PSA for the PBBC, September 1, 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.

Andrea Williams’ middle-grade fiction collaboration with LeBron James, We Are Family, published yesterday. It’s not baseball, but it is—in case you missed it way back one sentence ago—written with LeBron James.

The book follows five fictional friends from James’ real-life I Promise School in Akron in a race to save their basketball season. The Akron Beacon Journal approves.

If you’re so inspired, instead of buying the book from Amazon, why not turn directly to a great Akron bookshop? Seems kind of fitting, no?

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ASK AN AUTHOR
Tim Neverett
Covid Curveball: An Inside View of the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers World Championship Season (Permuted Press, Aug. 31, 2021)

Tim Neverett is a broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Covid Curveball was officially released yesterday.

What’s your book about?
All the adjustments to Major League Baseball that players, staff, broadcasters and fans had to make during the pandemic-ridden 2020 season. It digs into how the Dodgers stayed completely healthy until late in the sixth game of the World Series, and contains never-before-told stories that provide perspective on a truly unique season.

Why this book?
Once spring training shut down, I thought that I should keep track of the day-to-day goings on in real-time, in case anything major happened. Well, it did. I think this book is an important document—the only one covering every day of the season for the eventual world champs.

How long did it take?
I wrote every day during the season, so the basic manuscript was finished a week after the World Series. The editing and proofreading was rushed so that we could have it ready for the All-Star Game in Denver. The official release date was Aug. 31. So, basically, it took more than the whole season to write.

How did your editor lend direction?
Because I was basically writing a journal, I had stories about everyday goings on around LA, as well as a number of negative things happening in the building where I lived. My editor told me that I should focus on baseball, and I eventually agreed. He was right, I think—there’s really not a good spot for a lot of that stuff in this book. Ultimately we cut about 100 pages.

Did you learn any lessons along the way?
No matter how many editors view the manuscript, I want to have some outside people looking at it as well. Publishing is new to me, and I learned a lot about how a book like this gets done.

While going through the season with the Dodgers in a semi-bubble, I also learned that whether it was baseball or something as simple as going to the store, there are people on two sides of the COVID issue and not many down the middle. My observations about this, many of which were left out of the book, are not very flattering to some of the people in question. On the other hand, there were also many people who went above and beyond to help others stay healthy. I appreciated them very much.

How did the pandemic affect your work routine?
My favored work routine has been dramatically affected by the pandemic. As a Major League broadcaster, I am still not traveling with the Dodgers. Instead, I call games remotely when the team is on the road. I did not go to spring training this season, instead calling games off of a TV screen in a converted edit bay in our El Segundo studios. Calling games remotely in baseball (or any sport) is like being a news reporter and having to cover a burning building from someone else’s TV feed. We can’t see the ball when it leaves the bat, and we do a whole lot of guessing at times. Get me back on the road, please! When I wrote the book, I never in a million years thought that we would not be traveling in 2021.

Buy Covid Curveball here.

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NOW UP AT PBBCLUB.COM
When Your Wife Has Tommy John Surgery and Other Baseball Stories: Poems

When Your Wife Has Tommy John Surgery and Other Baseball Stories is E. Ethelbert Miller‘s second book of baseball poems. As he informs us, baseball can be a blues game and Tommy John surgery is a way of holding onto hope. Many of these poems were written during the pandemic, and beckon fans back to the ballpark. They remind us to enjoy a game that is precious and maybe even essential to our wellness. Miller is here in conversation with Tim Wendel, author of Escape From Castro’s Cuba.

Watch it here.

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WHAT ELSE WE’RE DOING
Jason Turbow wrote about the impending retirement of legendary A’s clubhouse manager Steve Vucinich for the New York Times. Like, they devoted the entire front Saturday sports page to it. Weird.

Elsewhere in the Times, some guy named Kepner wrote about the 50-year anniversary of the Pirates’ all-Black-and-Latino lineup.

Lincoln Mitchell wrote about the Giants’ recent return to New York for the San Francisco Examiner.

If you’re looking for six non-metal albums that Gary Holt of Exodus thinks every metalhead should own, Dan Epstein has just the piece for you, in Revolver.

Eric Nusbaum wrote about the wonderful, true legend of Lee Trevino in this week’s Sports Stories.

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WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT US
Publishers Weekly took a nice dive into the world of E. Ethelbert Miller.

Bryan Hoch spoke to Ron Kaplan about The Bronx Zoom for both The Baseball Bookshelf and the Book Reporter. (Bookshelf clarification: Hoch did not speak to Bookreporter.com about his book; that was simply a review of the book.)

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WHERE WE’VE BEEN
John Shea visited with Jim Wogan and Joe Gallagher—Joe was at Game 1 of 1954 Series and saw Willie Mays’ catch—to talk about Mays and the Sept. 14 release of the paperback version of 24: Life Stories and Lessons From The Say Hey Kid.

Eric Sherman was at Citi Field for Jerry Koosman’s number-retirement ceremony on Aug. 28. Eric helped Koosman write his speech, and has photographic evidence to prove it (taken the previous night, at dinner). The two met four years ago while Eric was writing After The Miracle, his book with the 1969 Mets.

Mark Healey attended a special New York screening of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, Once Upon A Time In Queens—a four-part documentary about the 1986 Mets for which he was interviewed. The program will air on ESPN on Sept. 14 and 15. Mark wrote about it for the Rockaway Wave.

Luke Eplin spoke with Legends Sports about Our Team.

Tim Wendel was on a tour around Michigan, stopping at Nicola’s in Ann Arbor and Brilliant Books in Traverse City, two of the top indie bookshops in the region, to sign copies of Escape From Castro’s Cuba and Summer of ’68. This is Ria, a bookseller at Nicola’s.

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WHERE WE’LL BE
Frank Guridy will present some work he’s doing for his next project, on stadiums, to the Los Angeles History and Metropolitan Study group at USC on Sept. 17. The title of the talk will be: “Nation Time at the Coliseum: The Wattstax ’72 Concert & Black Power in Los Angeles,” which will hopefully be as awesome as it sounds.

E. Ethelbert Miller will launch his upcoming book of baseball poems, When Your Wife Has Tommy John Surgery, at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 23.

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GET SHOPPING
Stickers make everything better, man. Like, remember that water bottle you had in your cupboard, the one you didn’t want to use because it was so ugly, but then you put some stickers on it and now it looks dope and you can’t wait to hydrate in public with it? You can do that kind of stuff with this here sticker, too.

Go get one.