Spring Training: warm weather, breezy palm trees and the return of baseball after a long winter. With it comes the renewal of hope among the 30 major league teams and the fans who follow them. Not to mention the book publishers who smartly publish right into this season of hope, when anything seems possible. So what if the headlines are filled with talk of steroids and federal subpoenas? The game is limbering up, ready to resume another long glorious campaign, as it has done for well over a century.
"Baseball is America's game for a reason," says Jason Kaufman, executive editor at Doubleday. "It's self-perpetuating, generation after generation, in a way other sports aren't. The nostalgia factor is so strong that I think we associate different eras of baseball with American history."
"I think baseball still dominates the bookshelves," says Rick Wolff, v-p/executive editor at Warner Books, "because the game can be sliced and diced in so many more different ways than most sports can. There are baseball books that are statistical, biographical, historical, instructional, humorous, literary, etc. Curiously, very few of the other sports lend themselves to so many different interpretations by writers."
"Baseball has been in existence longer than any of the other major sports in this country," says Mitch Rogatz, publisher and president of Triumph Books, "so there is more history, more stories to tell from baseball's past. Baseball embraces the past possibly more than any other sport."
Pete Rose went to bat early with My Prison Without Bars, published just after New Year's. The book garnered weeks of publicity, according to Jeremy Katz, executive editor, men's health and sports books at Rodale, because "Rose's story is endlessly fascinating. It's a story of redemption, a story of failings and a story of the price of error. It uncovers the true story underneath a public controversy that has been swirling for 14 years. Moreover, it captures the true persona of a person we all think we know."
As much as Rose's name generates controversy, the name Ted Williams demands respect. He was the greatest hitter ever, a genuine war hero and a lightning rod for controversy—even in death. Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero by Leigh Montville (Doubleday, Apr.) has been compared to Jane Leavy's Sandy Koufax and Richard Ben Cramer's DiMaggio —two bestsellers that were praised for their literary merits. "I can't remember having a better pairing of subject and author," says Doubleday's Kaufman. "Ted Williams is such an iconic figure, so embedded in American sports and culture, and Leigh Montville is a gifted writer and legend himself, a longtime Boston Globe and SI writer who's spent a career covering the Red Sox.
"I'd say Montville's strongest trait as a writer is his ability to make you feel intimate with his subject—it's impossible to read this book without feeling you knew Ted Williams personally. Most important, the harsh stereotypes about Williams are fully explored here, and, as always happens when you see what really makes someone tick, you come away fully understanding the man and the eras in which he lived." Doubleday plans a media blitz that will include national media ads, radio giveaways and Father's Day promotions.
In the modern era of baseball, there have been only 14 perfect games—that is, 27 men up, 27 men set down without anyone reaching base. This April, Atria will publish 27 Men Out: Baseball's Perfect Games by Michael Coffey, PW's own senior managing editor. "The scope of what Michael was trying to do was to not only talk about the game itself, but the particular historical, sociological, economic, even labor issues surrounding each amazing feat," says Atria's senior editor Luke Dempsey. "But more than anything, Coffey has done a brilliant job of not divorcing the games from their particular historical moment. He shows so pertinently how concepts of achievement and perfection have changed in a century, even while the actual facts of the games are the same—no one runs the bases." Atria plans publicity appearances and New York book signings.
This past January baseball lost one of its most loved personalities when Tug McGraw, relief pitcher extraordinaire for the Mets and Phillies, died after a courageous battle with brain cancer. In Ya Gotta Believe!: My Roller-Coaster Ride as a Screwball Pitcher, Part-Time Father, and Hope-Filled Brain Tumor Survivor, written with Don Yaeger (Feb.), McGraw tells a life story that has many dark parts to it. "This book is not just a sports memoir," says Kara Welsh, v-p and publisher of New American Library. "There are a lot of wonderful baseball stories in here. Tug was a larger-than-life character who played with many of the greats and who made an impact in the game. But this is also the story of family. Told [his father] had three weeks to live, Tug's son [country singer] Tim McGraw, who he didn't really get to know until [Tim] was 17, and who just happens to be a megastar, stepped in. He saved his dad's life and basically gave him what turned out to be another year to live. During that time, Tug wrote this book and faced up to a lot of things from his past. He was very courageous, and his story is truly compelling."
One of the heroes of baseball—and of America—was Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the apartheid that gripped the national pastime for more than half a century. In Promises to Keep: How Jackie RobinsonChanged America (Feb.), his daughter, Sharon Robinson, recalls the hero as father. "I asked Sharon to write a kind of personal biography of her father," says Jean Feiwel, senior v-p/publisher of Scholastic, "that would have her unique perspective and be illustrated with photographs from her family scrapbook of pictures, many of which had never been seen. Jackie Robinson remains a major historical figure—not only in terms of baseball." Although the book was aimed at a YA audience, the photos and text make Promises to Keep ideal for adult and child alike. To honor the enduring impact of Jackie Robinson and his legacy, Major League Baseball has announced that Jackie Robinson Day will be celebrated every April 15—the date in 1947 that Robinson made his major league debut—beginning this season.
The last time we saw Don Zimmer, he was being flipped by Pedro Martinez during last fall's playoffs. Later, he quit the Yankees in disgust because of the way he was treated by owner George Steinbrenner. Now, with help from veteran baseball scribe Bill Madden, he will let it all hang out in The Zen of Zim (St. Martin's/Dunne, May). "I'm not going to give away the great, great stuff that Zim says about Steinbrenner, Pedro and the Yankees," says Peter Wolverton, associate publisher of Thomas Dunne Books, "but my jaw dropped more than a few times." Zimmer's previous tome, Zim: A Baseball Life, was a bestseller, and the publisher plans heavy promotion and publicity as Zimmer travels around the country with his new employer, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In May, St. Martin's/ Dunne will also publish Brushbacks and Knockdowns: The Greatest Baseball Debates of Two Centuries by Allen Barra.
Two baseball Hall of Famers will be getting the literary treatment from Triumph Books this spring. In Our Mickey: Cherished Memories of an American Icon, edited by Bill Liederman and Maury Allen (Mar.), friends and teammates remember the man who was the biggest star in New York in the 1950s and '60s. "Mickey Mantle's name takes everyone from 18 to 80 back to a more glorious time in America's history," says Rogatz of Triumph Books. "He was the ultimate American story—smalltown boy uses his skills to make it to the Big Apple and becomes one of the best in his field. His good looks and charisma put him in the same breath as other icons like John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe."
Although Ralph Kiner rode into the Hall of Fame as a slugging outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates of the 1940s and '50s, for the last 44 years he has been a New York institution of his own as one of the original voices of the New York Mets. "Ralph Kiner is probably one of the most underrated natural resources in baseball," says Rogatz, who will publish Baseball Forever by Kiner with Danny Peary (Apr.). "He's seen everyone from Babe Ruth to Barry Bonds—two players that his career was compared to. More importantly, he was very involved in the business behind baseball's rise, defending players' rights before there was a players' union." Triumph will be doing media appearances with Kiner and book signings, especially in Pittsburgh.
Have you ever wakened in the middle of the night and wondered what ever happened to Horace Clarke or Dooley Womack? The answer to your prayers has arrived from Sports Publishing. Following on the big success the publisher had with its Tales from the Dugout series, it is launching a new series in March with two books: Yankees: Where Have You Gone by Maury Allen and Phillies: Where Have You Gone? by Fran Zimniuch. "We will have our full complement of marketing team members helping to boost sales," says Kevin King, v-p, sales and marketing. "We have several national ads planned to reach directly to the consumer and drive bookstore sales."
No other sport is as statistics-driven as baseball. Finally, the thick and juicy Total Baseball, 8th Edition, by John Thorn will be on the bookshelves in April. "From the first edition in 1989 to the seventh in 2001," says Jim O'Leary, publisher of Sports Media Publishing, "Total Baseball was published every second year. When the book did not appear last spring, we received hundreds of phone calls and e-mails through the spring, summer and fall wondering when the eighth edition would be available. With the advent of the Internet, doomsayers have been predicting the demise of sports reference books. Yet the backlist sales of Total Baseball, 7th edition, remained strong throughout 2002 and 2003. We became convinced that the time was right in 2004 for an updated edition of a book that has sold more than 300,000 copies since its inception." Sports Media plans an extensive media blitz with editor John Thorn being the primary spokesperson.
Baseball is truly an international game, as players from all over the world—Australia, the Caribbean, Japan, Mexico, South Korea—are on major league rosters. In the last decade, the Japanese influence has been particularly prevalent. Two books look at Japanese players who have recently made their mark. The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave from Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime by Robert Whiting (Apr.) takes a close-up look at the Seattle Mariner star and how Japanese players are making their mark on the game. "As you recall," says Wolff of Warner Books, "You Gotta Have Wa focused on the migration of aging American baseball players who were looking for one more payday by going to Japan. That book came out over a decade ago, but since then, things have changed radically, especially with the reverse migration of highly talented Japanese players now coming to the big leagues. I asked Bob Whiting, who still lives in Tokyo, if he would like to write about this amazing turnabout, and he agreed. The Meaning of Ichiro focuses on how such stars as Ichiro, Sasaki, Matsui, Nomo et al. have coped in dealing with life and culture in America. It's a fascinating and fun read." Sports Illustrated will have a major excerpt in April and the author will be doing an 18-city publicity tour.
In May, Taylor will take a look at Yankee outfielder Hideki Matsui in Godzilla Takes the Bronx: The Inside Story of Hideki Matsui by Jerry Beach. "You won't find any controversy here," says Nancy Rothschild, marketing director at Taylor, "just a fine story of dedication to playing the game well, which translates well in any language, especially in light of the recent steroids controversy, player fines and general bad behavior." Taylor will have a 15,000-copy first printing and plans a New York, New Jersey, Connecticut book tour.
Was there ever a more hated—and successful—team than the 1986 New York Mets? In The Bad Guys Won (May), Jeff Pearlman takes a look at the sometimes out-of-control men who made up the last Mets world championship team. "After Ball Four, The Bronx Zoo and Perfect I'm Not," says David Hirshey, v-p, executive editor, at HarperCollins, "I felt it was about time that Mets fans had someone tell their rowdy tales and remind them of when they had something to cheer for. In Pearlman's hands, the Mets are finally equal to the Yankees—at least when it comes to bad behavior. The '86 Mets are arguably the last of the great hell-raisers. They stand as a rambunctious reminder that baseball was a lot more fun before the SABR-metrics freaks took over." HarperCollins plans a 60,000-copy first printing and plans national and New York regional print and electronic media appearances for the author.
And speaking of one of the baddest-boy Mets of all time, S&S will be publishing The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw by Michael Sokolove (Apr.). The Mets first found Strawberry when he was a kid playing on the Crenshaw High baseball team in Los Angeles (along with future All-Star Eric Davis), and this book is about Strawberry, Crenshaw, the American Dream and what went wrong for Darryl. S&S plans a four-city author tour, a 20-city radio satellite tour, plus print publicity.
One of the biggest sports books of 2003, Moneyball by Michael Lewis, took an in-depth look at the Oakland A's and their general manager Billy Beane, and analyzed how the team strove in a money-starved small market. One of Beane's secrets was keeping his pitchers healthy. This June, Ivan R. Dee will be publishing Saving the Pitcher: A Revolutionary Analysis of Pitching Injuries and How to Prevent Them by Will Carroll. "In Moneyball," says Ivan R. Dee, "when Lewis suggests why the Oakland A's have had success despite having a significantly lower payroll than most teams, he fails to mention one glaring advantage the team holds. In the last two years, no Oakland pitcher—major or minor—has had an arm injury. This is a revolutionary approach to pitching health. The game's old guard is resistant to new approaches and techniques, but they are gradually being won over by this kind of analysis and program." The publisher will back Saving the Pitcher with national television appearances, radio drive-time tour, ads and coast-to-coast author signings.
The romance of baseball hits the page in April when New Millennium publishes Why I Love Baseball by CNN's Larry King. "Larry King got hooked as a kid in 1940s Brooklyn," says New Millennium editor Julie McCarron, "when his father had just died, his family was on relief and the Police Athletic League took neighborhood kids to games. He became a diehard Dodgers fan and has remained a true lover of the game. He recounts 60 years of personal reminiscences—from the golden age of baseball in New York to Pete Rose's revelations this winter." The publisher plans a 50,000-copy first printing and will support it with national television, radio and print appearances by King.
Speaking of the golden age of baseball in New York City, Abrams just published Summer in the City: New York Baseball, 1947—1957 by Vic Ziegel, with photos from the archives of the New York Daily News edited by Claus Guglberger. "I knew from an earlier project that the New York Daily News has an unparalleled collection of baseball photographs," says Eric Himmel, v-p, editor-in-chief, at Harry N. Abrams. "The late '40s to the early '50s is especially strong. The paper's photography staff was the best in the world at sports, and they invented cameras and lenses to shoot the action. This was before the long telephoto lens changed sports photography, so you actually see an entire play unfold in one image rather than the pained expression on the face of an athlete one hundred yards away. So we had this irresistible project with a strong narrative story line—which is unusual in illustrated books—and terrific visual coverage of the events."
In sports there is probably nothing more exciting than a seventh game of a World Series. And in the long history of baseball there have been only 35 such games. Barry Levenson captures all the drama—and the history of the times through popular culture and politics—in The Seventh Game: The 35 World Series That Have Gone the Distance (McGraw-Hill, Apr.). "World Series game sevens have provided us with some of the greatest, most memorable moments in sports history," says Lynda Luppino, v-p, marketing and communications, McGraw-Hill Trade. "From Bill Mazeroski's series-winning home run in 1960 to Luis Gonzales's bloop hit to beat Mariano Rivera and the Yankees in 2001, game sevens have kept fans young and old on the edges of our seats, delivering some of the most intense and dramatic finishes imaginable." McGraw-Hill will also publish Babe Ruth: Launching the Legend by Jim Reisler (Apr.), which chronicles Ruth's arrival in New York City in 1920 and his effect on the game. Both titles will receive print and broadcast publicity, in-store and online promotions, and author appearances.
Finally, Morrow has a fascinating look at Henry Aaron's breaking the Babe's home run record in Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America by Tom Stanton (Mar.), which is not only about baseball but about Aaron and how he faced discrimination and hatred as he chased the Babe. Tom Stanton will be embarking on a 10-city author tour.
The NASCAR Dad
Remember the Soccer Mom? Back in the '90s, politicians swooned over them as a new political entity. For all the attention they garnered, no one—except political pollsters, apparently—knew if they really existed.
Well, the Soccer Mom is dead. Long live the NASCAR Dad.
On one of his first political trips of the year, President Bush showed up at the Daytona Beach Speedway in mid-February to say, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" He might have added, "Then go register to vote" at the voter registration booths that had been set up at the Speedway. NASCAR is a billion-dollar industry with a major television contract with the Fox Network, and sports publishers have happily been publishing NASCAR books for years.
"Well, I don't really buy that the NASCAR Dad actually exists," says Lee Klancher, senior acquisitions editor, NASCAR Racing and Rural Americana at MBI Publishing. "But it's interesting to see pundits acknowledging that the average man lives and breathes. I believe a lot of the books we do—topics ranging from dirt bikes and ATVs to farm tractor restoration and stock car racing—are intended for the same demographic the pundits are targeting."
"I think it's a good shorthand for a growing constituency," says David Highfill, senior editor at Putnam. "The NASCAR fan, we know by now, is a very loyal consumer who'll spend serious time, energy and money to follow the sport he loves. The TV audience and the crowds at these events are huge and still expanding."
"It provides additional proof," says Michael Emmerich, editor at Triumph books, "of NASCAR's growing influence within the culture. It's also a signal to everyone from politicians to corporations that NASCAR's fan base needs to be taken seriously."
Dale Earnhardt has been very good to Triumph Books going all the way back to 2001 with Dale Earnhardt: Remembering the Intimidator, which was a New York Times bestseller. This spring, Triumph has four titles centered around the Earnhardt family: The Earnhardt Collection: The Most Comprehensive Archive Ever Assembled (Feb.) and The Intimidator Remembered, both by the staff of NASCAR Scene Magazine; Dale Earnhardt Retrospective and Little E's Big Win, which will have a 130,000-copy first printing. "Dale Earnhardt [senior] was a fearsome competitor," says Michael Emmerich, "who was considered a decent guy away from the track, which only made him more likable. His untimely death served to cement his status as a hero and enduring figure of everything fans love about the sport."
Putnam has caught the NASCAR bug. "People love drama," says Highfill. "Conflict and competition and sports is all of that rolled into one. [NASCAR]'s filled with tension and palpable danger—not something you could say about some other sports." Putnam's new title, DW: A Lifetime Going Around in Circles by Darrell Waltrip, has already hit the New York Times bestseller list. "We believed DW was a lively personality, that the story was terrifically entertaining, and that his fans would support him," adds Highfill. Waltrip will be doing signings as he tours the NASCAR circuit, plus he'll be garnering additional publicity in his role as a commentator for Fox .
Peter Golenbock is one of the most prolific sports authors around and in May MBI will be publishing his NASCAR Confidential: Stories of the Men and Women Behind a Racing Empire. "NASCAR has a rich history," says MBI's Klancher, "and I knew Peter would do a terrific job of finding great stories that just weren't out there. More than any other writer in NASCAR, Peter brings the legends of the sport into your living room. He captures their human side and gives you an idea of what it would be like to sit down and have a cup of coffee with them." MBI plans a 60,000-copy first printing, plus national radio and television exposure.
Sports Publishing of Champaign, Ill., is an official licensee of NASCAR. This spring, it is publishing nine NASCAR titles, including children's books. Peter Bannon, company president, estimates that over the years—especially after the death of Dale Earnhardt—his company has sold more than 750,000 NASCAR titles. "The New York publishers," says Bannon, "do not understand the sport, do not respect the sport and thus leave it wide open for mid-sized publishers like us. There was a while back at the 50th anniversary of NASCAR that they published a lot of NASCAR books. They had average success, then ran away from it." Sports Publishing's big title this spring is Matt Kenseth: Above and Beyond by Kelley Maruszewski. They are planning a 25,000-copy first printing. Bannon considers The Sands of Time: Celebrating 100 Years of Racing at Daytona by Bill Lazarus (Mar.) to be his best NASCAR book of the spring. It is an official NASCAR book with a DVD; according to Bannon, "You'll look at that even if you're not a NASCAR fan." Other Sport Publishing NASCAR titles include Mark Martin: Mark of Excellence by Larry Woody (Mar.) and Ryan Newman: From Purdue to Penske by Deb Williams (Apr.).
The Seabiscuit Effect
Seabiscuit finally lost—the film based on Laura Hillenbrand's bestseller was beaten out by Lord of the Rings for Best Picture at this year's Oscar ceremonies. Seabiscuit's hot streak may be waning, but his publishing presence is still being felt throughout the industry.
"I think the benefit here from Seabiscuit," says Michael Korda, senior v-p, editor-in-chief, at Simon & Schuster, "is that it actually increased the number of people who go to the track."
"Seabiscuit was a reminder," says Robin Desser, v-p, senior editor, at Knopf, "of how great horse storytelling can be: emotional, visceral and exciting. But good books, and good stories about horses, have always had popular appeal."
"Seabiscuit certainly heightened public awareness of horse-racing," says Jackie Duke, editor at the Eclipse Press, "but equine books always have enjoyed a strong niche market."
Joe McGinniss had his first success with Simon & Schuster with The Selling of the President way back in 1969, and in July he's returning to S&S with The Big Horse, an insider's look at the 2003 racing season as it played out among the social set in Saratoga. McGinniss's biggest fan is his editor, Michael Korda, who also happens to be the owner of five horses himself and was the author last year of Horse People. "In the first place, I think that while there is a horse at the center of The Big Horse, it's much more about the people than it is about the horse and is a frank and clear vision of what life is like at the track for jockeys, trainers and grooms. It's really a year's horse racing centered around Saratoga and centered around a trainer, a man who's waited all his life and now he's old and still knows everything to know about the track and suddenly he looks like he has the 'big horse.' In a funny way, this reminds me much more of Tuesday's with Morrie than it does of Seabiscuit." S&S plans a national media tour.
Fascination Horse by Gabriele Boiselle (Mar.) is a beautiful coffee-table book that horse lovers will cherish, from International Book Marketing, which provides sales and marketing support for Feierabend Verlag, a German publisher, in the United States. Now in its second year of operations, all of International Book Marketing's books are imported from Europe and the publisher plans to publish 60 titles a year in a variety of languages. "For us, a book about horses was like any of our books," says Anne Marquess, a consultant for International Book Marketing, "a great opportunity to showcase the work of a group of very talented people and to make the subject accessible and enjoyable for the reader."
The darling of horse-racing fans last year was an unlikely gelding with the unlikely name of Funny Cide. In April, Putnam will be publishing Funny Cide by the Funny Cide team with Sally Jenkins, Lance Armstrong's bestselling writing accomplice. "We don't consider this a 'horse' book," says Neil Nyren, senior v-p, publisher and editor-in-chief of Putnam. "Obviously, that's one of the markets, but just as Lance Armstrong's book was titled It's Not About the Bike, this book is 'not about the horse.' It's about the people.
"It's no accident," continues Nyren, "that Funny Cide's story kept getting compared to Seabiscuit's last year, or that the two of them are widely credited with creating a huge surge of interest in horse racing. So that's why we fell in love with the idea of the book, and knowing that Sally Jenkins was the writer gave us complete confidence that the book itself would be as good as the idea." Putnam plans a 250,000-copy first printing and publicity events at the Kentucky Derby plus national media appearances, print features, advertising and a radio satellite tour.
Publishers love to wax poetic about the wonderful relationship between people and horses, but let's face it, the vast majority of Americans love horses because they can bet on them. Eclipse Press has captured the essence of track betting with Handicapping for Bettor or Worse: A Fresh Perspective to Betting the Races by John Lindley (Apr.). "Eclipse Press waited a long time for the right handicapping book," says Jackie Duke, an editor at Eclipse. "Most of the big-name handicappers have long-established alliances with other publishers. We looked for a fresh face, but someone with a proven record and a following. John Lindley is a well-known handicapper on the West Coast. We liked his material—it's very readable—and thought it would appeal to the novice and the somewhat experienced horse player." Eclipse plans some unusual ways to promote Handicapping for Bettor or Worse. "Our parent company, Blood Horse, has a Web site called www.TripleCrownMania.com," says Duke, "which gets tens of thousands of hits a day leading up to the Kentucky Derby. John is writing a weekly handicapping column [for the Web site], culminating in his Derby selection. John also will be doing handicapping seminars and radio interviews in the weeks leading up to the Derby."
In 2000, John Jeremiah Sullivan asked his father, veteran sportswriter Mike Sullivan, what he remembered best from his three decades in the press box. His father answered, "I was at Secretariat's Derby, in '73. That was... just beauty, you know?" After his father's death, Sullivan traveled the country for two years, learning about all the things that inspired his father—and in the process rediscovered the father he had had trouble connecting with. The result is Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter's Son. "From page one I was overwhelmed by the conviction that anything John had to say about horses I wanted to hear," says Lorin Stein, editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. "I had never had this reaction to a horse book—or, for that matter, to any book about any sport. It's the most personal—and wide-ranging, and just plain eccentric—piece of sportswriting I've ever read. And the funniest since Plimpton." FSG plans to do a nine-city publicity tour culminating at the Kentucky Derby on May 1.
Like Joe McGinniss and John Jeremiah Sullivan, Pulitzer Prize—winning novelist Jane Smiley was seduced by the allure of the racetrack. "A Year at the Races," says Desser, senior editor at Knopf, "is the happy result of a writer's obsession. First of all, it's a marvelous voice—irresistible, charming, funny, and idiosyncratic—even at times a bit outrageous. Jane shares with us the wisdom of historians and anthropologists, as well as vets, trainers, jockeys and her own real-life horse whisperer to explore the horse/human bond—one of the oldest of mankind's relationships with the animal kingdom, and an intimate one." Knopf plans a five-city publicity tour, an appearance at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, print features, NPR and a drive-time radio tour.
Other equestrian titles of note include Yankee Doodle Dandy: The Life and Times of Tod Sloan by John Dizikes (Univ. of Nebraska, Apr.), It's Not Just About the Ribbons: It's About Enriching Riding and Life with Innovative Tools and Winning Strategies by Jane Savoie (Trafalgar Square, Mar.), The Essentials of Horsekeeping by Rachel Hairston (Sterling, Mar.), In Service to the Horse by Susan Nusser (Little, Brown, Mar.) and The All-Around Horse and Rider by Donna Snyder-Smith (Wiley, Feb.).
University Presses
Perhaps unjustly, we tend to see university presses, even today, as conservative presses, publishing very academic books—which would most likely eliminate sports titles. Judging from the spring lists of many university presses, that is not the case at all.
"University presses are serious enterprises," says Micah Kleit, senior acquisitions editor at Temple University Press, "and American sport is serious business. A good university press sports list consists of books that require research, precision in writing and a level of engagement with the subject at hand. In other words, all of the things that go into making any excellent university press book. Sports publishing is one part of that formula. And when done carefully, it can contribute to the bottom line and help a university press meet its financial requirements."
"University presses have always been involved in publishing books on culture," says Marc A. Jolley, director of the Mercer University Press, "and the ways that culture and history affect lives. Sports is part of culture, and since our major sports have only been around 100-plus years in organized form, we are just now beginning to see the impact of sports on literature, religion, politics and history."
Baseball, as usual, dominates the university press titles. One of the game's greatest collapses, just short of the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, belongs to the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, who, with only 12 games remaining, managed to blow a six-and-a-half-game lead. September Swoon: Richie Allen, the '64 Phillies, and Racial Integration by William C. Kashatus (Penn State Press, Mar.) is important because it not only chronicles how the Phillies disintegrated, but also looks at the racial tension surrounding the Phillies star rookie, Richie Allen. "This book made sense for us for several reasons," says Peter J. Potter, editor-in-chief of Penn State Press. "It has a local angle, it is good social history and it fits well with other books we have published on the history of race relations in the United States. I probably would not have been interested in the book if it simply told the on-field story of the Phillies' '64 season without setting it in the context of Philadelphia's turbulent history of race relations. Kashatus enables us to see how sports can be both a mirror of American society and a means toward social change." The author will be doing media interviews.
The Phillies are also covered this April in The Phillies Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition by Rich Westcott and Frank Bilovsky. "We published the last edition of the Encyclopedia in 1993," says Temple's Micah Kleit, "the last time the Phillies went to the World Series. We felt 10 years and the dedication of a new ballpark made this an especially good time to bring out a third edition." Temple will hook up with the Phillies organization to boost sales, using ballpark promotions and a direct mail campaign.
A book that sports fans and aspiring sports journalists alike will love is A Sportswriter's Life: From the Desk of a New York Times Reporter by Gerald Eskenazi (Univ. of Missouri, Mar.). Eskenazi was the Times beat writer for the New York Rangers and the Namath-era Jets, and he tells some very revealing stories about George Steinbrenner, Donald Trump, Joe DiMaggio, Bill Parcells, Chuck Yeager, Howard Cosell and the inner working of the Old Gray Lady herself. "The author's historical overview of the vast changes that have occurred in sports and in America during the last half century," says Beverly Jarrett, director and editor-in-chief, the University of Missouri Press, "made his book ideal for our Sports and American Culture series." The publisher plans to do phone interviews nationwide and signings in the New York City area.
"Ed Delahanty in the Emerald Age of Baseball by Jerrold Casway [Mar.] is the first sports title we have published," says Julie Beckwith, marketing manager at the University of Notre Dame Press. "It was acquired by our press as a way of enriching and diversifying our Irish Studies list. In addition to being a fascinating biography of one of baseball's greatest players, it is also a rich cultural history of postfamine Irish refugees in America." Delahanty, who spent most of his 16 major league seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, is a member of baseball's Hall of Fame.
One of the most popular summer attractions in New York City the last few years has been the New York Mets Class A Rookie team of the PONY league located on the shores of Brooklyn. In The Brooklyn Cyclones: Hardball Dreams and the New Coney Island (NYU Press, Apr.), author Ben Osborne has captured the excitement of young professionals as they take their first steps toward the major leagues. "This book feels more like a novel," says Steve Maikowski, director of New York University Press, "as the life stories and dreams of two kids from opposite sides of the track are intermingled with the baseball games and season. It's also a story about race and class, about politics and business, about dreams contested on the base paths of minor league ballparks and on the hardscrabble playgrounds of urban Brooklyn, and about growing up in America." NYU plans New York City media.
Baseball fans like to believe that the game was, indeed, invented by the Almighty. The Great God Baseball: Religion in Modern Baseball Fiction by Allen E. Hye (Apr.), says Mercer's Marc A. Jolley, "is the first book-length treatment of the topic. It will open the doors to more literary and religious analysis of other works of baseball fiction. This book can be read by literary enthusiasts for its analysis. It can be read by religious-oriented readers for its fascinating connections to religion. And it can be read by lovers of baseball who have 'heady' interest in such matters."
The University of Nebraska Press publishes many sports titles, especially in its Bison imprint. Playing for Their Nation: Baseball and the American Military During World War II by Steven R. Bullock (May) chronicles America at war. "It is not widely known that during WWII baseball played an extensive role in the American military both domestically and abroad," says Robert J. Taylor, sports editor at the University of Nebraska Press. "Formal teams and leagues were sponsored to offer comfort and pride to those in the midst of war. It also recounts the wartime experiences of legendary players and how the war impacted their major league careers."
In June, Columbia University Press will publish More Than Just a Game by Kathryn Jay. "Jay's book," says James Warren, executive editor at Columbia University Press, "offers readers a remarkable range of insights into the way sports both shapes and reflects modern American community and identity. She argues persuasively that sports is a site for discussion and reflection on some very important themes and issues: race, gender, the role of money and marketing. I think the book goes some way toward deepening our understanding of why sports is so important." Columbia plans nationwide media appearances.
Other titles from university presses this spring include King Football: Sport & Spectacle in the Golden Age of Radio & Newsreels, Movies & Magazines, the Weekly & the Daily Press by Michael Oriard (Univ. of North Carolina Press, Feb.), Playing Nice and Losing: The Struggle forControl of Women's Intercollegiate Athletics, 1960—2000 by Ying Wushanley (Syracuse Univ. Press, Apr.), San Antonio at Bat: Professional Baseball in the Alamo City (Texas A&M Univ. Press, June), The Boston Braves, 1871—1953 by Harold Kaese (Northeastern Univ. Press, Apr.) and Bicycling Science by David Gordon Wilson (MIT Press, Apr.).
