The 42nd Annual CASEY Awards
Spitball Magazine’s 42nd annual CASEYs were a success, and a blast too. In front of a crowd of maybe 35 baseball diehards on a drizzly Sunday afternoon, the prestigious award for best baseball book of the year was given to Kevin Baker for his terrific book, The New York Game. At the award ceremony, hosted by Poor Michael’s Sports Bar in Cincinnati, Kevin was presented with his customized Louisville Slugger bat before I was handed a plaque honoring A Baseball Gaijin‘s selection as a fellow finalist. Although none of the other eight finalists was able to attend, their books were placed prominently at the front of the stage (Keith O’ Brien’s Charlie Hustle, a Pete Rose biography, finished runner-up to Baker’s book.). Copies of ABG and The New York Game were made available for purchase in the back of the room as Spitball editor and founder Mike Shannon posed some baseball history trivia questions. Then, each of the 10 finalist books were introduced one by one before Kevin was brought on stage for his presentation. Following Kevin’s talk, I joined him on stage for an introductory statement before answering questions from the assembled crowd.
KDVS 90.3 FM “Aggie Talk” Interview
On the Jan. 21 edition of “Aggie Talk,” a weekly sports talk show that now runs two hours, the KDVS Sports team welcomed me back a little over 13.5 years since my last day volunteering for the campus radio station. Two of the panelists, sports director Brendan Donohue along with the excellent Ethan Yuan, interviewed me about the book (starts around the 38:50 mark) as part of a riveting discussion sandwiched between their Aggie Athletics weekly rundown and general sports talk. They and the other volunteers there that Tuesday night comprise a kind and talented group. I forgot to ask someone to take my picture while in studio, but we took a nice group pic after. Keeping the theme going later that night, I got to reconnect with former sports director Marvin Dinozo and my friend and fellow volunteer Jonathan Santiago, both of whom I met through KDVS so many years ago.
When the archived audio and/or a transcript of the interview is released, I’ll be sure to add it here. For now, enjoy some photos from that night.
Linden Tree Books Conversation and Signing
Teacher and baseball coach Greg Clifton and I discussed A Baseball Gaijin at Los Altos’ Linden Tree Books before I posed for photos and signed books. Special thanks to Flo Grosskurth and Leslie Behar for helping make it happen and to everyone who listened and/or bought a book! Everyone I spoke with afterward was absolutely wonderful.
