PW: Was writing a book [Perfect I'm Not!: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball] your way of setting the record straight on what people think you're like?
David Wells: I really didn't want to do a book. Publishers were offering me three times the money to do one back in 1998—seven figures, man—but I was like, "No."
PW: So why now?
DW: Back then, I wasn't ready to write one. I just didn't want to exploit my life. But over the past couple years, I had time to think, and I said to myself, "All right, do it."
PW: So the book is 432 pages! Why the extra innings?
DW: It didn't start out that way. [Laughing] I was having back surgery in 2001, and then one team got interested in me. Then comes [Yankee boss] George Steinbrenner, and the book just sort of took off. I always wanted to write something about a kid from Ocean Beach, Calif., who grows up to be a major leaguer, but then all this other stuff came in. Like getting into the fight at the diner.
PW: Is that behind you?
DW: Yeah. Almost.
PW: How much couldn't you address in the book?
DW: I had to be brief and precise about it. I had to put it in there—people want to read about it, I'm sure—but I was advised by my lawyers not to do too much or it could come back to haunt me. So there's just a nibble.
PW: Are you the same fierce competitor when it comes to books and sales?
DW: Sure, why not? I mean, I sort of went into writing it not knowing what to expect, and the feedback I've gotten so far has been positive. Who knows? A blind squirrel also finds a nut sometimes. If it became a bestseller, I'd be honored and thrilled.
PW: What made Chris Kreski the right collaborator? He wrote for it, you lived it.
DW: My life's totally about Beavis and Butt-Head. I was just missing a sidekick. [Laughing] No, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, and Chris would write some and I would write some. This part we would condense, that one we'd stretch. We constantly talked about what to include, how to make it good. Chris was my prisoner. [Laughing] He's free now, though.
PW: You're known as a hell-raiser, but in the book you're also a family-oriented career man. Are you one more than the other, or have you mellowed out?
DW: People should read the book. I don't want to give it all away right here.
PW: Okay, then, should baseball ban over-the-counter drugs?
DW: The owners should just stay out of it.... I'm living proof of this kind of stuff, because I struggled with my weight for years. Toronto would fine me $100 a pound if I didn't make my weight quota. And it didn't matter how good I looked on the field—they were more concerned with how I looked in the lobby. Hey, I weighed 275 pounds, and I still won 20 games! I should write another book, How Not to Lose Weight and Still Win 20 Games!
