Dear All,
This is latest episode of Don’t Press That Button, a newsletter about books and music and movies and cats and baseball and whatnot. As the name would indicate, we are very cautious about buttons around here. We’re not about to encourage you to go pressing buttons willy-nilly. Does that work sometimes with pinball machines? Sometimes, sure, but not often, and even when it does, it’s never satisfying.
However, I’ve investigated the button below, and all it does is subscribe you to this newsletter. If you’re new here, and you’d like to stick around, you safely can do so by clicking on it.
Terry Forster’s Favorite Books
I want to share something interesting I recently discovered on a 1985 Topps card for Atlanta pitcher Terry Forster and —
— Wait, let me qualify that: the backs of baseball cards are always interesting if you like baseball, because they have statistics, and one of the best things about baseball is the statistics. There’s a ton of stuff to count in a baseball game - runs, hits, walks, strikeouts, errors, and so on. I personally enjoy keeping a running tally on the corner of my scorecard of how many baseballs get fouled off into the stands to become souvenirs in a particular game. 1
But if you aren’t so much of a baseball fan the back of the card makes for dry reading. Besides the baseball statistics, you get the player’s birthday, birthplace, and so forth. While the backs of some (mostly older) cards have comic strips, your modern cards generally don’t. The only other bit of literature that you’ll find on a modern card, situated below the stats columns, is a block of trivia. It’s usually along the lines of, “Dillon pitched a complete game in his second ever start, 5-5-89 against Seattle,” or “Clyde led the International League in triples and steals in 1991.” You’ll also see items like, “Pena attended Texas State, majoring in Political Science,” or “His older brother Fred played in the Royals organization.” You get the idea: minutiae of varying but pretty limited intrigue.
Which brings me around again to Terry Forster, whose stats tell us was an extremely successful relief pitcher for a number of years. Now take a look at the text block at the bottom of Terry’s card:
I have no idea if this is the only example of a baseball player’s favorite books being listed on the back of a card, but it’s the only one that I’ve ever noticed, and it’s just extremely cool. While I’ve not read either Rage of Angels or Centennial, I’m familiar with both novels, and they are absolute doorstops, which must have made them especially appealing for all those long flights on road trips to Los Angeles and San Francisco that Terry had to take in 1984. I love imagining him closing out a getaway game against, say, the Phillies with a 1-2-3 inning, and then settling in on the plane with a couple of drinks and a massive James Michener paperback for the night flight over the Rockies. To me, that might be the perfect day.
Anyway, I’d love it if Topps threw in a few book-themed tidbits on future cards. It’s not as if lots and lots and lots of baseball players aren’t enthusiastic readers.
The Latest
It’s all Curator all the time at the moment! My new novel is out in the world on 3/7/23.
The Curator is available for advance order from all your favorite booksellers. If you’d like a signed book, a few different independent bookstores are hosting me for in-person events in March, including Oblong Books on March 7, and Odyssey Books on March 16. I’m also doing a virtual event with Mysterious Galaxy on March 8th in the company of the great Tom Bissell (author of Apostle among other stellar books, and coming at you on the small screen as a writer on the next season of Andor), and they will have copies with signed bookplates. Depending on what you prefer, all those bookstores can you set up with an autographed copy of The Curator. Please tuned to future newsletters for a more complete list of appearances.
So long as my ink pad supplies hold out I will be applying special stamps to every copy of the novel I can get my hands on. These stamps were created by the multi-talented Kathleen Jennings, who contributed her beautiful artwork to the book, and is also the award-winning author of the excellent fantasy novel Flyaway. Here’s a sneak peek23:
Right before I finally got a haircut, my sideburns and I tried to encapsulate the book in five seconds.
There’s one more giveaway for The Curator on Goodreads if you’d like to enter.
Recommendations
This conversation between Rhett Miller (The Old 97’s) and Elizabeth Nelson (The Paranoid Style) on the Wheels Off podcast is outstanding. If you’ve not given the pod a listen previously, Wheels Off is all about creativity and inspiration, and Rhett talks to all kinds of different artists about how they do what they do. It’s terrific.
I rewatched Warm Bodies last weekend and it remains a thoroughly charming movie. The zombie romance is one of our most underappreciated genres.
If you have a trip to the bookstore or the library planned, The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville, an unnerving supernatural yarn and a striking portrait of Ireland, has my full endorsement.
Finally, I wish a happy new year to you and yours. And, as ever, my thanks for subscribing.
All Best,
Owen
This informative Athletic article from 2022 counts 115 baseballs used in a Tigers-Guardians game!
FYI, I believe these are the very bookplates that Mysterious Galaxy and some other bookstores will be offering. Just to be clear: for the in-person events I won’t have any to offer, I’m afraid. I’ll be signing and stamping directly on the title page.
Special cameo by Rob Neyer’s The Big Book of Baseball Blunders.