There are 14 first-timers on the Hall of Fame Ballot this year. I doubt any of them will make it on this go-around. (I think it’s time to eliminate the rule that says you’re automatically on the ballot if you play for at least ten seasons.) Only one of these has a book about him.
R.A. Dickey published Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball with Wayne Coffey in 2012, just before his Cy Young season. It turned out to be a best-seller, with Dickey discussing issues of child abuse and self-doubt on his way to a career in baseball.
In 2013, he released a toned-down version for young adults, Throwing Strikes: My Quest for Truth and the Perfect Knuckleball, written with Coffey and Sue Corbett and followed up with Knuckleball Ned, with Michael Karounos, for even younger readers the following year.
Other players might be included in various publications. Sadly for Carlos Beltran — who might have otherwise had the best chance of the bunch — he’s part of any book that considers the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.
To be fair, Bronson Arroyo, who also appears on the upcoming ballot, did create something that you could put on a bookshelf: Covering the Bases, a music CD (2007).
This time I’m abstaining from baseball card — which all these guys would have — even though they, too, could go on the shelf.
is available on Amazon.com,
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