and you want your babies to like baseball and starting them off early like this is just the right thing to do. Head over to the PBBC shop for all sorts of goodness like this.